A Mariner isn't meant to live their whole life on the sea; it's a transient lifestyle. Eventually, you have to get off the ship. Homesickness is a requirement of the job.
All those movies and documentaries and books and people who say baseball is life... this is the team where a person can learn that. And they learn what's really important, no matter how much they love the game or think it's the most important thing to them... and this doc even missed some examples. Loved your comment, if that wasn't obvious.
This is exactly what I love about baseball. 30 teams playing 162 games, averaging about 38 plate appearances per team, means that the improbable becomes not only likely but inevitable purely by virtue of sample size.
i'm a prokaryote from a subsurface ocean on ganymede. before i watched this documentary i wasn't even able to comprehend concepts like "seattle" and "baseball", because i wasn't sentient. now i am a lifelong diehard mariners fan for life. thank you so much jon.
"This is like something a Sim would do. In literally riding out of the clubhouse on a bicycle, he seamlessly and immediately reassigned himself from baseball player to cyclist. Amazing. Spectacular. I'm in awe." Me too.
As a Sims player regularly floored by the bike-related choices the sims make-especially when it comes to spontaneous indoors riding-can confirm Jon’s simile is accurate. I’m in awe, as well!
@@glenbard07 and who couldn't love them for that. Thanks dorktown for what i can only imagine is a TREMENDOUS amount of work producing this 6 parter. Take the rest of the day off. That's an order! ;-)
@@jessebrierley8384 I'm afraid you have missed the lesson that the Seattle Mariners have taught us. There is no theme to their story. A constant mediocrity would be in complete opposition of what it is to be the Mariners. They are a team of unprecedentedly exhilarating highs followed by heartbreaking lows. You can never tell what they will do next.
My only disappointment with this wonderful series is they didn't mention Griffey's last hit which was a walk-off pinch-hit single to complete a 9th inning comeback against the Blue Jays. The team mobbed him. I was at the game and it was extraordinary. Of course we didn't realize that it was his last hit and RBI until we heard the news a few days later that he was driving home to Florida. I know your comment was referring to Junior's drive home as a walk-off, but his last hit was a literal walk-off.
@@Prince_Luci Adding a link to his last hit for anybody that doesn't remember. Why in the world wasn't this part of SB Nation's history of the franchise? th-cam.com/video/J5C9FWBrJ9E/w-d-xo.html
@@Tsnappy Thanks for the link. You would think with a 3h 40 minute runtime something this important to the Mariners history. Instead we get a full minute of Jon shilling for A-Fraud's HOF case.
Now, they have to break the drought of actually winning a playoff game. A long way to go before breaking the playoff losing streak though, which (I think) is still the one started with Bill Buckner and running through three straight series sweeps, to get to 13 in a row.
This team is ready to go IMHO. They were so close this last season and will have the ability to add to the team this season. Young and lots of talent! I doubt they are gonna' regress!
41:52 "For whatever reason, in true Edgar fashion, he peaked late. And in his final year of eligibility he was voted into the Hall of Fame." Gets me every single time.
I watched this series in real time as it was being released, and I read comments people were making that it was making them cry. That was the line that finally broke me, and the tears did fall.
I went to my gear bag and picked up a baseball after watching that, just to remind myself how it feels to baseball baseballs baseballingly with a baseball. Also, I could throw this ball further than Ibañez in this video and not damage anything in my very average size house
Ahh yes, the baseball. The ball of baseball. The ball used to play the bat and ball game, baseball. In a game of baseball, the baseball is the ball used. What was I throwing to 1st base again?
Jon Bois videos are basically the most incredible storytelling that always ends with the message: 'Sports is stupid. Everything is stupid and that's beautiful." He's like sports Kierkegaard.
I’ll never be able to get past the beginning of this video without tearing up. The image of Junior driving all alone, just to get home, as everything in his past flashes by, just gets me. All the while you’re reminded of everything he brought to this franchise, his talent, his star power, his work against the Yankees, his happiness, god, his happiness, this icon gets a goodbye from no one. He drives alone, as if invisible, yet he radiates joy. He could be bitter and angry at Seattle or frustrated with his own mortality, but when he calls Senior, he can only focus on how happy he is to be coming home. He spent years and years in absolute nowhere, creating an empire out of dust with nothing but his raw ability, experienced the worst tribulations an athlete in his position could ever endure, came back years later to make a home there, only to be lonelier than ever while his family lives on the exact opposite side of the country. He made all of this. Twenty years of his life dedicated to this sport, twenty years with his name and the Mariners name existing in union. Everything you see here exists because of Ken Griffey jr. You could look at this drive as an escape from the horrible place that kept him there all these years, but it’s clear he doesn’t think of it that way. Just look at him. He’s not happy to be free of Seattle. He’s just happy to finally, after 21 years, be going home.
