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Hello and welcome to FanPost Friday, which is also the first Friday with a Mariners postseason game in 21 years. I’ve been trying and failing to wrap my head around all of this since Cal Raleigh walked it off, and when it became clear that the Mariners would be heading to Toronto for a best-of-three series, and then when the season actually ended and we had one off-day of all off-days to spend anxiously anticipating what awaits us today starting at 1:07 PM PT.
As Billy Beane (and Brad Pitt) once famously said, “My shit doesn’t work in the playoffs.” This quote has rattled around my brain since I first read Moneyball some ten years ago. It resonated with me because as a teenager in 2001, I remember the crushing disappointment I felt in a team that won 116 games yet lost in the second round of the playoffs. It’s a feeling I’ve shed over the years, as I learned more about the game. The 2001 playoffs were an object lesson in that exact Beane sentiment: the playoffs are random, cruel, extremely stressful, and the baseball playoff gods don’t give a single heck how many games your team won during the regular season.
While I am thankful(?) that the Mariners’ postseason drought lasted long enough for MLB to do away with one-game playoffs, the fact that this Wild Card round will be over in three days at maximum is still so hard to process. We’ve waited 21 years for this and it could be over (in a bad way) in two days. The fact that the first game is scheduled for the middle of the workday here in Seattle feels cosmically unfair for the sizeable number of Mariners fans who either have un-cancelable plans, can’t justify using PTO, or just can’t get out of work at such short notice without fear of getting fired. Again, that Billy Beane quote rattles around. “My (work, life, schedule, preferred baseball viewing method, etc) doesn’t work in the playoffs.” The playoffs have no sympathy for you.
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These playoff games are a rare thing and take place in this liminal space and transitional time during autumn, when it’s either oddly too warm but the days are shorter or it’s suddenly bitterly cold and rainy before we’re ready. There’s nothing to be done at this point except let it all wash over you while you live and die with every single pitch, another experience that is fairly foreign to us Mariners fans most seasons.
So hang in there, folks. It’s going to be an absolutely wild ride.
On that note, it’s time to hit these polls while we chew our finger nails down to nubs waiting for game one to start!
Game One Prop Bet Polls!
Polls will close at game time. Post in the comments when you get one right!
Poll
Luis Castillo’s first pitch will be a
This poll is closed
-
13%
Swinging strike
(23 votes) -
66%
Called strike
(111 votes) -
9%
Ball
(16 votes) -
7%
Foul ball
(12 votes) -
2%
Hit
(4 votes) -
1%
Ground ball out
(2 votes) -
0%
Fly ball out
(0 votes) -
0%
Other (answer in comments)
(0 votes)
Poll
The first Mariner to get a hit today will be
This poll is closed
-
70%
Julio Rodríguez
(123 votes) -
14%
Ty France
(26 votes) -
4%
Eugenio Suárez
(8 votes) -
1%
Cal Raleigh
(3 votes) -
4%
Mitch Haniger
(8 votes) -
1%
Carlos Santana
(2 votes) -
1%
Jarred Kelenic
(2 votes) -
1%
Adam Frazier
(2 votes) -
0%
J.P. Crawford
(0 votes) -
0%
Other (answer in comments)
(0 votes)
Poll
Who will be the first Mariners reliever out of the bullpen today?
This poll is closed
-
2%
Matthew Boyd
(5 votes) -
33%
Matt Brash
(57 votes) -
4%
Diego Castillo
(8 votes) -
3%
Matt Festa
(6 votes) -
25%
Andrés Muñoz
(43 votes) -
5%
Penn Murfee
(10 votes) -
7%
Paul Sewald
(13 votes) -
14%
Erik Swanson
(25 votes) -
0%
Other (answer in comments)
(1 vote)
Poll
Are the Mariners going to win today?
This poll is closed
-
50%
Hell yes.
(88 votes) -
7%
Of course.
(13 votes) -
18%
Maybe?
(32 votes) -
2%
No :(
(5 votes) -
6%
We are nothing but footsteps on a beach, the water comes in and it’s like we were never here
(12 votes) -
13%
They’ll win games 2 and 3 for maximum drama and stress, duh!
(23 votes)
Let’s go Mariners. We’re here for you and we’re ready.
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