Dear Eli,
Welcome to Mariners fandom! How lucky for all of us that the figurine in your Easter basket figurine pack happened to be Cal Raleigh, and that you took that as your excuse to adopt the M’s as your team. Sometimes you’re born into it, by nature of your home and your family affiliations, but there’s something to be said for forging your own path of baseball fandom. (Maybe the Easter Bunny and the Etsy witch collaborated?)
I don’t know if you’ve dug into much of your team’s history, but this
has been a really great year to become a Mariners fan. It’s not always going to be like this. It has, in fact, not been like this for the vast majority of the franchise’s 38 years of existence. I don’t say that to scare you away but to encourage you to sop up every last bit of joy this team offers, whether that’s a player’s historic season, a possible playoff berth, or catching a home run ball amidst a win-streak-ending loss. I’m not sure how old you are, but it seems like you might be of the age where joy is as readily available as breath. I hope that’s true for you, and I hope the Mariners help you keep fueling that. Keep waking up at 5 a.m. to watch the condensed game on MLB TV from the night before; keep wearing that Cal Raleigh jersey your dad, DJ, had to buy for you on eBay because they only sell Cardinals gear in your hometown; keep letting your t-ball teammates call you Little Dumper. Maybe don’t skip school again right away after tonight and tomorrow, but a few missed days each year isn’t so bad – there’s a lot to be learned at a baseball game.
If you keep playing t-ball and eventually advance to baseball, you’re probably going to have a coach who will tell you that losses like this build character. And sometimes that coach will be right! But also, sometimes these losses will just stink, and it’s okay to be bummed about them. You probably haven’t watched A League of Their Own yet but, spoiler alert, there is crying in baseball. Sometimes they’re happy tears, sometimes they’re sad, but a big part of why I love baseball is because of all those emotions it makes me feel. When I feel all those things, the good feelings and the bad ones, it means that I’ve invested in something bigger than myself. Baseball is a team sport, and so is baseball fandom. Thousands of miles away from Seattle, it might feel kind of lonely sometimes to be a long distance Mariners fan (and it’s definitely going to have an impact on your sleep schedule – sorry family!), but I promise you’re never alone. All over the country – all across the world, even! – we’re celebrating, and grumbling, and, yes, sometimes even crying together over the same things.
I don’t know if you stayed for the final heartache tonight (after Eugenio Suárez doubled and then Mitch Garver tied it up on a sacrifice fly in the seventh, and Gabe Speier locked down the bottom of the inning with four pitches, and J.P. Crawford hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth, and Matt Brash gave up a two-run home run to Adam Frazier and proceeded to well and truly melt down). You did, after all, have a four hour drive home ahead of you! But I’m grateful you were there. I wish the score had been different, but hearing your story and seeing your unbridled happiness out there in left field delivered its own kind of magic to the night, Etsy witch be darned.
Thanks for being a Mariners fan, Eli. We’re so happy to have you along for the ride.
P.S. Wear your Mariners gear when you can (including that new Big Dumper jersey that ROOT Sports gave to you mid-game). No matter where you are, I bet you’ll hear a “Go M’s!” or two.
**Special shout-out to Brad Adam and the ROOT team for talking to Eli and his family and sharing their story on the broadcast tonight.**
