Two months ago to the day, I wrote a column proclaiming this the most disliked Mariners team I could ever remember in my three-plus decades covering the team.
Looking back, knowing what we know now, it seems like one of those hilarious relics of the past, like parents in the 1960s railing about how those mopheads from Liverpool were going to poison their kids' minds.
But this isn't a mea culpa. I stand by the column, which I still feel reflects fairly accurately the mindset of the moment — just read the comments that overwhelmingly supported my thesis. To put it into context, the column appeared on the day the Mariners got blown out by Tampa, 15-4, at T-Mobile Park to fall four games under .500 at 38-42. Just as had been the case earlier in the week when the Mariners dropped two games to the lowly Washington Nationals, boos reigned down upon them that night from disgusted fans.
It was the absolute nadir of a season that had been intensely frustrating in every way. And the next day was, essentially, the start of the incredible run that has put the Mariners on a playoff path and stamped them as the hottest team in baseball.
What's most amazing is how, in those two months, the Mariners have managed to flip that perception of themselves as an under-achieving, highly maddening team on its ear. Fans are falling in love all over again with the Mariners, who had won their hearts a year ago with their spirited playoff push and gutty postseason performance, only to squander that goodwill with a lethargic offseason and a highly inconsistent first half of the year.
It's stunning how all the items I listed in the column as contributing to the fans' mounting frustration have undergone a seismic shift in a positive direction. But I go back to one of the final things I wrote in the piece as most telling:
... Put it all together, and you have a Mariners team that people love to hate. I suppose the only solace is that it could one day turn back the other way and spiral in the direction of burgeoning affection. It's happened before, not very long ago.
How? The answer is deceptively simple and painfully obvious: Run off a win streak like last year that salvaged a season when it appeared lost. Nothing wins people back like success.
Voila: The Mariners have gone from a team that couldn't seem to shake a .500 ceiling to one that now has suddenly been stamped as a legitimate World Series contender, the ballclub no one wants to play in October. From the date the column appeared through Monday's win over Oakland, the Mariners have put up an eye-popping 37-14 record — a .725 win percentage that translates to a 118-win pace over a full season.
Just think how close the Mariners came to a 24-game winning streak — two off the MLB record. Their only losses in that stretch are two games they dropped in extra innings to the Orioles, and two games in which they took a lead into the bottom of the ninth (vs. Kansas City and Chicago). Imagine the buzz if they had pulled that off.
Let's look at the five areas I pinpointed as the prime source of fans ire:
1, Expectations. So much was expected of this Mariner team that it hit extra hard when they couldn't get anything going for three months. It seemed as if a golden opportunity was going to be squandered — until the M's finally went off on the surge that they had teased all year. And suddenly they are on pace to surpass the 90 wins of the two previous years — just like everyone had been expecting when the season started.
2, Perception. I wrote about the "undeniable feeling of, well, betrayal that the Mariners didn't take the necessary steps to fill the team's holes and maximize their chances to move beyond a second-round playoff ouster."
The fact that Tommy La Stella, Kolten Wong, A.J. Pollock and Cooper Hummel are all gone from the opening-day roster attest to the misfires in the offseason. But it's hard to argue with the overall construction of the team when they have a pitching staff that's the envy of baseball and has helped propel them to the division lead.
3, On-field persona. I wrote that the Mariners were "a team that appears lifeless, as all offensively challenged teams do. The antics that were once so enchanting — dancing after wins, the home-run trident — merely irk now. They strike out far too much and seemingly have an aversion to situational hitting. (Julio) Rodriguez is among the biggest disappointments in baseball so far."
All true at the time, but now the lineup has been among the most productive in baseball for six weeks plus. And no one personifies the transformation of the Mariners more than Rodriguez, who worryingly was scratched from Tuesday's lineup with foot soreness. Rodriguez has gone from sophomore slump to sophomore sensation, the hottest player in baseball who suddenly has thrust himself into the race to finish second to Shohei Ohtani in the American League MVP race. And, yes, the dancing and trident celebrations have once again become endearing.
4, History. I pointed out how the weight of the Mariners' futility — just five playoff appearances in 47 years, and the only team in baseball never to make the World Series — preordained fans to take a harsh view of the organization in troubled times. But that is now working in their favor; the Mariners' surge has made it possible to dream that this could be the year another dry spell ends — the World Series drought.
5, Social media. No doubt there's an echo chamber that amplifies fans' discontent in real time via tweets and other social media outlets. But the vitriol that was out of control in late June has slowed to a trickle, because it's hard to complain too much when your team is winning more than seven out of every 10 games.
The Mariners have shown the one tried and true way to win back disenchanted fans. The team that fans loved to hate is now one that, suddenly, everyone loves again.
