The M's analysis

Here's to my first baseball blog late in the season!

I spent a lot of the last couple of years blogging about baseball, but ran out of anything to say this year, until now. The M's might be in wild card contention and it's with one of those teams you really want to see win, and that's nice. They are better than anyone predicted at the beginning of the season, but not as good as they promised in April and May, when they were in first place for a day or two.

The M's collapsed in June, or what I called the beginning of the second act in one of my blogs last year.

1st Act of the Season = Conceit (April and May)
2nd Act of the Season = Conflict (June, July, and August)
3rd Act of the Season = Resolution (September, October)

The M's are late in the 2nd act and that's really do (due) or die time in baseball, or a three act play or film. The story either picks up steam here propelling the team into a competitive, or memorable, 3rd act, or everything falls apart, and there is no coming back. A bad 1st act can be forgotten if it is followed by a strong second and 3rd act, but likewise a strong first act will be quickly forgotten if the rest of the season goes flat, and that's what the M's were in danger of, until this week, when they seem to have a little life breathed into them. It doesn't feel exactly like the team at the beginning of the season, when they were winning series after series, and yet it feels like they could almost be there again, after a slew of injuries and line up changes.

It's still early August and their fortunes seem to be looking up for a do or die third act, where they'll have to light the puget sound on fire. Can they do this? I'm not so sure, but at least it looks like they are making it to the 3rd act of the Season, with their integrity intact. The M's haven't seen the playoffs since the early 2000's, nor have they ever seen the World Series, so even being in the running for a wild card spot in mid September is quite an accomplishment. Historically, they must be the worst team in baseball.

So, what makes these M's hum? They had a miracle victory against the Red Sox the other night that felt like one of those pivotal games in the season that can change a team's fortune for a two or three week run, and the fans are feeling it. I think they've won three out of four since then, and a winning streak will make them competitive in the 3rd act on the strength of their performance in the 1st act, but the 2nd act saw them go through a string of injuries.

It also saw the organization go through a rather heavy revelation that King Felix might be on the downward slope of his career. Ace pitcher Felix Hernandez has all but been the one shining star in a rather dreary decade, and a fan favorite with the King's Court held in his honor, where everyone dresses in yellow K shirts. His reign isn't ending tomorrow, but he missed much of the 2nd act, and doesn't quite seem the same, and yet is still effective. I was never a big Felix fan, but there is something sad about realizing a pitcher's greatness is behind him, and he never made it to his big game. I think a dream ending for Felix's career would be to imagine him going on like he is for a few more years, and then finally making it to that playoff game, or world series contest, and giving it his all one last time, in the face of demise! But that would take the M's making it to the postseason, late in the 3rd act, after most of the other teams have been killed off, and that's quite an expectation.