Me and My Team -- a Fan's Perspective

Baseball has always been, unequivocally speaking, my favorite sport. I am an absolute fan of the game. From the pure beauty of a picture-perfect swing, to the dirtiest diving, tumbling catch to rob that batter of a base hit. The art of leading off, picking off, stealing, bunting, and of course, pitching. They say the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach, that may be true for most, but for me it's a Pedro Martinez offspeed pitch circa 1999. That year, he ran a modest .92 WHIP, 2.07 ERA, 1.39 FIP, k'd 13.2 batters per nine innings, ran a decent 1.56 BB/9 and did all of this while pitching 213 innings and winning 23 games. All kidding aside, you might look at his surface numbers and think that maybe he benefited from guys hitting every ball he threw right at one of the Red Sox defenders, you 'd be wrong. When guys made contact, they hit an astronomical .343 against him, that is 50 points over his career average. The problem for hitters that year was simply they weren't making contact very much -- hardly ever.

I love the Seattle Mariners. This is the one truth about me that has never wavered, I am an absolute homer when it comes to the blue and teal. Early memories are not abundant in my head, but of the few that I do have, 99% of them involve running around the Kingdome as a demon child throwing peanuts around and bugging the hell out of everyone in the CF bleacher seats. Hey, back then being a ninja and a power ranger at the same time was seen as cool. When growing up, I followed the Mariners as closely as I could. Every night during the spring and summer at our house around 7 pm, you would be likely to find the game on the TV, the burgers on the kitchen table and the kids (me and my brother) sitting down on the couch listening to Dave Niehaus, Ron Fairly, and Rick Rizzs call balls and strikes, and instill hope and optimism no matter what type of season the team was going (and often suffering) through. I shouldn't really claim that much despair though. When I really started getting intense about scouring box scores, and following the team with more than a boyish sense of wonder was roughly the period of 1999-2003, which could be considered as the "Golden Age" of the franchise. At one point or another I have rooted for nearly every single player who has joined the Mariners for any length of time. A few notable exceptions: Scott Spiezio (bad vibes), Jeff Cirillo, Horacio Ramirez (only because of my mancrush on R. Soriano) and Erik Bedard. I don't care how super-talented he is, I cannot believe we gave up Adam Jones AND Chris Tillman AND George Sherrill -- but I digress.

The point is I have loved this organization for nearly every single one of my 22 years of life, and being a Mariners fan to me is a special thing. We may not compete for a world series title every single year by simply buying the best players (although both the Yankees and the Red Sox draft very well). But we do have our fond memories, including the most wins in a season since the 1906 Chicago Cubs, tying an MLB record. We also have a couple of bona-fide future hall of famers in Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro, and yes, Edgar Martinez. We also can claim as our own someone who already represents the Seattle Mariners in the hall of fame, Dave Niehaus, who in my mind is the greatest baseball announcer of the last 30 years -- hands down. Tell me you don't get chills listening to this. We Mariner fans belong to a special fraternity, and I just wanted to tell a little bit about how I gained membership.