Since we're now officially cursed, here's the name for it

[DavidGee24]

I don't really remember Mendoza

Before your time. He was our shortstop in 1979 - 1980 and he was AWFUL. Minus 2.3 WAR and OPS of .511 in those two seasons. The story goes that Tom Paciorek and Bruce Bochte were talking to George Brett who was in a slump and one of them told Brett that his batting average was about to drop below "The Mendoza Line". Brett relayed that to Chris Berman in an interview and a glorious term was born.

[DavidGee24]

Back to curses....you can NOT have a team where the batting order has 3 through 6

Griffey Junior
Edgar
A Rod
Buhner

Joey Cora, Roberto Kelly, Sorrento, Wilson and Blowers weren't nobodies themselves!

A starting staff of
Randy Johnson
Jamie Moyer
Jeff Fassero

And lose a series to Baltimore 3 games to 1 where you lose the first two games 9 - 3

Having all of those guys we had in the late 90s and pissing away so many opportunities? That group only made the playoffs in 95 and 97!? What the actual fuck. THAT is the curse....pissing away what, four Hall of Famers on the team at the same fucking time? I realize A Fraud won't make the Hall, but it won't be because he didn't put up Hall of Fame numbers!

Amazing, isn't it? That great run in 1995, and the team somehow failed to make the playoffs in 1996, 1998 and 1999 despite having a Murderer's Row of hitters. Problem is, we'd only have maybe two good starting pitchers at a time and just about the worst bullpen in baseball. 1997 was the forgotten postseason, almost like it never even happened. Mike Mussina shut our guys down twice, just like the Indians' pitchers did in 1995.

I really believe to this day that if we'd re-signed Randy Johnson we still would have ended up with most of our other players like Ichiro and Bret Boone (and maybe Junior would have stayed, although we did well with Mike Cameron) and won at least one pennant. That guy at early SafeCo Field would have been unhittable.

[DavidGee24]

Very true, it is because the vast majority of sports fans are very passionate and thus appreciate outwardly passionate managers and HCs. I think most fans would love the Blue Jays manager far more than SS or Wilson.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised, Wilson was a shitty postseason player (8-88 career including an MLB record 0-42 streak which will never be broken) and now he's a shitty postseason manager. Funny that if Scott Servais was still our manager we probably would be getting ready for our first World Series.

[Sibelius Hindemith]

Yeah the curse has been...

George Argyros

In 1981, Argyros bought the Seattle Mariners for $13 million. He proclaimed upon getting the team that "patience is for losers". In his tenure, the team never had a winning season or finished higher than 4th place in the American League West, with his lack of action in spending money being cited as the reason for the team never rising out of the cellar.
.....
In 1986, now with a new tone of saying that patience is for winners, Argyros managed to come to an end of a two-year standoff with the Seattle community over the lease agreement for the Kingdome. It led to an addition of an escape clause that would let the Mariners try to break the lease if they do not average 1.4 million in attendance in the next two years or annually sell 10,000 season tickets (they had sold 3,950 in 1985). This clause would be cited in a battle of ownership sale of the team six years later.
.....
In the 1987 MLB Draft, it was Argyros that had to be convinced to draft Ken Griffey Jr with the first pick, as he wanted California native Mike Harkey. Gradually, general management convinced him to go with Griffey, who ended up becoming the first Mariner star.

Jeff Smulyan

In 1989, Smulyan with partners (including Letterman), purchased the Seattle Mariners from George Argyros for $75 million. Smulyan held the largest interest and contributed $35 million while the remainder was contributed by Morgan Stanley ($20 million); other investors ($5 million); and the remainder via bank financing. In three years as owner, the Mariners, mired in perpetual mediocrity, continued that run despite attempts to promote the team. Smulyan later stated that it came down due to how they underestimated the state of the team and the perception of the city towards the team that he felt was "cynical." Once, at a gathering of accountants in nearby Tacoma, Smulyan talked to a fan of the Seattle Seahawks who said he was surprised that the Mariners also played at the Kingdome.
.....
Smulyan, who became somewhat of a pariah in the town, put the team up for sale in 1991, hoping to break an escape clause that could mean he would sell for a high price over $100 million; the league privately pushed for a move to Tampa. Through the efforts of a local attorney, Art Harrigan, who successfully argued that the escape clause did not apply in relation to timing that kept the price at $100 million, and Senator Slade Gorton, a group of local buyers, headlined by Nintendo of America, bought the team. Smulyan said he did not meet with the prospective buyers before the sale was approved by other baseball owners.