@Not Jan Actually Roger Szomdis is still alive today at age 77 and currently resides in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He moved from Washington to Pennsylvania sometime after the 70’s.
I'm just a russian guy who have never ever watched a single baseball game, but thx to this series i think i've become a mariner. A piece of art, really.
@Егор Мамонтов I live in Seattle and have been a Mariner Fan since their first game in 1977. WELCOME To the Mariner Club! /cheers! SB Nation is a work of art, I agree. I thank them for this series, it is a great series.
I'm just a Brazilian guy who have also never watches one single inning of the baseball game, and mow i'm a mariner too. It's the better sports documentary i have ever seen!
Other People: The Last Dance is the greatest sports documentary of all time. Me: I'm not even 100% sure what a World Series is and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that SB Nation's Mariners series has made me feel more feelings than any movie or TV show or movie I have ever seen.
Felix Hernandez looked torched after the 2019 season. Everyone said he had nothing left in the tank. I’m sure he thought so too. The Mariners certainly did, failing to so much as offer their longtime ace a minor league deal. You know who didn’t? The Atlanta Braves. The same Atlanta Braves that gave Lonnie Smith one last shot to prove himself at the age of 33 and watched him pummel the league’s pitching in 1989 with 8.8 WAR. The same Atlanta Braves that took a 1 year flyer on the ghost of Josh Donaldson and saw him become elite again at age 33. The Atlanta Braves signed 33-year old Felix Hernandez in February 2020 to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. On March 10, 2020, Felix was given the mound for a spring training start versus the Boston Red Sox. For 5 innings, he looked like the old Felix. Sure, the fastball didn’t have as much fast on it and his curveball didn’t have as much curve, but he kept up. When the dust settled after his 5 innings of work, he had 6 strikeouts and only a single earned run. It was the best he’d looked in a long time, and it was not an aberration. Through 13.2 innings of work, he had a 1.98 ERA. I know it’s spring training, and I know sometimes you end up wacky levels of competition and weird strings of good or bad luck in small sample sizes. But if Felix was going to make a comeback, he sure as shit picked the right team to do it with. All seemed to be going well, with Felix even appearing to be the favorite for the #5 spot in the Braves rotation, until the world came crashing down, and baseball along with it. Maybe he can come back whenever baseball does too. Maybe if next season is played in full, he’ll keep it up. But maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. Baseball has a funny way of working out. Maybe it just wasn’t supposed to work out for the one who we wanted it to work out for the most. So maybe we don’t need to worry about what could have been. Let’s just be glad that we got what we got, because it’s more than enough.
It sure would have been nice to find out. I'm a Yankees fan and have always respected King Felix. This season being canceled will make for a long summer.
Not really. They didn't have the pitching in 95 to be considered a complete team. There is a reason Johnson was used in relief in the playoffs. They had no pitching depth.
Over 4 hours about the Mariners and I was hanging on every word. I now wish the year was 2030 so I could have one more episode!! This from a guy in Ohio that doesn't really care about baseball.
Same i dont watch sports ever found this channels late last night i have binged. I suggest watching the larry bird stuff it blew my mind i cant believe he did that in so much pain i cant even play my xbox im hurtin so bad dudes are different class of men
@@jgvtc559 DUDE! You got it easy! Those of us that were here from the beginning suffered an excruciating wait for each new episode, and there you are swooping in at the end with a vulture binge. Well played sir! Welcome to the channel, enjoy your stay. I forgot the name of Jon and Kofi's series but I think that's due for a new episode (there was a basketball episode where the WHOLE NBA they drafted only 40 overalls and had to play as them, 0-16 2008 Detroit Lions [2 parter], I think there was a golf course they designed - much like Breaking Madden) time to crack the whip on that! (Fumble Dimension!)
@@Omegaman18 honestly, it was a deal that kind of made sense for the Mets. Everyone will remember it as the Cano trade but it was the Diaz trade and the mets just kind of had to take Cano's contract. If Diaz wasnt such a monumental disaster then it doesnt look terrible in hindsight. The Mets need to stay away from AL West closers. Last time they signed K Rod as a free agent and had to give up their first round pick to the Angels.... And yes i know the pick wss Randal Grichuk and Trout was picked with the Yankees draft pick next but its been said they only picked Grichuk ahead of trout for money reasons and if they didnt have both picks Trout would have been the pick.
