I am a huge sports fan.  I love baseball the best.  I have been a Seattle Mariner fan since I went to my first game in May of 1977.  When I was 17, I was lucky enough to work across the street from the Kingdome.  This meant that I could go watch batting pratice and the game for $3.00 a night (I think).  That was after getting some fast food for dinner.  During that summer, I probably watched 20 games and amazing enough, I had a winning record even if the Mariners did not. 

From 1977 to 1990 the Mariner's had loosing record.  But then a Miracle happened in 1991 - They finished the season above .500.  Only by 4 games, but I didn't care.  They had finally had a winning season.  The next few seasons they would go back and forth to be just above .500 to just below .500.  In 1995, the miracle happened.  Mariners not only had a winning season, but made the play offs for the first time.  They also won their first Division Title.  This was an exciting year, especially for fans like myself.  Then in 1997 they won another Division Title.  2000 they entered the play offs as the wild card team. 

In 2001, a lot of people became Seattle Mariner fans.  This was the year that they tied the Season Win record.  I loved this season.  For once, the Mariners could hardly do anything wrong.  Unfortunately, they did not make it past the first series in the Play offs.  But I will forever remember this season.  In 2002 and 2003, the Mariners once again had  winning seasons, but did not make the play offs.

For the past 3 seasons, the Mariners have had bad years.  They have shreded the 2001 team.  At the beginning of this season there were  only 2 players still left, Ichiro Suzuki and Jamie Moyer (who was traded to Philadelphia on Saturday).  The Mariners just finished up an 11 game road trip to the other American West Division cities.  They lost all 11 games.   It is obvious that the Mariners have no chance of getting to the play offs, but they might have just gotten rid of their posiblity for a winning season. 

It is the distruction of a team that has put the Mariners back into the cellar of the American League West.  There have been comments that the Mariners are trying to create a team for the future, but I really have to wonder if this could possibly be true given their previous trade of  Shin-Soo Choo to the Indians.   At this point, I will watch the remaining games, but I will be looking forward to the 2007 season and pray that we still have Ichiro next year.