Hot take: The Mariners will not win the World Series this year.
I know, I know. Shocking, right?
OK, so that’s not really a hot take. But maybe this is: Let go of the World Series and just play baseball again.
We had high expectations this year — for good reason, right? But the season started rough. And it stayed rough. We told ourselves it was early. We told ourselves Julio would turn it around, Cal would wake up, the injured guys would return and the trade deadline would fix things.
We’re a city of dreamers, us Seattleites. We hope against hope and believe against all odds. We can’t not. But now our season is tanked. Miserably so. Dumpster-fire flames.
And it sucks. I hate it, you hate it, we all hate it. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, and yet, here we are.
But you know what’s worse than losing a season we were supposed to win? Losing a love for the game. Gone is the buzz in the air, the laughs in the dugout, the sense that something fun was brewin’. Naylz has reportedly lost his mojo and has stopped looking on Facebook Marketplace for a new one. Julio doesn’t even smile anymore — not really.
Maybe more than anything, we want to see them play again — really play. I want to see Cal rip it, I want to see Julio and Randy pull one back from over the wall, I want to see Cole flip it to the base with all the pizzazz, I want to see Mooney & Co. leave ash dust on the hitters as they send flames past them.
We’ll soon evaluate trades, contracts, management, roster construction and everything else. But for a small window frozen in time, the job is simpler: Play ball.
There’s a kid out there in a Mariners cap dreaming to be on the big field. Show that kid — show us all — why he should keep his dream alive.
So, for the rest of what has been an abysmal season, I have two rules. They’re not complicated, but they would make your momma proud: Play hard, and have fun.
Play hard to win — not to delay the inevitable or turn the season around, but because baseball is the best game on Earth. Let’s let go of the season but fall back in love with the game. Let’s play ball the old-fashioned way — where the scoreboard comes second and the game comes first.
Let the veterans show off their stuff; let the young players give it their all. Take risks! If there is even the slightest chance of stretching a single into a double, go for it. If there’s a ball in the air, there’d better be grass stains on your jersey when you come up. It doesn’t matter if it’s the nine-hole hitter or the cleanup hitter, you pitch to them — dare them to try and make you pay for it. And for the rest of the season, every ball in play gets run out. I don’t care if the shortstop could roll the ball to first before you get there. Run. Make them finish the play.
Rule 2: Have fun. That’s what we’re here for, right? To help out, I have some suggested T-Mobile Park ground rules:
● Every foul ball launched into the stands must be accompanied by a shout of “That ball has a family!” from the dugout.
● Every error by any player from either team prompts fans to shout “Whoomp! There it is!”
● A Mariners home run gets “All Star” by Smash Mouth blasted on the loudspeakers.
● And when a Mariner is in an 0-2 count with at least two on? Rally caps. Because why not?
We may have lost the season, but we refuse to lose our love of the game.
So let it out. Let it go.
And let’s go play some ball!