Hiroshi Yamauchi

He helped keep the team in Seattle with his generous majority contribution to the ownership bid by the Baseball Club of Seattle, but never attended a game or showed any interest in how the Mariners fared on the field.

John Stanton

Became majority owner after Yamauchi's death in 2013 and only seems to care about marketing and profitability.

[Michael K.]

Yep, cursed by dogshit ownership.

[bhofferb]

Its interesting to me and I'm not trying to stir a pot but I don't believe I've ever seen anything ever disparaging about Lou with any of that. If SS or Wilson were managing those teams they would get lynched from a street light on Royal Brougham way

Different time...no social media, not as much talk radio, etc. Lou took a lot of heat for his use of pitchers. But I remember back in those days? Most fans expected the players to perform, and when they didn't? The players got called out. Now? You put a pitcher in a spot to do his job, he leaves one over the white, and millions of people on X scream that the manager is an idiot. Stop throwing the ball over the white.

Dan fucked up Monday, I really believe that.

• Took out Kirby too soon
  Had JP out of position after the leadoff walk in the 7th. Why the fuck was he nowhere near the six hole on that ground ball?
  Bazardo was a bizare move to say the least
  ZERO chance you pitch to Springer there

Otherwise?
We lost because J Rod grounded into a double play right in front of Cal, to end an inning. Even one out, iirc, would have meant two on for Cal. Cal hits a solo shot to lead off the next inning.
We lost because we can't generate base runners, and live by the long ball. Solo HRs don't usually win LCS's.
We lost because stars like Vlad and Springer came through in big moments and our guys didn't. J Rod striking out on an at bat where the pitchers threw six balls? Horrible.
We lost because Rivas was an absolute liability at the plate on Monday, but thanks to the fact that Robles, Canzone and just about every other option to take at bats was worse? So Rivas goes to 2nd and Polanco DHs.

Everyone talks about how long the Blue Jays lineup was. Well? That was what we talked about with this lineup AFTER the deadline. Maybe the Jays having -

$255,230,405 in total payroll and
$160,519,283 in active payroll
allows them to have a deeper lineup than a Mariner team with

$164,346,493 in total payroll and
$128,918,817 in active?

Hate to beat a dead horse, but what teams besides the two in New York are thinking they might have OVERSPENT? What makes us think it might change? 11th in payroll got us a few outs from the WS. I expect Dipotto to double down, and I expect a first half of the season very much as frustrating as this one was. The only curse is a cheap ownership group.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/_/year/2025

Great post brother! Especially taking the Payroll numbers out 9 digits!!!

Totally agree. Rotation is set. Sign another bum for $1,125,694 to replace Turd Ferguson your big trade deadline BP addition. Sign Solano's great Grand Pappi to platoon with Raley at 1B and put Ben at 3B hyping his PCL stat and Young at 2B saying he is so Young and prospect progression isn't linear. Robles and Canzone platoon in RF and there ya go. There's your OD roster.

Sadly you are probably right, and the result will be a .500 team. Jerry’s probably practicing his excuses already…

[DavidGee24]

Yeah the curse has been...

George Argyros

In 1981, Argyros bought the Seattle Mariners for $13 million. He proclaimed upon getting the team that "patience is for losers". In his tenure, the team never had a winning season or finished higher than 4th place in the American League West, with his lack of action in spending money being cited as the reason for the team never rising out of the cellar.
.....
In 1986, now with a new tone of saying that patience is for winners, Argyros managed to come to an end of a two-year standoff with the Seattle community over the lease agreement for the Kingdome. It led to an addition of an escape clause that would let the Mariners try to break the lease if they do not average 1.4 million in attendance in the next two years or annually sell 10,000 season tickets (they had sold 3,950 in 1985). This clause would be cited in a battle of ownership sale of the team six years later.
.....
In the 1987 MLB Draft, it was Argyros that had to be convinced to draft Ken Griffey Jr with the first pick, as he wanted California native Mike Harkey. Gradually, general management convinced him to go with Griffey, who ended up becoming the first Mariner star.

Argyros owns the building where my firm rents my office space. I saw him in the parking lot one day several years ago talking with some people. Probably was arguing "Why should I buy an office building in Newport Beach when I can buy one in Barstow?"