Halfway through Game 7 of the American League Championship Series between the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays, I finally, finally got the chance to sit down and watch some baseball. At the time,
Seattle led. But I didn’t care who wound up winning—I’d be rooting for the winner of this game in the World Series as there is no possible way you’ll find me cheering on the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Almost as soon as I turned on the game, Cal Raleigh, Seattle’s catcher and owner of the—I’m sorry, everyone, but it’s true—dumbest nickname in sports (“Big Dumper”), blasted his fifth home run of the postseason, which was also his 65th (!) of the entire year. That’s impressive! Why don’t we fans include postseason numbers when we tally up all-time numbers? A fleeting thought, perhaps a different column for a different day.
Back to the game. The homer upped Seattle’s lead to two through five innings. The Mariners, God bless them, were on the verge of making the World Series for the first time ever. Ever! Even the old Seattle Pilots, who bolted the Pacific Northwest after one year for the cushy confines of…um…Milwaukee has made it to the World Series.
But not the Mariners.
Now, while I hadn’t watched any of this series before Game 7, I had of course kept an eye on it. And the first six games weren’t exactly thrilling. The Mariners won Game 1 3-1, but Toronto’s offense went missing, collecting only two hits. The next three games, in which Seattle won one and Toronto two, were decided by at least six runs. The teams split Games 5 and 6 by the same score: 6-2. Within a slam, sure, but not high drama by any means.
Game 7, then, presented something fresh, as the score remained close heading into the seventh inning. Seattle went down quietly in the top half of the frame before things turned interesting. The Blue Jays’ seventh-place hitter, Addison Barger, walked before Isiah Kiner-Falefa, owner of a .626 OPS, singled up the middle. Ninth-place hitter Andres Gimenez sacrificed them both over, putting the tying run in scoring position with one out and the top of the lineup coming up.
Seattle’s manager, Dan Wilson, went to the bullpen at that point, bringing in right-hander Eduard Bazardo, who’d thrown two innings the previous evening.
He promptly gave up a three-run homer to George Springer, which gave the Blue Jays a 4-3 lead, which they never surrendered, and which sent them back to the World Series for the first time since 1993.
During the game, I’d been texting my buddy who lives in Mississippi. Turns out my feed was five seconds ahead of his, so I waited to text him after Springer sprung (sorry) his attack and launched the ball over the fence.
My friend replied, “Was [S]pringer involved in the Astros scandal?”
Knowing that my friend meant, “Was Springer on the Astros in 2017?” And knowing the answer, I replied, “Yep.”
My friend: “Well $%^& that guy.”
Me: “Eh. It was eight years ago. I’m over it.”
Friend: “Never!!!!!”
The conversation then moved to Springer’s hairstyle.
Anyway, the point is, let’s move on from hating players from the 2017 Houston Astros. It’s been long enough. I hated them for a while, but now it’s just tiresome. Good for George Springer, who’s battled injuries throughout his Toronto tenure, but had an excellent 2025. Let’s give the guy a break for something that was almost—gulp—a decade ago.
Now, I’m not saying forgive the Astros organization, because we all need a villain. For Royals fans, though, there’s the whole Carlos Beltran of it all. The banging-on-the-trashcan nonsense cost Beltran not only a managerial job, but to this point, it’s kept him out of the Hall of Fame. That’s ridiculous! It’s time to move on.
Back to George Springer and the Mariners. Looking further into things last night, I saw that Seattle fans cheered when Springer got injured on a hit-by-pitch in Game 5. Those same fans booed Springer every time he came up to bat in Seattle. I get the booing part—the Astros, since joining the American League, have shared the AL West with the Mariners, and those fans clearly didn’t forget about 2017.
But booing the man when he gets hurt? Talk about trash. May Springer forever haunt your dreams.
It’s time to move on. As Royals fans, as Mariners fans, as baseball fans—it’s time to move on and stop hating on the dudes who played for Houston during the 2017 season. Enough’s enough. That World Series title will be forever tainted – it cost damn near everyone involved their reputations, it cost several people their jobs, and it even cost some others their careers.
Fine.
But it’s time to move on.
Good on George Springer, who claimed redemption in one of the biggest possible spots the game has to offer.
I’ll be rooting for him in the World Series.