@@Posirep It made sense for the Mets aka it was going to be another trade where the Mets get a disappointing past their prime hall of famer for way too much so that their cheap owners end up letting their young talent walk away in free agency because they dont want to pay up. I liked it at the time, but I dont make the decisions and maybe management should learn from their predecessors mistakes. Stop eating money and refusing to spend it when actually needed.
@@Omegaman18 like i said. That trade was for Diaz. We forget that in 2018 Diaz had one of the greatest closer seasons ever and hes young and under control for years. But in order to get that the mets had to give up young talent AND take a guy past his prime with a big contract...which was Cano. I didnt like giving up Kelenic but the Mets had bullpen issues and my thought at the time is the mets just got the best closer in baseball and hes only 24. If Diaz was anything close to his 2017 and 2018 self this trade isnt as bad as it looks now...and who knows, maybe he bounces back still....OR hes a guy that can dominate the league when noone is paying attention like he did out in Seattle, and not be able to handle New York
Ok, so to put it simple: The Mariners are the humanification as a team. When they just have to leave, they leave as a human would do. They celebrate themselves as if the team was human and the fans are in on it. If you leave kind of midway through something, they forgive you, because they understand human struggles and dont punish you for it. It is just soooo beautiful to see this. There arent many teams with fanbases that would do this in this exceptional way.
You have no idea how much I LOVE this comment. I have been a lifelong Ms fan and that’s such a good way to put it. As Jon said in the Doc, sports isn’t just about endless conquest. There’s a deeper meaning to be found that’s so much more powerful and beautiful.
The joke is inevitable: "Hey, this was a Pretty Good documentary, you guys!" But this transcends even the goofiest of Jon jokes. This was a work of art. This is THE greatest sports documentary I've ever seen, and, from a Giants fan who spent his Oregon elementary school years catching the Mariners on TV, it touches you deep within the heart. This was incredible. A true magnum opus (but I wouldn't be surprised to see it topped one day). Just amazing work!
As a Seattle kid who moved to the SF Bay area, I just don't think people in other places understand northwest sports. I'm still perplexed by how Dodgers fans hate the Giants, or Warriors fans the Lakers. Inevitably at a Mariners game, you'd be sitting next to fans from Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Hawaii, Alaska.. it all felt like one big family. It wasn't about *your* team versus *their* team, it was about the pride and shared experience of an entire region.
@@reidconti that's tantamount to not understanding how everyone in Washington state can rally around the Seahawks but people in NY argue about Giants/Jets. Pretty easy to explain... None of the places you mentioned in PNW have a rival team in closer proximity they can geographically identify with... Hawaii on other hand is a mixed bag of Seahawks/9ers/Raiders/Rams fans. But if you go to a bar to watch a hawks game naturally it will bring out the hawks fans
Timothy But sometimes those tight games keep everything focused. Maybe the Mariners score 5 or 6 runs, maybe the focus on that task is lost for a batter or 3 ???
@@TheAuck In my MLB 14 The Show franchise (which I'm still rockin') I once pitched 11 perfect innings only to lose it in the 12th (all with the same pitcher). I did manage to still win the game in the 13th, but man I suck at hitting in that game :D
As a lifelong Mariner fan this series has meant so much to me. When people ask why I bother to root for the Mariners the easy answer is I grew up near Seattle, but that's not the whole truth. Something about this team has always captivated me through the ups and downs in such ways that it is often hard to put into words. The highs seem higher than they really are and the lows seem so low that you almost have to commend them. This series has finally been able to show me what I haven't been able to tell people my entire life. The relationship this team has with it's fans, players, and the record books is so fascinating that it goes beyond just winning and losing. I feel like a point I have been trying to make for 15 years without success was just made for me. Thank you guys for this series I cried during it more times than I'd like to admit.
"Nothing is achieved, nothing is taught, nothing is learned. Things are only meaningful as long as we decide they are." Two years ago, I knew nothing about baseball. Now, I think about little else. Thanks for ruining my life, Jon.
I'm a Red Sox fan. I never cared for the Mariners before this series. This was a Masterpiece beginning to end. I cried multiple times in this episode. This made quarantine so much better. Thank you Jon
As a Seattle fan this was kinda tough to watch. I’ve never seen them make the playoffs not once. And watching Felix deteriorate and Ichiro leave were some of the saddest moments as a fan of this team
Trygve 001 Same. I’ve been a fan of this team for all 16 years of my life. Its sad. Seattle sports are hard in a way like no other. I used to be a sonics fan too.
