Mariners: Heartbreak and Hope


Ever since our son Tommy learned how to swing a bat, we’ve been Mariner fans. We’d arrive early at the ballpark trying to snag a player’s autograph, then we’d wave our homemade signs in the stands during the game. Tommy was eleven years old the last time the Mariners made it to the postseason. 

He has spent the intervening years in hopeful anticipation and heartbreak. For fun, he and his nephew created Mariner dream teams on his MLB video game—it was a way to win when the real team wasn’t. So it was fitting that the two of them were able to celebrate their postseason Mariners at the ballpark.



Now he joins many other loyal Mariner fans who are wondering if this will finally be the year their team makes it to the Big Show.


In a time when there is so much disorder and divisiveness, there’s something about postseason baseball that brings folks together. Not everyone is a fan, but most of us love rooting for the underdogs—and that’s our Mariners—the only Major League Baseball franchise to have never advanced to the World Series.


The odds may be against them, but the Mariners pulled off baseball’s largest comeback victory in a postseason series. They had a 1% chance of doing that, yet they did. So, perhaps, the odds won’t matter and this could really be the year. 


Mariner fans have learned to cope while never losing hope. One fan already tattooed his thigh with “Seattle Mariners 2022 World Series Champions”—now that’s not hope, that’s faith (or folly).

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