Mariners comically try to plug holes in leaky ship as more holes keep appearing.
I mean it’s whatever.
I had a conversation with a friend the other day about the relative merits of the Mariners’ last 10 seasons from a fan’s perspective. Which seasons have been the most successful? The most enjoyable? The most engaging?
We agreed on some, of course. The most successful and enjoyable season of the last decade was the only one that saw the Mariners make the playoffs: 2022. The uninspiring start to that year lasted less than two months, and everything after the infamous Angels brawl was an absolute delight.
The least successful season was a more contentious point. Are we judging success by whether expectations were met, or are we just going by record? The 2015 Mariners finished eight games ahead of the 2019 Mariners, but were far more disappointing. After all, it was “time to believe” in 2015 with the team having signed slugger Nelson Cruz over the offseason.
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The 2019 Mariners, on the other hand, were always destined for the last place finished they eventually earned. Two fun games in Japan and a 13-2 start to begin the year provided some unexpected fireworks, but fans were forced to take solace in watching fan favorites like Edwin Encarnación and Dan Vogelbach when the team inevitably regressed.
The 2017 Mariners contended for a playoff spot in a lackluster American League for most of the season, but played putrid baseball and started a then-MLB record 40 pitchers over the year. The 2018 Mariners had a magical first half, but imploded after the All Star break to the tune of a clubhouse fight between Jean Segura and Dee Strange-Gordon.
I know some people here who would chew me out if I didn’t mention 2014 and 2016, both of which saw the Mariners in contention into the final week of the season. They were each a lot of fun, despite featuring some less-than-fun names (think Dustin Ackley, Kendrys Morales, Adam Lind, Steve Clevenger).
The bar isn’t high, after all. For posterity’s sake, here are my final rankings.
Mariners continue self-immolation, lose to Detroit 3-2 in extras
At least parts of this game were fun to watch, which marks an improvement over last night
Of the many flags I’ve seen, Detroit’s is the only one to feature an image of the city on fire. It’s a choice that tempts fate, almost as if the designers were, wait for it, playing with fire. It’s supposed to harken back to the Great Fire of 1805, when what was then a fort and a small town burned almost entirely to the ground and was rebuilt. It’s supposed to be about rising from the ashes like a phoenix. The city’s motto, also featured on the flag, reads:
“Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus,” Latin for “We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes.” We hope. Hope can be something substantial, crucial. But when I read that motto, the hope reads more like a wish. And emblazoning the flag with the city in flames does less to remind one of the past than to prophesize.
Fire engulfed the Motor City over and over throughout its history, from that 1805 blaze to riots in 1863, 1924, 1943, and, most famously, in the 12th Street Riot of 1967. That’s to say nothing of the explosion in the Opera House or the burning of the bridge to Canada. Nor of the many uses you could make of the city burning down as a metaphor, such as what happened before the auto bailout 15 years ago.
And then there’s what’s happened to the Mariners over the last couple days at Comerica Park.
To be sure, the bats weren’t quite as hapless as the final score would make you think, though that’s not to say they were good. But they did have traffic in seven innings and two balls that found gloves more than 400 feet from home plate. They just couldn’t cash in very often.