Trygve 001 yeah man I live in Idaho but I’m only about five hours from Seattle so when I first started playing and watching baseball the first great players I watched on TV was Ichiro and Felix. They inspired me to play baseball and I loved watching the mariners, even when they’d be losing 90 games a year. As a fan now I’ll be very happy when they finally reach the playoffs but a part of me will always wish I got to see Ichiro and Felix play in the playoffs for Seattle. It’s hard being an M’s fan but I’ll always be a fan for life
My mom divorced my dad when I was 3. For ten years I visited my dad every summer in Washington. Now, I live in Utah where professional baseball is limited to an Angels minor league team. Every year during the summer I would go to Washington, a small town called North Bend about 30 minutes East of Seattle. Going to my dad's house was never easy for various reasons, but there is one thing I will always remember about those trips that make me smile. My dad would take me to a Mariners game. We never got good seats, but I didn't care, the atmosphere made me so happy, in those tough times, it made me smile. I remember chanting Rauuuuuuuullllll in 2013 when Ibanez would step up to the plate.I remember seeing King Felix mow past batters. I remember odd endings like a game-winning pick off at second when the opposite team's runner tried to steal before the pitcher even entered his motion. The smell of the iconic garlic fries from Safeco field is burned into my nose. I remember standing at the base of that incredible building, looking up at its sheer magnitude and beauty. I was too young to really follow sports at the time, so I didn't know how bad the Mariners really were, but to me, it didn't matter. I would go to those games and cheer like it was the World Series every time. I've never really been a true Mariners fan, my preference has always lied with the Giants, but because of those Mariners games, they've always held a special place for me. Sometimes in sports, it's not about winning, it's about bringing people together.
ive only ever been to one mariners game in my life, but ive lived about 2 hours away from seattle my entire life. i dont follow baseball and haven't until about a year ago when (curse you adhd) i was suddenly obsessed with the history of baseball. i used to go to the local Bears games with my family as a kid- they were terrible and we loved them. i was one of the few kids who went, so they had games on the field for us before the game started. races against the mascot (that we always won) or trying to put on frozen clothes (that us kids never won.) I still have an old kid's bat and a backpack from them, even long after the team was traded away. That mariners game felt like those old minor league games- i do not care who wins, i dont know most of your names, and i'm mostly here for a hot dog and delicious garlic fries. but it's *fun* and it doesn't matter if you know what's happening or not. hopefully when the world stops burning i'll take my friends to a game, and we can all cheer just because the people around us are.
All I can say, I'm on a semester abroad in New Zealand and have been stuck in student accommodations during the country's lockdown. I'll forever remember this documentary series as what helped me get through it. It gave me my baseball fix. This series was something to look forward to when the streets were empty. This is the work of legends, packaged in a beautiful way.
I've lived in Seattle for most of my life but never really had an appreciation for the Mariners until now. They were always an ambient presence in my life and I understood that they made their fans upset but I never understood what it meant to be a Mariners Fan until now. It's sitting on the edge of my bed at 1:45 in the morning nearly in tears. I finally understand.
I felt like crying many times and actually cried like a baby when Edgar Martinez hit the home run to save the Mariners And I don't even know how to play baseball
Well when the Nationals won the series the Mariners became the last team to not appear in a world series. Instead of "Who gives a shit" he should have said "Nuff said".
As a lifelong Mariners fan, I can’t thank you guys enough for this. When people ask about my team it’s hard to explain WHY we continue to suffer. This team has something, it’s just extraordinarily hard to see at times. This is the best baseball series I’ve ever seen and I can’t believe it’s on my team. Thanks guys!
I got the strangest feeling from this, because while I almost never sat through 9 innings of Mariners past the age of 16 I always followed either intentionally through radio or news, or passively through a car trip where we could listen to a game, or seeing the front page in newspaper boxes. Watching this was like walking through a dream with brief periods of lucidity.
Agreed, but its also beautiful in the way Griffey was Griffey. To me it seemed that It wasn't about Money, World Series or Even fame. with Griffey, It was about heart. When his heart told him he needed to go to his family, he followed it.
@@SynapseNervosa That is large part of the reason he was so loved. He is an icon of a player who played out of pure passion for the game. When the flame of passion went out, so did his career, money be dammed.
Yeah the 2010 team they put around Griffey was a disaster. Jack Zduriencik tried replacing Adrian Beltre with an aging Chone Figgins He relied too highly on veterans past their prime like Griffey, Eric Byrnes, Mike Sweeney, and Jack Wilson. And relied too highly on the young players as well, plus almost had nothing at catcher going into the year. It was shocking that guy lasted 5 more years as our GM.
It's 2022, and Seattle has made the playoffs. If my Angels can't win, I hope that Seattle and her people can conquer the waves this season. Best of luck, Mariners. I deeply hope you can do it.
