Bring it on, baseball gods

FRIDAY, SEPT. 5, 2025 — The Mariners will play the first of three games in Atlanta today. Now the Braves are 63-77, the third-worst record in the National League. They have lost five of seven.

I’m not sure any of that matters as much as the fact that the game is being played in Atlanta, and the Mariners have become utterly incapable of winning anywhere other than Seattle.

A rational explanation for this would point to the fact that in spite of its sterling reputation, Seattle’s pitching staff hasn’t really been that good this year. In fact, it has been worse than most people realize not just because of the aforementioned reputation but because Seattle plays its home games in what is considered to be one of the most pitcher-friendly parks in the league. The quality of Seattle’s pitching—or more accurately its lack thereof—has been laid bare on the road.

Of course, I tend to view the Mariners through a slightly less rational framework.

I believe their struggles to be a challenge from on high, and in that way, I would say I feel very much like Lieutenant Dan in “Forrest Gump” the night that Hurricane Carmen came sweeping through.

Now it’s very possible that you don’t recall this particular scene. In fact, I’ve found that some people harbor some hostility toward this movie.

I, however, have always enjoyed it.

Lieutenant Dan—played by Gary Sinise—is the character whose life was saved by Forrest during the Vietnam War. Lieutenant Dan loses his legs, and in the years after the war, becomes angry and resentful, feeling he was denied his destiny of dying in the battlefield while fighting for his country.

It’s more than nihilism that has taken hold. Lieutenant Dan is actively angry at the world, and when a tropical storm comes besieges the shrimp boat he’s working with Forrest, he becomes defiant, sitting atop the mast, an American flag behind him as he shakes his fist at the heavens.

At the risk of being overly dramatic, that’s kind of how I feel about the baseball gods right now.

Is this it? You call this misery?

Because as a Mariners fan, this feels kind of like Tuesday. Seattle has made the playoffs five times in 50 years of existence so I know I can endure a little bit of suffering.

And maybe there’s a small ray of hope in my stupid cinematic reference. You remember what it was like for Forrest and Lieutenant Dan after the hurricane, right?

Shrimping was easy, and they wound up with more money than Davy Crockett.