Mets

[Trotsky]

In response to the season cratering, we are hosting ChatGPT Night.

[Chris H82]

I've posted before about the angst of being a Mariners fan. In advance of tonight's Game 5 ALDS vs the Tigers (and Tarik Skubal), there's a wonderful article about being an M's fan and just being a sports fan in general. Written by a non-sports reporter, no less. I realize that most of you won't be able to read the full article due to the paywall, so I'll quote a bit of it below.
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/in-rare-mariners-game-5-seattle-battles-history/

"A team can consume a city — its attention, its passion, its pride — like little else. Theater, dance, cinema, literature, art — all worthy pursuits. None unite people, masses of people, the way a winning team does.

Paul Blackburn, a Vermont-born poet (who happens to share a name with a Yankees pitcher), wrote about days like this. It was 65 years ago this month, Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, which would end with the greatest hit in baseball history, Bill Mazeroski's series-ending home run.

"Nice day,
sweet October afternoon
Men walk the sun-shot avenues,
                                                     Second, Third, eyes
                                                     intent elsewhere
ears communing with transistors in shirt pockets
                                    Bars are full, quiet,
discussion during commercials
                                                     only"

Swap the transistors for smartphones and he could be writing about today.
......
There is an exquisite powerlessness to fandom. To wanting something so bad it consumes your thoughts, soars or shatters your mood, seems to be all that matters, and still, there is nothing you can do.

Or is there?

Knocking on wood, lighting candles, rally caps, rally shoes, lucky jerseys, lucky earrings, lucky Cheetos, lucky seats, switching seats, switching rooms, switching televisions, Etsy witches, pre-game snacks. The team plays better when I watch standing up. The team plays better when I'm there in person. The team plays better when I don't watch. Don't shave, don't change shirts, don't talk about any of it.

We all have superstitions, traditions, charms, prayers, none of them able to alter the outcome one iota.

But, collectively, maybe there's something there? Something to the pure karmic energy created by thousands of desperate fans putting everything into willing an outcome, summoning a hit, a run, an out. Tens, hundreds of thousands of people pushing, metaphorically, psychically, emotionally the same way. Could their force alter a ball's flight? Give a pitch an extra mile per hour or an inch of dip? Cause a short hop?

Nah, that's wishful nonsense.

And then you see Cal Raleigh hit home run 61, a number dripping in baseball history. And it lands, amid an absolute sea of blue and orange Tigers fans, precisely in the glove of the one guy in a teal T-shirt with "Dump 61 Here" printed across it. How does that happen?

A city — almost certainly — cannot will a team to victory. But you can try."

[Chris H82]

Had to wait a day or so to let my thoughts settle out after that ALCS Game 7 loss. Another good article summed up the pain, and I think this quote could apply to our continued wish for another CU hockey natty:

"Why does it hurt? Because seasons such as this don't happen here. That's not hyperbole.

Until the Mariners drafted and developed one of baseball's best starting rotations. Until Raleigh hit 65 home runs, the most in a regular and postseason in AL history. Until Woo lasted at least six innings in 25 consecutive starts. Until Seattle dealt for Naylor and Suárez at the trade deadline. Until Víctor Robles soared to snag a liner and unseat the Astros. Until a million separate pieces all slid into place.

Even then, it's not enough. Will it ever be?

It came to this, the same consuming question and a new plummet. A further fall than ever before. Another celebration at Seattle's expense.

It had to be Springer. It had to happen in the most eternally tortuous way. It had to be the kind of devastating cruelty that leaves Raleigh — who had already homered — standing on deck.

Baseball, like life, isn't fair.

But you already know that. You're a Mariners fan."
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/the-mariners-most-magical-season-in-recent-memory-was-not-enough-will-it-ever-be/

[scoop85]

Had to wait a day or so to let my thoughts settle out after that ALCS Game 7 loss. Another good article summed up the pain, and I think this quote could apply to our continued wish for another CU hockey natty:

"Why does it hurt? Because seasons such as this don't happen here. That's not hyperbole.

Until the Mariners drafted and developed one of baseball's best starting rotations. Until Raleigh hit 65 home runs, the most in a regular and postseason in AL history. Until Woo lasted at least six innings in 25 consecutive starts. Until Seattle dealt for Naylor and Suárez at the trade deadline. Until Víctor Robles soared to snag a liner and unseat the Astros. Until a million separate pieces all slid into place.

Even then, it's not enough. Will it ever be?

It came to this, the same consuming question and a new plummet. A further fall than ever before. Another celebration at Seattle's expense.

It had to be Springer. It had to happen in the most eternally tortuous way. It had to be the kind of devastating cruelty that leaves Raleigh — who had already homered — standing on deck.

Baseball, like life, isn't fair.

But you already know that. You're a Mariners fan."
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/the-mariners-most-magical-season-in-recent-memory-was-not-enough-will-it-ever-be/

I'm not a Mariners fan but I was pulling for them and felt their pain.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I was rooting for them, too, especially since the Phillies went @#$%-up.

I can't root for either team that's left.