As a Mariners fan, that wasn't born in the glory days, never saw Griffeys beautiful swing, never witnessed Randy force his will onto the enemy team or Edgar bomb a ball into the stands, let me tell you, thanks for this Documentary, that puts into words why I love this franchise that in my lifetime hasn't been to the playoffs and still produces so many great moments of fandom and love, the Mariners might be a bad team, but they are a great franchise! In the end, who cares about baseball when you can just enjoy sport and its people.
@@uruiamnot Your reply suggests to me that you are not from Seattle. In which case, you don't understand that loving Seattle is a LOT like loving the Mariners. There's lots there (for instance, rainy and damp weather, and ridiculously crowded freeways) that many despise. And we Seattleites wave goodbye and nod in understanding. We get it. But we love Seattle, and the Mariners, anyway. (I don't live there any more, but I still love it.) So, in the end, you have said something deep and meaningful, though I'm not sure you intended to.
@@jgischer Very funny reply. I'm glad it got a rise in someone, even to this level of particularity and peculiarity. My long-term story arc of sports fanaticism is that it is virtually always a geographically-centered enterprise, much as rooting for your favorite war-mongering conquerors of weak and insignificant peons is derived from loose geopolitical, dogmatic, and cultural influences, to say nothing of rooting for your national team out of pride and propaganda, locally known as _patriotism_ and constrained by the concomitant struggle to agree with one's peers versus the independent and cognitive fortitude it takes to appreciate foreign skill and aptitude, whether in the realm of war or team sports. Others just root for the underdog or are ambivalent to the whole concept of sportsmanship, being a prideful and menacingly troublesome reminder of marauding fools, pompous popes, and murdering thieves of the past and present, all in lock-step to the mantra of worldwide domination, clansmanship, and (in modern times,) the merchandising potential of standards, jerseys, flags, and memorabilia invented out of whole cloth to keep fanatics paying for their passion. I am of the later group. But I went to Seattle once.
The Mariners brought me to tears 3 times in 2019. Ichiro, Edgar, and Felix. That last quote is perfect. The Mariners reward you through their challenges.
The fact that they didn’t mention how Seattle in their best year ever still managed to blow a 14-2 lead in the 7th inning just shows how random they are
All they had to do was hold that insanely sizable lead and they would be the sole owners of the best record of all time in a season. But you know, Mariners.
As a sports fan who has lived their entire life in the Pacific Northwest, this is a beautiful gift I didn't know I could ask for. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, you awesome nerds.
7:05 I can't be the only one that heard that as "Tampa Bay Raisin Town" An incredible ending to an incredible series. Hard to believe it's over, but it's been an amazing ride.
DrChillbrain When I heard it, I had an instant where my brain desperately rearranged the letters for the words I’d just heard. Is Tampa bay known for raisins?
Another fun fact about Félixs’ home run: both Johan and him apart from being venezuelans played for the two biggest teams down here that also hate each other. Johan with the Leones del Caracas and Félix with the Navegantes del Magallanes. It is fair to say that grand slam made waves here in Venezuela and you can bet that Johan was really upset with that home run
The NHL Seattle expansion will be delayed by a crippling pandemic. The last Seattle hockey team, the Seattle Metropolitans, had their Stanley cup championship series cancelled by a crippling pandemic. EDIT: This is what is engraved on the Stanley Cup for the 1919 season. 1919 Montreal Canadiens Seattle Metropolitans Series Not Completed
"It requires a special brand of incompetence to take a season so special by a pitcher, yet not even have any inherent advantage in the ballgame when he's on the mound." Mets fans know this all too well...
@@douggoldwater1734 if you took the M's, added some playoff appearances, and changed the source of pain from existential to political -- that's the Mets!
All the reasons we're screwed up. Drug problems, Bernie Madoff, the Wilpons' internal cult of personality, fighting the City over ballparks and such, the papers, etc.
@@SimuLord Rick Reed was always solid tho considering he was literally a replacement player that managed to hang around once the real players came back.
They really are the Absurd Heroes of the MLB. Endlessly rolling the rock up the mountain each season. So close to glory many times yet still failing. But they still push that rock up each season, laughing in the face of their own absurd existence.
Fun Fact: In his youth, Camus played top level football in the Goalkeeper position. Apt right? IIRC he got Tuberculosis in his late teens which scuppered his potential career, so he went to university instead.
I was expecting Jon to say something along the lines of: "This exceptional man, Rodger Szmodis, as random, and eccentric, and ultimately irrelevant as the Mariners throughout their time, just happens to be... my father." *outro music*
This was the most beautiful thing I've ever watched. I'm 37 and I've never watched baseball. I've watched every Mariners game since restart. Also you should win a Grammy for best use of a free music library (?).
