_{photo by PositivePaul [flickr]}

After his team lost to the hapless San Diego Padres last night, Mariners manager John McLaren either hit rock bottom (and is destined for a rebound) or threw in the towel entirely. You decide:

“A little disappointing,” said Mariners manager John McLaren. “We were coming home. All I can say is we will be here tomorrow.” [times]

You know the season isn’t going well when the manager’s only promise is that the team will show up again for the next game. Well, that and having the worst record in the American League. But, prior to the season a few of our local beat writers predicted the Mariners would be neck and neck with the Angels for the AL West title. One of them, the Times‘ Larry Stone, recently recanted and apologized for his wildly optimistic prediction [times]. One talking head at ESPN even had them in the World Series! Naturally, our friends at U.S.S. Mariner and Lookout Landing had more tempered outlooks based on their obsessive study of a roster they both deemed “deeply flawed.”

But sports analysis isn’t why you come here so I’ll leave it to the experts. Instead, let’s look at it a different way. The Mariners failure this year is so epic that it transcends sports. This is a study in human misery and abject failure brought on by the arrogant presumptions of a management team unwilling (or unable) to evaluate or adjust to the situation on the ground (as it were). This is a failure so spectacular that even non-sports fans can appreciate it; a failure so magnificent it’s actually made the highly organized, stay-on-message corporation known mostly for their baseball product, interesting. This isn’t mere schadenfreude, either. This is a 6 month long Shakespearian tragedy occurring 6 times a week on TV, radio, and at a ballpark near you.

A variety of failure this profound doesn’t come around very often. I urge you to enjoy it while it lasts.