Win or stay home

I should not be as excited for Friday’s Mariners game as I am.

Seattle is facing Tarik Skubal, who’s only the best pitcher in the American League, in the final and deciding game of the AL Divisional Series.

Winner advances, loser is out and while the Mariners have won each of the three games Skubal has started against them this year, that would be the perfect prelude to being absolutely dominated if you believe in things like “The Most Mariners Way to Lose a Must-Win Game.”

I, however, do not believe in “The Most Mariners Way to Lose a Must-Win Game.”

I believe that that hope not only float, but it springs eternal. I once saw this team win 116 regular-season games. I watched the Seahawks come back in that NFC Championship Game against the Packers. I saw Trent Dilfer win a Super Bowl as a starting quarterback, and while that might not mean much to the folks in Seattle, it does to the people in Aptos, Calif., where I went to high school.

Today, I am insisting on a level of general optimism. I’m not only hoping for the best, but I’m summarily refusing to indulge in worst-case scenarios.

Yes, I realize that the Washington Huskies are playing on a Friday night, five days after they came roaring back to erase a 20-point deficit at Maryland. I also understand Rutgers is coming off a bye. I’m just not inclined to worry too much about all that.

The Huskies got their offense fixed in the second half at Maryland, and if Rutgers gave up 28 points to Iowa (!!!!) then I think Washington can manage at least 40 on Friday night at Husky Stadium.

As for the Seahawks? Well they’ve still got the skidmarks from where Baker Mayfield rolled over them that last week, and they’re going on the road to play against the 4-1 Jags, who are 4-1 and coming off a stirring victory over Kansas City.

But that game was played on Monday night, which means the Jags have a short week. Also, that was an emotional comeback victory, and if you’re thinking to yourself that those are the exact two facts that I outright dismissed when it came to the Huskies, well, now you’re beginning to catch on.

I’m not just choosing to see the glass as half full, I expect it to be followed by an ice cream sundae and while I’m not sure this is realistic, I will tell you that it is pretty fun.

When faced with my unbridled optimism, Mitch Levy wondered if I might experience pleasure in pain. He mentioned the word masochism when I talked to him on Thursday for his podcast, Mitch Unfiltered.

He is expecting to be in agony for every pitch of Friday’s game, and he wonders why we would choose to put ourselves through such an ordeal.

“That’s how you know you’re alive,” I countered.

That uncertainty that flutters in your stomach. The fact that the outcome is totally unknown and as much time as we spend trying analyze how good a team is or isn’t, to anticipate what may or may not occur, that may not have any bearing what Friday’s game has in store for Tarik Skubal, the Seattle Mariners or any of us really.

I’m not dreading this. I’m excited. Let’s go.

Stanford receives $50 million donation | By Pete Thamel, ESPN.com

Giving money so your school can get better players used to get a program put on probation or — in the case of SMU — shut down entirely.

Now? It gets you fawning coverage on the most heavily trafficked sports Web site in the country. ESPN.com literally quoted Andrew Luck from a press release the school sent out announcing that a rich guy had given the football program $50 million to spend as it wished.

The fact that some rich folks get their rocks off by using their money to attract better football talent is hardly new. What is new is characterizing this act as if it were philanthropy.

Funding college football programs is most definitely NOT philanthropy, and while I’m not going to say that is wrong, I’m not willing to say it’s good, either. Unless that rich person is cutting a check to the University of Washington, and which case, he is a selfless hero and a saint whom I will forever regard in high esteem.

Even then, it would make me laugh to read a fawning story about that donation on ESPN, a supposedly neutral reporter quoting a press release and functioning like a megaphone for what amounts to a fundraising drive.

Current: “Ozark Dogs” | By Eli Cranor

It’s a crime thriller set in Arkansas in which Jeremiah, a Vietnam vet and junkard proprietor, has to untangle his family’s messy history as he tries to retrieve his granddaughter from a ruthless band of white supremacist hillbillies. This is the first book I’ve read by Cranor, a former college quarterback, whose newest book is “Mississippi Blue 42.” Thats definitely going on my reading list.

Last week: “The Running Man” | By Stephen King

This is the first of King’s books that I’ve read. This is surprising because I don’t have a negative opinion of either his persona or his work. Horror has never been my jam, though. I read this in anticipation of the movie that’s coming out next month, and I must say, I found it delightfully subversive albeit very, very dark. If it was written today, it would be considered a scathing satire of reality TV. The fact it was written 40 years ago makes it … somewhat prescient.

“Good Boy” | Directed by Ben Leonberg, starring Indy

Again, horror movies are not my jam. However, this one is different. It’s different because it’s told from the perspective of a dog. The dog’s name is Indy both in the film and in real life. Indy has a serious demeanor, a cute white stripe that runs between his eyes and down his snoot. Indy is the director’s actual dog, and the footage for the movie was shot over a span of three years.

It’s a super creative film that will resonate deeply with anyone who has a dog, has had a dog or has any sort of affinity toward dogs.

I whole-heartedly recommend the film with one warning: I cried quite intensely toward the end of the film for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with anything that happens to the dog.