Why am I a Sport Fan?: Depressing Edition

It's times like these where I wish I didn't grow up in Seattle so I wouldn't have to be a Seattle sports fan. Though I suppose liking terrible sports teams here is better than liking terrible sports teams in Cleveland. But it would save me a lot of grief. In my most memorable times as a fan, I have seen my favorite baseball team miss the playoffs for eight straight years (soon to be nine!) and seen my favorite football team make the Super Bowl once and lose in heart-breaking fashion. I've also seen my favorite basketball team suck and then proceed to move to one of the few places in the country I never want to visit. On top of all that my favorite college team has had mostly mediocre and bordering on terrible football teams and good but not great basketball teams. Oh how I pine for the late '90s and early oughts.

My sports fandom began about 15 years ago. I heard about the Washington Bullets and thought "hey aren't they from around here". I was 5, shut up. You're laughing at the innocence of a kindergartener. I hope you feel like an ass. But shortly thereafter, I fell in love with the Sonics. I remember Payton and Perkins (man, he was so fun to watch) and Kemp and Schrempf and Hawkins and, weirdly, Eric Snow. I vaguely recall watching a Sonics-Bulls game (it may have been the '96 Finals but I can't say for sure) and seeing Gary Payton "foul" Michael Jordan and help the Sonics lose closely. I have had a slightly negative opinion of Jordan since. This wouldn't be my last experience with poor officiating, unfortunately. The Sonics were so, so good when I was a kid. I remember them starting 8-0 in the lockout year and then proceeding to finish .500 and miss the playoffs. Short of the 2005 season, my memories of the Sonics are of frustration from poor management to sadness because of their unceremonious departure. But I have been lucky enough to see those aforementioned players on top of Lewis and Allen and one season of Durant. I will always have the Sonics to thank for introducing me to the wonder that is sports, even if it did end in heartbreak.

But it's the Mariners that I have the strongest affinity for and who have caused me the most frustration. I remember the day of my first game remarkably well considering how poor my memory of some things in my early childhood is. It was an August (or possibly May. I don't remember all the details.) game against the Twins in 1996. My dad picked me up at daycare (St. Columbus! Star Lake represent!) and said we were going to a Mariners game. Being 5, I couldn't really protest. I'm hoping it was more excitement than anything. My uncle Bill and cousin Billy were there as well. These were the days where you could sit a few rows behind home plate for fairly cheap. Yay Kingdome. I don't really remember the result, though I think the Mariners may have won. Baseball Reference says no if it was August but whatever, that's not important. I didn't know what a home run was. I was cute in my complete ignorance of the game up to that point.

But I would say that is the start of my fandom. I remember bits and pieces of the wildly successful 1997 season and Randy looking mortal in the playoffs. I was at the game the day Randy got traded and remember either not understanding the trade or just having not heard of the players we were getting back (Freddy Garcia?!?!? Who's that?!). I remember Russ Davis coming up to Sweet Home Alabama and Jay Buhner coming up to Bad to the Bone. I remember portions of the last games in the Kingdome and remember at my first game in Safeco marveling at how wide the aisles were. And the bathrooms were actually usable. I remember the day Griffey was traded and how befuddled I was by the package we got back (boy did that work out. <3 Cammy)

But my biggest memories of the childhood Mariners come from 2000 and 2001. I remember Who Let the Dogs Out playing for A-Rod in what would be his last season as a Mariner. I recall coming home from school and seeing Carlos Guillen (good riddance Randy! (not really)) bunt home the winning run against the White Sox to move on to the ALCS. I think I was actually at a couple of ALCS games (though that might be 2001. or both. Thank you, dad's coworker who had season tickets). But it ended in heartbreak thanks to Arthur Rhodes and David Justice. Then 2001 came. The best team ever assembled. Looking back I really can't see any holes based on their performance besides the terrible Al Martin. My biggest memories, besides the general joy that comes from following a team so dominant, are the terrible loss in Cleveland after being up 14-2 and the 116th win. On the day of the Cleveland game, I remember going to some far-ish off place and hauling back a bunch of plants or something and helping my dad with them. "Oh, we're up by 12. Well this will hold." Guess not! Then I remember Kazu striking out A-Rod for the last out of the 116th win and how amazing that felt. I don't remember actually seeing the celebration of clinching the division with the flag and all that when it happened but that was still pretty fantastic.

Then the playoffs came. We barely scraped it out against Cleveland. My dad and I were at Disneyland for the first time and I remember wanting so badly to know how the Mariners were doing against the Indians and how well the Huskies did against UCLA (not very!). The Mariners lost 17-2(!) that day and the Huskies lost 35-13 after starting undefeated. What a terrible sports day in an otherwise amazing first time at Disneyland. Then I remember listening to Game 4 on the way back from the airport the next day. I remember the sense of despair that would become so familiar when they were down 1-0 going into the 7th. But they rallied and pulled off a 6-2 win. Then Jamie Moyer locked them down in Game 5 and on they went to New York. Then everything went wrong. The series started off 0-2, then the Mariners won game 3 and looked like they were going to win game 4 until Bernie Williams tied it in the 8th (Arthur Rhodes :( ) and Alfonso Soriano won it in the 9th. And then from there it was just a downward spiral. Two straight 93 win teams that missed the playoffs. Then the terrible 2004 and 2005 and bad 2006 with shades of decency. Then the false hope of 2007 followed by the swift kick to the balls of 2008.

Perhaps I assumed that my teams would always succeed early on. Look at that 7 year period from 1995-2001. The Seahawks sucked but I wasn't really a fan as much at that point. The Sonics made the NBA Finals in 1996 and were mediocre to outstanding until 2002-03. The Huskies were still expected to win every year and won a Rose Bowl and nearly a national championship. But then everything went to hell more or less from there. The Seahawks were good and consistently in the playoffs but were only able to make the Super Bowl once (though they probably should have won) and have been terrible for two straight years. The Sonics are gone. The Huskies have made their way back to decency in football and have been good in basketball but still had some terrible years. The Mariners have been many different shades of terrible.

But as I said in the previous post, most of the reason I am a sports fan is the potential joy I get from watching sports. Whether it's watching Felix hit a grand slam off of Johan freaking Santana in an otherwise lost season or seeing Shaun Alexander in his prime cutting up defenses. Going through all of this suffering now will only make things sweeter when the wins actually come. The Mariners, this year notwithstanding, have righted the ship from the terrible Bavasi years and have smart management. It will take some time to heal all the wounds formed by the 2004-2008 seasons but things are overall positive. I will get to watch Franklin Gutierrez and Felix Hernandez for the next 5 years and hopefully Ichiro for just as long. The Seahawks didn't have as terrible of an offseason as I assumed when Carroll came in and hopefully will be respectable this year. The Huskies have a Heisman candidate at quarterback this year and can hopefully improve on their year last year. Their basketball team has almost all the same starters coming back and will hopefully be less raw and better. Sonicsgate's success and Gary Payton's recent comments leave us hope as far as getting a team back is concerned. While we as Seattle sports fans have overall led a miserable existence, it has at least been fairly short and we have had some great teams to watch for all of our major teams. And id our teams being bad is the worst thing in our lives, then things are pretty good aren't they? At least I'm not avoiding making plans to watch the Mariners as much as I had anticipated for the summer.