Just finished this series...and I have to say, its easily one of the most interesting, best things I've ever watched in my 37 years on this planet. Well done boys, you should be VERY proud of this.
I know I’m over 2 years late to the party and this comment will probably never see the light of day but I can’t express my appreciation enough for this series. I’ve followed this channel for many years (mostly for football and basketball related content) and have never seen a single baseball game start to finish but I eventually gave into my curiosity and decided to check out this series and by the end of the first episode I couldn’t wait to watch more. Endlessly fascinating and enthralling, it’s so great that you guys bring these stories (that would probably fall to the wayside otherwise and be forgotten about by anyone except diehard baseball fans) to light for outside people like myself to see. Nothing short of brilliance from the first second to the last and I’m incredibly excited to see what franchise will be fortunate enough to get this same treatment next.
Awww., this got me a little weepy. I was at that final 2014 game and there was that murmur in the crowd when the As won their game. But that moment of allowing the standing ovation for Felix, then one for Cano a bit later was a moment of true love for a team. We felt good about that season no matter what and it was a ton of fun games. If I remember right, I saw 10 in person and they won all 10 of those games. It's weird having no baseball this year...after the weirdness of last year's team, no one had a clue what to expect had 2020 not decided to be an asshole. But thank you for this series. Possibly one of the best sports documentaries I've ever seen.
“Brodie Van Wagenen. Do me a favor and remember that name for a minute” Jon idk what’s coming next in the video, but I think It’s going to involve breaking my fragile Mets heart.
Thank you guys so much for making this extraordinary, wonderful series. When I first moved to Seattle 12 years ago I hated the Mariners because of the rivalry with my beloved Indians in the mid to late 90s. I fell in love with this team within a couple years and I’m really happy that others now know the weird circumstances that led to us falling in love with the sports worlds most lovable losers. Please drop this on DVD! I will buy 14 copies.
"It appears likely to have been the greatest start of exactly 5 and 1/3 innings in the history of major league baseball." It's stuff like this that show why I love baseball and why I love Jon Bois.
I never written a comment on any TH-cam board for the obvious reasons. But, I felt unbelievably compelled to do so in regards to this video. And I'm by no means a sycophant, but, this creative team is truly talented. I loved the 'Barry Bonds without a bat' piece as well. This is by far one best Sports Docs ever. If your a Seattle sports fan (well, first god bless you) then you have to watch this six-part masterpiece. I always thought the Seattle Mariners were special, but, I could have never summed up the colossal waste of talent over the years. Nor did I know about the crazy stories that started this franchise. Thank Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein for culminating one of the most agonizing and original fan experience in all of sports in this beautiful docu-series.
I believe baseball to be the most intellectual professional sport. So many variables and facets determine the outcome of a game. And SB Nation does an amazing job of illustrating just that.
This series is pure magic. I am crying. Thank you so much for making this. It is beautiful and moving and sublime. I would call you all angels, but that feels wrong in this division. I am a historian by profession, and I hope someday I produce a work of history half this good. Maybe I need more charts. Anyway, live forever Jon, Alex, and Co.
MLGisNOTdead YoloSweg LITERALLYKillMe yeah, if there’s ever a year that the Mariners make the playoffs and the Yanks don’t, they’ll be my team for the playoffs
This is by far my favorite thing that Jon has touched, and i've watched everything he has produced. Thank you Jon and Alex for giving us this masterpiece of a series.
8:30 I appreciate that Felix Hernandez's pitching is complimented by the poster in the back: "The Mark of Linear Motion." Such a great series. I hope that the Mariners win it all someday.
More like 5 games before being Eliminated. Trust me. As a Mariners fan from 2002 onward, even if they made the playoffs, I have an extreme amount of doubt that any M's squad would make it to a Game 7. Let alone a Game 6.
@@SpyroGamer2008 All time Mariners would win a 1 game playoff against the all time angels then get beat by the all time yankees in 5, with games 4 and 5 being 10 run losses
@@cnking27 How can you not love the mariners :-) This season was supposed to be plunk-an-astro from opening day. Covid fucked that! We need this series as there's nothing else happening!
@Matthew Dembo And the fact your team has been to postseason 5 times and a World Series, while the last time the Mariners were in the postseason the Rays were just in their 4th year of existence.
No disrespect intended, but that really only shows how little you've been paying attention. While the franchise has a few incredible stories very well told by this series, from a competitive standpoint they've been quite realistically the worst franchise in the history of major pro sports in North America. Only the Cleveland Browns (who were world-beaters in the NFL's early days) and maybe the Los Angeles Clippers (seven playoff berths in the last eight seasons) come close to comparing.
