Seattle Final

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In between some enormous changes in my personal life, I wanted to throw out an update from my last trip up to Seattle a week ago and the Seattle Final. I'll get to those changes in a separate post in a few days, but the most important thing right now is to sum up what has been an interesting summer getting to know the Mariners and their last game of the season.

I have enjoyed a new relationship with this Mariners team that has come about now that the Ems and I have fallen out of favor and the Portland Beavers have left town. Including this past Sunday, this was my fifth visit to the Emerald City and Safeco Field. When the Beavers were in town, I would travel up just about that many times, as well. Suffice to say, I guess now I can declare that the Mariners are my default team and that I have now taken a passing interest in their successes and failures. In this season, I've traveled to their Fan Fest, made a special trip to see their star pitcher, and used Safeco Field as a base of operations for a larger Baseball Road Trip (Puget Sound).

In a real change of ideas, my girlfriend and I decided to drive up to Seattle rather than take the train up. This had the benefit of allowing us to be more flexible, not having to leave at zero dark early, and not having to wait for trains. However, I was not a happy camper because, in my opinion, the negatives far outweighed the positives. Since my girlfriend had to work the graveyard shift, she had to sleep pretty much the entire way up, meaning I was the sole driver. It was a real drawback not being able to get up, walk around, grab a cup of coffee in the bistro car, take a nap, read a book, do a crossword, or play games on my phone. Driving takes all your attention, and especially when your travel partner is asleep (which I do not begrudge her for), it made things really boring. Add to that the fact that after the game, I had to fight Seattle traffic all the way to almost Tacoma on I-5, which was really frustrating. Maybe I was just spoiled on my last trip up to Seattle, but being able to walk around Downtown Seattle after the game, grab a quick drink, and leisurely make my way to the train station just sounds so much more civilized.

The game between the Mariners and the Oakland A's was an interesting blend of game ideologies. The Oakland A's had already clinched the AL West and were per-determined to play the Detroit Tigers in the Division Series. Because of this, the A's starters only played a few innings before being pulled in favor of the Minor League call-ups. I don't have a problem with that as they're preparing for the playoffs and they don't want to hurt their starters. I expected this going up, and I wasn't surprised to see it.

As for the Mariners, well, you could tell they had pretty much mailed it in. In the days before the game, it was announced that their manager was not going to be retained and the team had destined itself for a paltry fourth-place finish. A few weeks before, the management of the team traded away their starting shortstop, Brendan Ryan, to the Yankees and released their big off-season pick-up, Michael Morse, who was picked up by the Orioles. In my opinion, it was a fire sale and the hoisting of a "white-flag" for the season. All the while, I would see games on television where barely half the stadium was full, and it was backed up statistically as attendance had dropped to some of the lowest in the league. As you can imagine, the internet message boards were on fire and even ESPN's baseball writer wrote a critical piece about the organization, as a whole. It was a sorry state of affairs to walk up to last Sunday.

A sorry state, yes, and it showed. Being the last game of the season against the best team in the division, the Mariners put out an awful performance. In my over 250 professional games I have been to, I have never seen a more lackluster effort from a team. It was painful to watch the Mariners flail at pitches in the dirt, fail to run out grounders, and commit mental errors. At times, it was hard to realize that these were actually professional ballplayers. If you were a die-hard Mariners fan, the 9-0 drubbing that the Oakland A's JV team gave to you must have been a rough one.

Speaking of die hards, they probably were the only ones at the game. For being the last game of the season, you would think that it would have been well-attended, but it wasn't even close. The announced attendance was a little more than 17,000, but that was extremely generous. From my seat, I would guess that barely 10,000 showed up. When the game ended, the remaining fans in attendance, after most had left when the A's put a four-spot up in the fourth inning, booed the hometown team as they were coming off the field for the final time in 2013. Of all the baseball games I have been to, this has been the only game that felt more like a funeral than a sporting event. It was tough to watch.

So, with all the experience and knowledge that I have gained through these six seasons of Baseball Road Trips, what would be my suggestions to the Mariners organization to right the ship? Aside from getting better players and not trading away what you have, it shouldn't be cheaper to go to an Angels game in Orange County than to see the Mariners play. $17 for an upper deck seat is a joke. If it is impossible for the Mariners to NOT to charge less, than don't have ushers kick me out of seats in the first deck when it is a quarter full. Those are my solutions for now, but what do you all think? Definitely chime in on this.

Those life changes I alluded to earlier, I'm not ready to divulge what they are, exactly. However, there is a distinct possibility that I may be seeing some more baseball in the next few weeks. I'm not ready to call Baseball Extravaganza 2013 just yet, because there is a lot of thing unsettled.

Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)