What Might Have Been
Since I went to school in Boulder in the early 90s and grew up in a baseball family, the coming of major league baseball to Denver was a big deal in my life. When the Rockies finally debuted in 1993, I found myself on Opening Day sitting in the south end zone of Mile High Stadium with 80,000 other people. The Rockies became my team.
But then I moved to Seattle in 1995, and I sat in that mausoleum that passed for a ball park as Luis Sojo squirted home the insurance runs against the Angels. Suddenly, Seattle was a baseball town, and Refuse To Lose was the catchphrase.
Still, I resisted converting my allegiances from the Rockies to the Mariners. It probably wasn’t until 2001 or so, when the M’s won 116 games while the ownership in Denver was rapidly converting the team into the doormat of the National League, that I finally filed my Form 27 (Application To Change Team Allegiances) with MLB.
And now, it’s 2007. While the M’s spent the last six weeks squandering a 3 game lead in the AL Wild Card behind piss-poor managing and highly questionable personnel moves (Rick White? Really?), the young, rebuilt Rockies hung in the National League race, then went on a 13-1 tear the last two plus weeks. They play the San Diego Padres tomorrow afternoon for a playoff berth.
And as I watch the Mariners waste Adam Jones’ talent, start Horacio “7.16 ERA with more walks than strikeouts” Ramirez twenty times, and run Rick White(?!) out of the bullpen to blow it in crucial game situations, I ask myself why I even bothered to change team allegiances.
Let this be a lesson to those of you freshly arrived from elsewhere thinking of converting to the way of the Mariner: Don’t. It’s not worth the pain.