I went to a Mariner's game the other day. We used to have an agreement, the Mariners and me, if I went to their game they wouldn't lose. For twelve years in fact they won every game I went to. But apparently we don't have that agreement anymore. The Mariners were doing a lot of losing when I wasn't there for the past ten years or so though. Every time I go to a game their highlight real starts in 1995 and ends in 2001. So when I was a kid I thought they were good.

My dad was quick to tell me horror stories about the Mariners. This was not normal- he insisted, of their brief, but to me, as far back as I could remember, success. “Ok, dad,” I thought, “maybe that is how they used to be, but I am here now, now things are different. April 2001- the Mariners started their season going 20 and 5! All year they surpassed everyone but my expectations of them and ended the season with a major league baseball record for most wins in the season -116! This was not normal, my dad insisted, a once in a lifetime season. But I thought- of course the team I like is this good, of course they are. In the post season they were defeated once more by the evil, soulless Yankees. They missed their first world series bid so the imps in training could go for the forty eleventh time or whatever. I cried then- I mean there were a lot of people crying in Seattle that day- grown men as well as 15 year old girls. But I wasn't that upset then because, they would go next year. Of this I had no doubt. They would be this good again next year, or maybe even better, maybe they would 117 games! I mean, why not?

Time is supposed to heal all wounds but every year now it just gets sadder. They haven't made it to the post season since 2001 and have only had a few years finishing over .500. I now understand what my dad was saying- that they will never be that good again, that was a once in a lifetime team. And that was the Mariners once in a lifetime shot.

I hope that's wrong- but these days, it sure looks like it.