Being a Husky football fan this past fall introduced me to the emotional relief of laughing at ineptitude.

It ’s remarkable, really, how similar the two situations are.

If things had gone well the first few weeks, then the M’s would have almost been contending, right? They’ve had injuries to Bedard and Putz, for starters, and also an extremely low team BABIP and BARISP. So: a good strong dose of bad luck mixed with some bad FO and Mac decisions. Naturally you didn’t see the former coming, but you knew the latter would bite and bite hard at some point. Which really isn’t the point of the post, I know, which is a sober account of coming to terms with losing in general and losing by this team in particular. Me? I’m still a big baby about losing Adam Jones…

This ownership group has never fired a general manager, or even put pressure on a GM to leave for failure. Not even Woody Woodward was bad enough to get forced out. If Woody Woodward’s performance was acceptable, why do we think Bavasi is vulnerable?

I’m sad to say that I’ve adopted this kind of attitude pretty much since the 2004 season. Yeah, I’ll get emotionally invested at the beginning of each season and at any sign of potential success (like most of last season), but I wore myself out too much by living and dying by each game during 2002, 2003, and most of 2004. When you you watch the team win 93 games but miss out on the postseason two years in a row because the division rivals caught fire at just the right time, and the front office responds by shuffling the deck chairs until the team hits an iceberg in 2004, it can be pretty draining.

Also – wasn’t the Jeff of ten years ago 12 years old or something? I’d hope that those ten years have brought on more changes than just your attitude toward your favorite baseball team.

I’ve been a fan for something like 25 years, and have become numb, then briefly exhilarated, then numb again over time. I have to say, however, that I still get emotionally invested in particular players (not in a corny way like my grandmother liked Dan Wilson [or, for real oldtimers, Scott Bradley]) like Felix whose talent gives me real pleasure to watch (and, conversely, whose bad performances give me apoplectic fits).

I’ve totally withdrawn my emotional attachment to the team this season. It sucks but I’m fine with it, sort of. I honestly find myself checking the Rays score more than the M’s score these days. Not because I’m suddenly an actual Rays fan or something, but they have hope. This season has no hope. Management put together a flawed team that could have hung around if things went right, and nothing has gone right. Like you said Jeff, it’s too familiar. I will be seeing this team live a couple times in June though in away ballparks, hopefully they don’t suck too much on those two ays

Jeff, I think you hit the nail on the head. I feel exactly the same way.

I grew up down in the Bay Area and was an A’s fan for over 25 years. I saw the good times (World Series winners) and the bad (the “Triple A’s” of the late 80’s/early 90’s with 2,000-3,000 other people in the park) and I enjoyed the entire ride because I got to watch baseball. That’s what this is all about, right? Watching baseball.

For the past 10 years here in the Northwest, I’ve taken the same attitude. I’ll root for the M’s no matter what, but the bottom line is that we get to watch baseball. Sure I’d like to see the M’s win, but if they don’t I’m not swearing off baseball. That’s cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Keep up the good work.

“Nothing beats winning, but losing beats everything else.”

I can root for bad teams, but I can’t root for stupid teams. Bad teams are just bad; they may try to do exactly the right thing, but they’re just not good enough to do it, and I can sympathize with that. I’m capable of rooting for a team that lacks talent, provided that the team is at least trying. But stupidity and close-mindedness just make me mad. Stupidity makes me want the chickens to come home to roost; when a stupid team loses, I actually get grim satisfaction out of it, since one of the things I truly hate is when someone does something stupid, succeeds through dumb luck, and then cites his success as proof that his dumbass idea was a good one.

So I’m confessing something that doesn’t make me proud: I don’t want the Mariners to succeed if that success appears to validate bad decisions. I want Bavasi’s and Lincoln’s bad decisions to haunt them. I want them to have regrets. And then, having lost, I want there to be changes and smart decisions to replace the bad ones. That’s what I’m waiting for: a smart Mariners organization. I may be waiting for a long, long time.

Because the Jeff of ten years ago sounds 14.