Not JUST a pdf but an interactive webpage with each snippet as a clickable link to the full article/youtube clip. Come on sb nation, that could be a 'making of' behind-the-scenes episode showing us how it's done.
I just want to say, you guys did a truly amazing job on this 6 part series. I am a 33 year old life long Seattle Mariners fan from the NW, and with this series of videos have awoke so many emotions in me it's hard to put into words. Throughout watching I have had tears in my eyes multiple times, and have had goosebumps covering my body several times as well. Reliving some of my greatest childhood memories over the 3 hours of coverage has been simply awe inspiring. There is nothing like being a lifelong Mariners fan, but you have captured the emotional roller coaster unlike anyone I have seen before. Amidst the longest playoff drought in American sports, we still love our Ms and watch day in and day out, year in and year out, praying and hoping for the day we finally make it to the world series. But like you guys elliquentally put it, this team is so much more than wins and losses. The group of guys we had in the mid 90s, and again in 2001, were so much more than just a team. They were a group of guys we loved to watch and were so proud to call our own. Even thou we never made it to the peak, those teams provided memories I will have for the rest of my life. From the walk off homerun by tino Martinez in 95 you guys chronicled, to several games in 2001, to felix Hernandez's final start last season, I was there with my father for all of them, and I will cherish those memories for the rest of my life. I truly thank you guys for this amazing documentary, and I will leave it on this infamous Dave Niehouse call from 1995... "and the 0-1 pitch to Edgar Martinez...is lined down the left field line for a base hit. Here comes Joey, here is Jr to 3rd base and they are gonna wave him in! the throw to the plate will be late! the Mariners are going to play for the American league championship! I DON'T BELIEVE IT, IT JUST CONTINUES! MY OH MY!!!
I never watched baseball in my entire life, yet i'm moved and almost cried in the end of this series. That last shot of King Felix crying and the King's Court cheering him, even without a single playoff trip is... heartbreaking and heartwarming at same time. I don't watch baseball, but now i have a team to cheer for.
Welcome to the madhouse. I moved to Germany and still haven't escaped. Damn you 2018, for breaking my heart at 6 AM all August... It will be worth it some day
As a Mariners fan, this series has been amazing, especially during corona. Loved every minute of it, start to finish. You guys did a great job. Thank you!
5:52 Me as a Mets fan: Hmm, this sounds like Jacob deGrom. (Sees that deGrom is right by Felix in terms of Cy Young winners with no run support) Yup, I'm right
DeGrom has Felix to thank for forcing stubborn traditionalist CY Young Voters to re-think how they vote for the award, eschewing the useless win/loss stat and looking at the larger picture.
The fact that felix's perfect game had a 1-0 score perfectly summarizes his best years. He does everything perfect and still is only one pitch away from a no decision
Jacob deGrom had one of the best seasons by a pitcher in baseball history in 2018. The Mets still had a losing record overall in his starts. Solidarity with Ms fans here
This is the best series I've watched on TH-cam. I would argue that its better than most TV series. Its hard to watch all the failure of this team, but it always sends chills down my spine rewatching the victories. Even if we have never been to the world series, you are right that for true fans, that doesn't really matter. Its about the love of the game and the special moments.
Fact: The Seattle Mariners have lost the least World Series games out of any team in the MLB
Truly a legendary team 💪💪💪🔥🔥💯💯
I’d take the Marlins 2-0 world series wins in both of their only playoff appearances
Fact: The Seattle Mariners have lost the least playoff games out of any team in the MLB in the past 18 years
and won less
@@buckeyevr6243 shhhhh. We don't mention that.
Felix is one of two pitchers to both hit a grand slam and throw a perfect game in their mlb career
who is the other one?
@@freddieslade827 Don Larsen
what freddie said.
You can probably broaden that to one of 2 players lol
@@hroaktree6379 oh thanks. That is a cool stat!
A Mariner isn't meant to live their whole life on the sea; it's a transient lifestyle. Eventually, you have to get off the ship. Homesickness is a requirement of the job.
All those movies and documentaries and books and people who say baseball is life... this is the team where a person can learn that. And they learn what's really important, no matter how much they love the game or think it's the most important thing to them... and this doc even missed some examples. Loved your comment, if that wasn't obvious.
the "Seattle Freeze" just speeds up the process
This is exactly what I love about baseball. 30 teams playing 162 games, averaging about 38 plate appearances per team, means that the improbable becomes not only likely but inevitable purely by virtue of sample size.
Dude. How did you add on something even more beautiful to this masterpiece
I'd like to petition Jon and Alex to re-record the ending to include this passage.
