I’ve got some terrible or wonderful news, depending on how you felt about the 2020 Mariners. It’s the first day without Mariners baseball until (at least) spring of next year. In fact, there’s no baseball at all today as the top 53% of the league gears up for the playoffs. Among those teams: the 29-31 Astros. Even when they’re bad, they’re good enough. Ew.

On the bright side, I’ve got some fun and/or inconsequential Mariners links for you as well as some actually-consequential MLB links.

In Mariners news...

• Kyle Seager has a legendary gun at third base, so that he throws a football like this is... something.

• The Mariners have announced the first recipients for their Hometown Nine program. If you are interested in learning more, this is a good read about why programs like this are necessary.
• Not technically the Mariners, but Larry Stone takes a look at how the region’s best Little League team might have their dream crushed by COVID.
• A friendly face from across the street thinks Kyle Lewis should be the AL Rookie of the Year.

• Corey Brock of The Athletic released his final mailbag of the regular season a couple of days ago. ($)
• Not to be outdone, Ryan Divish at The Seattle Times also released his final mailbag of 2020.
• Divish also did a year-in-review of Kyle Seager’s 2020 — a season that saw the veteran third baseman play in every game.
• Shannon Drayer at MyNorthwest did a great retrospective on how the team made the best of bad circumstances this season.

Around the League...

• Joel Sherman of the New York Post gives his season award picks, including a vote for a certain Mariner center fielder.
• Speaking of New York, looks like the Mets finally have some money coming off the books...

• There are a number of soon-to-be free agents who could stand to gain (or lose) a decent amount of money in the next month.
• On that note, here’s a look at the very-young players who will be trying to help their teams win this October.
• Always fun to look at a disgusting Pitching Ninja GIF.

• While I don’t love the Cardinals, this is the unlikely story of how they made the postseason this year.
• In case you missed it, the Angels are moving on from GM Billy Eppler. Eppler, who replaced current Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto, did not have a winning season during his five years as GM.
• Mike Axisa of CBS Sports ranked the 10 most fun possible World Series matchups this year.

Zach’s picks...

• What has almost everyone wished to do at some point? Time travel. Whether it’s to act as a tourist of the future or a mender of the past, it’s a commonly shared desire... that’s definitely a bad idea. Or is it? Researchers are arguing that paradox-free time travel is possible!

(Pro tip: whenever you see “Scientists say” or “Researchers say” in news media, it’s generally safe to ignore whatever the author of the piece claims that the scientists are saying. The reality is likely to be a boring, dry paper being sensationalized. This also applies here.)

• Don’t socialize with wild animals. Just don’t do it! Really!