I said something like that in the “Why Mariners Fans Are Awesome” thread.

When you lose that emotional investment in the team’s future, losing can be really entertaining.

Probably the best thing I’ve ever done as a fan was force myself to watch a majority of the disaster that was ‘04. Taught me how to find enjoyment in losses and to appreciate hilarity on the field.

But at the same time, this morning when I was watching sports center, I heard the Ass Hats of Anaheim have dropped six of their last eight. This gave me hope. The M’s are going into inter-league after having some time to get the their shit together.

I need to be told I am an Idiot and all hope is lost and just enjoy Wlad going yard and Felix returning to his throne

The Jeff of 10 years ago didn’t know what “rational” meant.
The Jeff of 10 years ago liked the girl in his class that had matured faster, but then so did everyone else, including the cool kids, so it didn’t matter.
The Coach of 10 years ago was 6. Carlos Triunfel was 8. Felix hadn’t hit puberty.

Anyway, I’m all for your post though. Good stuff.

far outweighs my interaction with MLB (at least in terms of actually going to games, buying stuff, etc.), this all seems very familiar.
It was mentioned above that minor league fans interact with the majors differently, but this is particularly true for a fan of the M’s and an M’s affiliate.
In short, being a fan of a minor league team gives you two options to evaluate a season or even each game. If the season sucks, you’re taught that this is a concern, but it’s only one goal – the other being to develop MLB-ready talent. Same thing for a game – ok, we lost, but pitcher X’s change-up is coming along, or player Y is really hitting the ball hard.
It’s been really easy to apply these precepts to the Mariners this year – yeah, OK, team sucks. But this is a great opportunity for the team to develop new players who will help when the team’s ready to compete. Yeah, we got pounded, but Wlad hit a home run, Sean Green looked ok, and Vidro didn’t play. There are good things to see in basically every game. What’s better, this isn’t giving in to starry-eyed optimism or worshiping individual players over the team – it’s tied in with evaluating roster construction, player development, etc. It’s just choosing to look at the positive aspects of those issues, because let’s face it, looking at all facets each day is simply masochistic.
To me, this is somewhat different to reducing one’s emotional investment. OK, at its heart, it’s the same thing, but there’s a strategy involved as opposed to a more all-encompassing version of emotional withdrawal.

until the days when you’re just expecting a disaster at every turn, at which point it simply becomes hysterical. Up 5-0 in the first? GG we lose! Routine grounder? Bet you it gets booted!

In a lot of ways it’s just as fun to root for a bad team as a good team because when you root for a good team, a regular season game has two possible outcomes – content or anger. When you root for a terrible team, it also has two possible outcomes, but they’re joy and contentment. It makes my life easier when I don’t care if the M’s lose, but boy do I hope they win.

Go Mariners!

And let me say, I felt a pang of sympathy pains reading this article. What you describe is exactly what nearly all Royals fans have felt for the last 15 years. We always tried to cling to something, like the offense of the late 90s or the prospect of young pitchers, but were always disappointed. And every April, Joe Posnanski would write his “why it sucks to follow the Royals” column. And Rob and Rany would complain. And you just had to let go. You couldn’t hold on tight to a team that was as comically bad as the Royals circa 1996-2006. You could only laugh and make jokes about grit.
But I offer hope. Because the Royals are coming out of the dumps. Our meddling, incompetent owner learned to hire the right guy and back off. And with good governance, the team has improved. We have legitimate playoff hopes again in Kansas City, if not now than in the near future. We have a team that is still frustrating, but also fun to watch – especially the pitching. And if the Royals can turn around, with a tiny media market, with almost zero fan support in recent years, with 100 loss seasons still fresh in the memory, then why can’t the Mariners? Really, you guys haven’t had it as bad as the Pirates or us the last few years, you have more money and a division with fewer teams. So hold on to that still small part of you that says “Hope.” Because when the team rises again, it will be all the sweeter that you held on when others were mocking you and trying to beat you down. Good Luck.