Mariner's Fan: A Story of Heartbreak

Baseball season is upon us, as most able-minded US citizens should now realize.  This time of year always reopens old wounds on the hearts of most Mariner's fans.  Let's face it...the team hasn't been on its A game for quite a few years.  The fair weather fans have found sunnier pastures in other outlets....although not in the Pacific Northwest because Seattle has a corner on poorly performing sports teams.  However, there are reasons to stick around.  Call it false hope, nostalgia, or a sense of loyalty...here are 10 reasons why I hang around for more.

#10  Garlic Fries

You haven't arrived at Safeco until you can smell the garlic.  Wash them down with a $7.00 lemonade (aka a glass of water with a lemon jammed in it) and you've got yourself a meal.

 

#9) Lou Piniella

I will forever stand by my belief that the year that they bring Lou back is the year that we win the Series.  I love this man.  Bad attitude and all.

#8) The Old Jerseys

Nothing I love more about the Mariners than Retro Throwback night....the Trident is so classic.  

#7) A-Rod Hating

Lower than my tolerance for alcohol is my tolerance for sell-outs. The Yankees deserve you.  Thank you for breaking my heart.

#6)  Safeco Field

This place is a gem.  Between the energy, the train whistles, the views of the skyline, the garlic smell wafting about, the planes flying overhead...I love everything about it. 

 

#5) Seattle

This should be pretty obvious, but a lot of the charm of the team has to be attributed to the city.  I have had a huge crush on the city of Seattle since I was a little kid.  Spokane is its ugly step-sister, so it was always fun to head West and spend some time near the water and big skyscrapers.  One of my favorite days involves scouring Pike Place Market, shopping at all the stores we don't have, eating seafood on the waterfront, and capping the night off with a little Mariner's action.  It's so worth the $20.00 parking.

#4) Edgar Martinez

This man is a legend.  I'm embarrassed to admit how big of a crush I have on a 50 year old married man who speaks broken English and needs someone else to run the bases for him.  The man can hit.  He has charisma.  He is humble.  Oh goodness.  Hold me back.

#3)  Dave Niehaus

My oh my.  This guy is missed.

#2)  2001

To say I was obsessed with the Mariners in 2001 was an understatement.  Edgar Martinez, Mike Cameron, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Joel Pineiro, Arthur Rhodes, Jamie Moyer, Dan Wilson, Brett Boone, Carlos Guillen, John Olerud....and that is me rattling those names off after 11 years. I'm a superfan.  You pretty much can't ever top 116 wins.  I don't know that I'd be any more impressed even if they had won the Series.  Studs.

#1)  1995

I realize my top reason for loving the Ms is a year...but it is what started my love for them.  I was 9 and just at the age that I could either choose to be a Mariner's fan or choose to be a loser.  I chose correctly.  Such an incredible year.  When I found out Griffey was coming back to finish out his career with the Mariners I almost pooped my pants, because all I could think about was this scene right here.

So Mariners...try not to break my heart.  But even if you do, I'll come running back for more next Spring.

Peace

You know those days when everything seems right with the world?  I must say that as of late, I've had a multitude of days that don't feel quite like that, so having one today was glorious.

First of all....

There was a Mufasa cloud in the sky over my apartment when I came home from dinner with my mom tonight.  You know what I'm talking about.



Ok, it wasn't quite as good as this one, but it was close enough to bring my heart joy.

Secondly, as mentioned above....I had dinner with my mom tonight.  If you ask what I might miss most when I move away in a few months, it is probably this.  We also ended up sitting very near to a guy that closely resembled Napoleon Dynamite and ate his dinner while listening to his Ipod.  Nice.

Lastly, and perhaps the most exciting, the Boston furniture dilemma has been solved.  I have had quite a battle building in my head as to how to find help to assist me in moving in furniture and also what vehicle I would use to do so....and how I would afford anything.  All of this was solved when the girl who is moving out of my apartment offered up all of her bedroom furniture.  Talk about a blessing.  I now have zero dilemmas with that at all.

I honestly have been very much seeking a little confirmation that I am meant to be going to Boston.  I do believe God gives us extraordinary opportunity to exercise free will, and my will obviously is to get out of Spokane for a bit, get my Masters, and do it somewhere completely different from here.  I chose Boston a tiny bit indiscriminately and had my heart set on it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was meant to be.  God's will is greater than mine, and I like to think I'm seeking that more so than mine, but when your heart is set....its hard to hear opposition.  Something this simple is a HUGE HUGE sigh of relief for me and feels like some confirmation I have been hoping and praying to see.  Fact of the matter is, I've gotten accepted into a  program that could have rejected me just as easily, I have found roommates and a great apartment early on and with fairly significant ease, I found a flight that is so cheap its practically free, and now this.  What more confirmation do I need?

One more day of work and the weekend is here already....13 more weeks of work.  Time to come to terms with the fact that this stage is ending and the next stage is looming.  Big changes.

Strength

You know...the funny thing about valleys is that they are sometimes nearly impossible to pull yourself out of.

I had a heck of a health scare about a month ago, and despite receiving a much appreciated "get out of jail free" card, my overly anxious heart can't help but anticipate the next bump in the road.  It seems to always be something.  Our lives are never as perfect as we want people to assume that they are.  It's funny that we put on such a facade to make ourselves look good, while actually feeling like we are wading through garbage and getting nowhere fast.  The truth of the matter is that a health scare like that reminds you that you aren't invincible.  The intangible things really can touch your life.

Truly it's said best that "you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away".  It's hard not to get caught on that...realizing how finite life is and how little control we have over it.  Truth of the matter is that all of us are on a collision course with the end of our lives...it's just a matter of how quick the car is moving.

So, I guess where I find myself currently is trying to repack all those fears that have been let loose from Pandora's box and live this life in a way that acknowledges that those fears exist and that they are legitimate, but that living fully is so much more legitimate than they will ever be.  Worrying isn't going to change the future.  6 months down the road I could get bad news.  I could be all the way across the country, completely lacking a support system, and get bad news.  But the truth of the matter is that God is making a way for me to grad school in Boston and he is making a way for me to battle the challenges I face.  Since when did we get dropped on our faces in a "I completely can't handle this...no way, no how" sort of way.  I sure haven't been there.  And I actually can't think of anyone who has.  Even those who have faced the worst of the worst have been met with grace in the midst of it.

Strength is a funny thing....it's the thing that gives you the ability to climb up out of that valley and to venture on even though you sense there are more valleys waiting on the path you walk.

"He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless" Isaiah 40:29