At the risk of diverting some of this blog’s attention away from presidential politics, I’d like to say that Seattle is not a baseball town. Not yet.
It’s easy to look like a baseball town when you’re team wins 116 games, but not so easy when you are out of it by June. How Mariners fans deal with this slump (and it could be a long slump with the Mariners' big stars becoming senior citizens soon) will determine if this town really is a baseball town as advertised.
I won’t get into what the Mariners need to improve (hitting, pitching and a bullpen in no particular order), but as the team heads for a dreaded “rebuilding year,” I have to wonder why Mariner fans are begging Bud Selig to bring the Expos to Portland. Portland is being considered as a home for the soon-to-be-former Expos and it could only help Seattle baseball.
First of all, it would even out the American League West to five teams. More importantly, it would finally give the Ms a rival. All baseball teams need a rival -- just look at what it does for the Yankees and Red Sox or the Cardinals and Cubs. Seattle and Portland have a built-in city rivalry that would instantly make a Seattle Mariners, Portland Expos (or Environmetalists, my choice for the team's new name) match up a classic.
Plus, the Northwest is the only region, depending on how you want to draw the lines, that has one baseball team. And they are seriously thinking about giving another ball team to the East Coast. Come on!
As for me, I’ll be watching my Tigers sweep the Mariners this weekend. And then eating these words come Monday.
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