Rethinking the M's

I wrote a lot of heady optimistic pieces about the M's but I don't think I ever promised greatness from this team, just excitement, and greatness in sparks, that were exciting enough to light the embers of expectation, and I caught the spark. I thought something special was happening in the first act, when they showed the ability to kill teams like real champions, and though this fire was just as quickly extinguished by a bad week of hitting, like they're having now, it was so much better than last year, that I couldn't help but feel the team made a quantum leap, and I'd still go there, even if they play below %.500 for the rest of the year, because they took us this far. I bought tickets for a game on August 9th against the ChiSox, thinking I was going to see an important game at the end of the second act, that might decide the winner of the division, or a play off spot, not that it was in the third act, but the third act in September is almost impossible to think about now, they are so lost in the drama of the 2nd act, the central meat to the story, and the fans are really going to have to sit out this losing streak, that is starting to hurt, and making even me test my faith, but I have had my ride with this team, and I'm willing to accept it may be over, without any of the subsequent commitment, but admittedly that would be a let down, since we've come so far together, me and the M's. We've had a number of dates this year and I'll admit I'm starting to wonder where the relationship is going, but I'm so high on this team, that I'm willing to believe we'll get through this rough spot, and build to a better future, and I think the post game Shannon Drayer show has tried to do the same thing, considering the unexpected surprise the season has been, one for the books. Yes, we're immersed in the second act of a movie wondering if it is going to be a memorable one, or sink like a stone, and I'm still betting it's going to be a memorable one, because it already has been, but how memorable becomes a question that's hard to answer, and I dare not to. They haven't scored a run in a lot of games, and unless they had a really good bottom of the 9th, I'm pretty sure they are going into tomorrow night's game a little under the weather, like Jenny and I feel, so maybe it's the sea air.

What if they don't make it to the postseason, deep in the third act, that rounds out the season. I'll be publicly shamed for writing all of these good things about them, but I think you'll noticed that my optimism was measured, and that I liked their erratic unpredictable quality, that didn't really reek of a winner, but just might win the day, like an unknown actor storming the stage and becoming an overnight sensation. A successful M's was a Hollywood story, and I felt that at the beginning of the year in the first act, the promise of something special, but in June at the beginning of the second act, I really started to believe this team had something, and I'd say up until the All Star Break, they made me feel anything was possible, especially the final series with the A's. I'll admit that the series with the Angels after the All Star Break, was brutal, and losing two of three must've hurt, since the Halos were not only a division rival, but one of the best teams in baseball, and the M's played them even, to say the least, and I guess they should have won the rubber game, but in the words of the Seattle Times, "Rodney blows it in the 9th," or something like that, so it was a tough loss. I did listen to the 16 inning game and it really did have a 'to the death' feel by the end, and I just started wishing for anyone to win, and thought that whoever did would be more lucky, than better, because there was no clear winner, and the bend was being depleted, and still no one won. The M's lost that game, and that must have hurt, but then they came back to win one the next night in 12 innings, and I thought that was a big 'Fuck you,' to the Angels, and a declaration of war. Then they came back and manhandled the Mets in the opening game of the series, only to lose the next two in a kind of quiet inefficient manner, the bats going silent, and they are still silent, scoring no runs again, unless they broke through in the bottom of the 9th inning, which I doubt. I'm sure they'll have another winning streak before the season is over because I have to remember that we've got a lot of season left, and the second act hasn't even hit its peak yet, just intimated it, but August is the time where the competitors separate themselves from the pretenders, and put on the after burners for the final act starting in September, that feels like a lifetime away tonight in late July. I'm sorry to all the analysts out there like Shannon Drayer, but I had to establish my independence of analysis for the feeling I got for this team at the beginning of the season, and showed so much promise in the beginning of the second act, tearing up the Majors in June. But the second half of the second act has started rough, and again the Baseball Gods ask me to summons my patience, and realize that the season hasn't played itself out yet, and the book is still unwritten.

I don't know what to make of their acquisitions now that the trade deadline has passed, but the changes sounded minor. The only one that really surprised me was that Jose Montero had been called up and I remembered Shannon Drayer warning me of him in one of those down times the commentators were having at the end of the first act, when they were telling us not to get too excited about this team, because there were a lot of holes in the offense, even if they were exciting. Maybe this was sagacious advice, or maybe it was just 'Murphy's Law,' it was hard to tell, but I chose not to believe it, and think I was right, even if they fold tomorrow, or starting yesterday, or maybe on Wednesday against the Mets, when an overweight Colon, fanned them throwing over six innings of perfect ball. Yes, the M's have been very bad the last week and this is the time of the season, or the movie, that you expect the team to get on fire, but I'll admit they could wipe away this week with a good one next week, and yet baseball is won day by day, like acts of Congress, and the M's lost this week bad, much worse than I expected, so they're really going to have to pull it together. Do I sound anxious about this club? Well , I am because I started tasting victory, not just an exciting season, or something better than last year, but maybe one for the ages, the team of a generation, like the Mid-Eighties Mets were to me, or the Brooklyn Dodgers to a bygone era, and on July 12th when I went to the game with Jenny, walking through a festival in Chinatown, and onto the most exciting game of the year emotionally, the M's went onto beat the A's soundly, playing the best baseball they have in them. I went crazy when they kept Iwakuma in for the 9th, and even though someone tagged him for a two run homer, and I didn't care, and neither did anyone else. The M's were champions. Sure, that night only two weeks ago might have been gold dust, or a little bit of an intoxicant leftover from a drunken bash, that should have been forgotten at the door, but was thoroughly enjoyed, a poor man's 'Alice in Wonderland' kind of night at the park, but like a play it was beautiful. Last night, a commentator said, 'the bats seem to go hot and cold together, so that the whole team is either hot or cold," and that might be true, and part of what makes them exciting, because it promises that they might all get hot soon, and paint the town red! Conversely, it also implies that they might never get hot again, and go cold for the rest of the season, winning nothing, not even a wild car spot, which might not have been such a let down a few months ago, but given the manic-depressive swings the team has shown, would be a catastrophic disaster at this point, because I heard someone on 710 say that they were predicting 'World Series,' and that's not even a place I've dared to go with this team, preferring to think of them as "The Bad News Bears," a lovable bunch of misfits. I'm actually not even sure these M's are misfits in the classical sense, like the Oakland Raiders of the Seventies, just underachievers that got together one night and decided to win the A.L. West, and I think they talked the city into it, as unwilling as Seattle has been to embrace these guys, given a harsh decade of failure. I'd say the fans just started opening their arms to this team, on July 12th against the A's, a few days away from the All-Star Break, but instead of falling into them, the M's just missed, and fell askew. We'll see if they bounce back up, and find each other again.