There’s some bitter history between the Seattle Mariners and the Cleveland Guardians. The beloved 1995 crew saw their fairy tale crash into reality against a juggernaut Cleveland club boasting a slaughterer’s slew of a lineup. The M’s got their revenge in 2001, following their infamous lead blowing during the regular season, coming back from a 2-1 series deficit in the ALDS to send Cleveland home packing. Corey Kluber’s Cy Young over King Felix looms as a recent grudge, but this Labor Day Weekend
celebrates the anniversary of another worthy reason to be fervent in your rooting for Seattle this weekend: snow.
The year was 2007. April. Cleveland, Ohio. The Mariners had entered the season with low expectations, but took two out of three in their home opener against Oakland, heading east after April 4th with a 2-1 record for a road trip better remembered for the masterpiece authored by Felix Hernandez opposite Daisuke Matsuzaka in Fenway Park. That matchup only occurred, however, because Seattle did not complete a game from April 5th-9th, with multiple doubleheaders scheduled, rescheduled, and ultimately scrapped in favor of a ghastly bit of makeup scheduling that left the upstart M’s gasping for breath.
The tale is one many of you may recall well, and I’m certain no shortage could recount your memories more clearly than my own. For those it’s escaped, or never registered, call to your mind the clearest endorsement for a stadium with a roof. Make it more extravagant. Cartoonish. Embrace your inner Garth Marenghi. Good. It’s still too subtle.
Cleveland’s home opener coincided with a still-famous snowstorm. The “Snow-pening Day” festivities on April 5th featured several feet of snow, an insistence on sticking with the game as scheduled, and some of the worst baseball ever played. Cleveland righty Paul Byrd no-hit the Mariners for 4.2 innings, while the M’s struggled in all facets against the elements. That included three errors from Adrian Beltre, evidence enough of the frigid madness engulfing Jacobs Field that day… except it didn’t. And Byrd didn’t.
With snow having delayed start time already, the M’s were one out shy of being no-hit in a blizzard, and Mariners manager Mike Hargrove was wroth. The AP recounting of the game reminded me that Hargrove was known in his career as the “Human Rain Delay,” on account of his ostensibly overdrawn and lengthy pre-pitch routine at the plate. I hope you’ll read me in the cadence of Bill Hader’s impeccable SNL ‘Dateline’ skit when I tell you that I’ve seen Hargrove hit, and “Human Rain Delay” should be written with sarcastic quotes around it.
In so many ways, watching clips from the 70s and 80s can feel like a different sport. Watching this, having lived through the pre-pitch clock era 2010s-20s, draws me to consider what we once considered a waste of our time. Hargrove, a player and then skilled manager in Cleveland, including for that ‘95 club, utilized his knack for filling time just long enough for the blizzard to renew, leaving no doubt the game could not be played, to the chagrin of Cleveland’s skipper Eric Wedge. Stopped one out shy of a five inning no-hitter, the game would need to be restarted in full in keeping with the rules at the time. In the words of this site’s then-steward, Shove It, Paul Byrd.
The next few days were laden with wishful thinking, as every meteorologist in the region outlined a memorably heavy snowstorm that was unlikely to abate. With the M’s rejiggering their rotation to prepare for unknown circumstances, the stars did align for the King and Daisuke to duke it out, but the M’s would be forced to sacrifice three off days throughout the season due to Cleveland’s poor hospitality.
First was the rematch of April 6th, which took place May 21st on a scheduled Monday off day between a home series with San Diego and a road trip to Tampa Bay. Cleveland did indeed win, while ensuring a five-flight stretch for the M’s and 23 consecutive ballgames from May 15th to June 6th. They’d once again make up another game on the heels of the Friars on June 11th, getting revenge on Byrd. Last having spent nearly five frames being no-hit by the righty, Seattle responded by by lighting him up for seven runs in four frames, with two homers by Raúl Ibañez and another from José López in an 8-7 win where each team recorded 16 hits. Again, however, the cost was cumulative, as another off-day instead fed a 19-game stretch of consecutive play.
The ‘07 club is one of the strangest in franchise history. They were a sub-.500 team by Pythagorean W-L. They won 88 games and finished a distant second in the AL West and Wild Card. Their best pitcher was J.J. Putz, putting up one of the greatest seasons in the history of relievers and earning several downballot MVP votes. Hargrove quit midseason, with his team 45-33. John McLaren helmed the club to a winning record the rest of the way, but their collapse came with an assist once again from Cleveland.
Thursday, August 30th, would have been a great day off. Seattle had started the 20 game stretch of consecutive tilts three back of the division, tearing off five straight wins and seven of eight. One game back of the division, 20 games over .500, this inexplicable ballclub buoyed by bullpen brilliance fell to Texas on Saturday the 25th. It would be the closest they’d be to a division title that’s still eluded them subsequently for years.
It’s not fair to blame what happened next on the dread incurred by the additional travel, but like Mark Wahlberg would claim, perhaps Lolla-Blue-Za wouldn’t have gone down like that if [Cleveland] hadn’t been there. The day after one of the most deflating three-game sweeps in franchise history, instead of a scheduled travel and rest opportunity, Seattle had flown from their home to Cleveland yet again, squandering the first homer of the year for Adam Jones and a ninth inning re-tying effort by letting Putz sit for a sixth straight game and watch Rick White walk in consecutive hitters to lose the game.
This line is for any of you for whom this has reinvigorated a pocket of rage you still store near your pancreas to take a breath and calm down. I might do the same.
You know the rest. The losing streak reached nine, and while the M’s took one from the Yankees to keep their Wild Card hopes on life support, games 19 and 20 of this restless stretch were blowouts. An overmatched team at the end of its rope. The final makeup game came with an ostensible positive spin – Cleveland was forced to play at Seattle, tipping the M’s in with an extra home game on September 26th. The catch, of course, is Seattle already was scheduled to host Cleveland that day, and the doubleheader saw Seattle blown out 12-4 in the final loss of the season for Seattle. Putz would pitch three times in the next six days. It didn’t matter.
Beat Cleveland. Send them back to fourth place for a long, snowy winter.
