The ebb and flow of a sports season

Matt Baide | Jul 07, 20220

For people not on social media, I envy you.

If you’re involved in Seattle sports Twitter, Facebook or Reddit, you have probably seen the highs and lows of a sports season as it happens. People reacting (and overreacting) to everything posted by media members, analytics websites, hot takes from national pundits, player or staff news and games.

This could be about every sport in Seattle, but this time, I am referring specifically to the Seattle Mariners.

The Mariners season has been nothing new. Seattle started off strong and was above a .500 record until the beginning of May and went on a six-game losing streak and was 10-18 in May to bring its record to 21-28 entering June.

It was at this time that some people were saying the season was over, Scott Servais and/or Jerry Dipoto should be fired, Jarred Kelenic, Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez are busts. It was like the Mariners’ social media community had turned into chicken little and the sky was falling in real time.

Flip the calendar to June and the Mariners played better and were 37-41 going into July and as of July 5, the Mariners are 40-42, and are second in the AL West. Rodriguez has looked like an emerging superstar, Raleigh is playing much better and hitting a lot better, but Kelenic was sent down to Triple-A Tacoma for now.

The strength of this team has been pitching, and that has been shown by the starting rotation of the Mariners. Robbie Ray has pitched much better after a slow start, Marco Gonzales has been throwing well most of the season and Logan Gilbert looks like the future of the Seattle’s rotation for years to come. Seattle has 40 quality starts, third best in the league, and has the eighth-best ERA in baseball at 3.68.

If you’re not on social media or not a part of the Seattle sports social media communities, you’ve seen none of the doom and gloom social media sports communities wallow in. And seeing as this column will run in a newspaper and not posted on social media, I imagine I’m probably preaching to the wrong choir, but I’m going to say it anyway.

Please stop with the reactions to everything throughout the season. As someone who wants to just watch the games and enjoy being a part of something bigger than myself, it’s frustrating when people must take every moment to try to win an argument or prove a point. I am a fan who enjoys fun debate, but not when the season isn’t even halfway complete.

And yes, I could just stop going on these websites and reading everyone’s opinion, but I don’t want to remove myself from the discussion entirely. I like debating who the greatest quarterback of all-time is (Peyton Manning, obviously) or who is on the Mount Rushmore of Seattle sports (Sue Bird, Walter Jones, Ken Griffey Jr. and Gary Payton, of course).

If you listen to the podcast I host, Washington East to West Sports on YouTube, you’ll know that I think nothing matters in baseball until August rolls around. Games are played from April to August, but to me, I don’t really care what happens until the final two months of the season. With 162 games in a season, there’s so many games for teams to recover from, even when your team is 18-27 in late May.

Social media can be great for many things, including planning events, keeping in touch with people who don’t live close or cute cat pictures. I feel social media has not been good for sports discussions, and I’m going to try to limit my time on those platforms so I can do what I did before the age of the internet: enjoy watching my teams play and hoping for the best.

I would say I’m giving up social media, but who am I kidding I’m addicted, but I’m trying to be better.