Hello and welcome back to the Friday Feedbag, where I will never serve you slop. Oh, boy, what a week in the Mariners-ville. The Mariners beat the Tigers in 15 god dang innings in one of the most thrilling
baseball game I’ve ever watched that also aged me five years and drained me of all tears. Then they proceeded to take the first two games of the ALCS in Toronto, surprising the hell out of just about everyone. Then they came home and proceeded to play two extremely un-enjoyable and thoroughly depressing games where Jays fans were way too loud and Mariners pitching just did not have it. What a freakin’ week.
Here we are, one more home game in the ALCS with series tied at two apiece. Like Sisyphus, the Mariners are again stuck at two wins in the ALCS like they were in 1995, never having won three games (or four, obviously) in the league championship round. As fans, we are stuck on a fairly unfamiliar precipice staring upon completely foreign waters.
Frankly, I’m not built for playoff baseball, and that seems to be a sentiment that I’m hearing quite a bit two weeks into the Mariners postseason. And playoff baseball is not built for me, it seems, as a working parent of two small children. Why are we playing pivotal games at noon, 3 PM, even 5:30 PM local time? And why are we playing three home playoff games three nights in a row? What is the god damn rush? All four remaining teams either play in a stadium with a roof or play in Los Angeles. Weather is no longer a factor. Similar to my distaste for the pitch clock, we really do not need to speed run these playoff series anymore. I don’t need to be pacing at my kids’ soccer practice on a Thursday at 6 PM, listening to the game on one earbud, and quietly freaking out because the Mariners are losing. I would love to be able to fully enjoy this rare occurrence of my favorite team being on a playoff run, but because of my own life choices and because of MLB scheduling choices, I’m forced to multi-task through my workday hours and through my parenting hours while feeling the impending doom of postseason elimination. We dream about our teams playing meaningful postseason games and vying for a championship, but the whiplash between elation (like last Friday night) and devastation (the last two nights) make for a pretty aggravating experience for me personally.
So, that’s the prompt this week.
What aspect of this Mariners playoff run is the most unexpectedly inconvenient or un-enjoyable for you?
Let’s vent those spleens and then focus on willing this dang team to two more ALCS wins, okay? Go Mariners.