I would argue that this is the greatest documentary of a sports team in history.
100% agreed
There is no argument this is the greatest documentary on any sports team
Ken Burns would like a word with you
@@Lastclerk3 did Ken burns ever do one on one specific team? I know about his baseball doc about the entire sport but I thought that was it
Yes...... yes it is
i'm a prokaryote from a subsurface ocean on ganymede. before i watched this documentary i wasn't even able to comprehend concepts like "seattle" and "baseball", because i wasn't sentient. now i am a lifelong diehard mariners fan for life. thank you so much jon.
I’ve never watched a game of baseball yet I watched this whole series... it’s just that good
@@DavidRSAT it's Pretty Good.
this is one of my favorite yt comments of all time
@@LoganLS0
yessir
I hope you get a chance to board JUICE in the future and find a way back to Earth so we can meet you!
"This is like something a Sim would do. In literally riding out of the clubhouse on a bicycle, he seamlessly and immediately reassigned himself from baseball player to cyclist. Amazing. Spectacular. I'm in awe."
Me too.
As a Sims player regularly floored by the bike-related choices the sims make-especially when it comes to spontaneous indoors riding-can confirm Jon’s simile is accurate. I’m in awe, as well!
“Don’t be sad because it’s over. Be glad that it happened.”
Dont worry the Mariners endless mediocrity will be here until the end of time
My thoughts exactly at the end of this.
@@glenbard07 and who couldn't love them for that.
Thanks dorktown for what i can only imagine is a TREMENDOUS amount of work producing this 6 parter. Take the rest of the day off. That's an order! ;-)
And yet here I am crying on a Friday afternoon
@@jessebrierley8384 I'm afraid you have missed the lesson that the Seattle Mariners have taught us. There is no theme to their story. A constant mediocrity would be in complete opposition of what it is to be the Mariners. They are a team of unprecedentedly exhilarating highs followed by heartbreaking lows. You can never tell what they will do next.
Jr.’s exit is so poetic, for a man who hit so many home runs, of course he’d finish his career with a walk off. Just up and left and went home.
My only disappointment with this wonderful series is they didn't mention Griffey's last hit which was a walk-off pinch-hit single to complete a 9th inning comeback against the Blue Jays. The team mobbed him. I was at the game and it was extraordinary. Of course we didn't realize that it was his last hit and RBI until we heard the news a few days later that he was driving home to Florida. I know your comment was referring to Junior's drive home as a walk-off, but his last hit was a literal walk-off.
Tsnappy even cooler
@@Prince_Luci Adding a link to his last hit for anybody that doesn't remember. Why in the world wasn't this part of SB Nation's history of the franchise? th-cam.com/video/J5C9FWBrJ9E/w-d-xo.html
@@Tsnappy always loved how hard Niehaus called things involving Jr. Frankly my favorite is the Old Time Religion call
@@Tsnappy Thanks for the link. You would think with a 3h 40 minute runtime something this important to the Mariners history. Instead we get a full minute of Jon shilling for A-Fraud's HOF case.
Guys they freaking did it the 2022 Seattle Mariners broke the drought and finally made the playoffs, brings a tear to my eye.
Now, they have to break the drought of actually winning a playoff game.
A long way to go before breaking the playoff losing streak though, which (I think) is still the one started with Bill Buckner and running through three straight series sweeps, to get to 13 in a row.
@@johnpazniokas1143 Umm they won an entire series?
@@griffinhays2053 hmm? I'm referring to the 1986-2005 Red Sox losing 13 playoff games in a row, starting with the '86 World Series.
This team is ready to go IMHO. They were so close this last season and will have the ability to add to the team this season. Young and lots of talent! I doubt they are gonna' regress!
@@mikewold8996 Why? Just why did you have to say that last sentence?
41:52 "For whatever reason, in true Edgar fashion, he peaked late. And in his final year of eligibility he was voted into the Hall of Fame." Gets me every single time.
I watched this series in real time as it was being released, and I read comments people were making that it was making them cry. That was the line that finally broke me, and the tears did fall.
@@sprthrwwychnnl73 I was spontaneously flooded with tears of joy at Edgar's double too. He got me twice.
If ever a movie about Edgar Martinez is made, I will gladly pay admission to go watch it on opening night!
Please sell a print of the whole chart. This series has been absolutely amazing. I love this dumb team so much.
Please make one in tissue form so I can wipe my tears away every year from being an M's fan.
100% agree. This chart needs to go on the wall of our sports bar!
Dude, totally agreed.
If I ever hang a baseball poster on my walls, it's this one.
I would not even hesitate to buy one.
Ichiro: Number 51.
Felix: Number 34.
This video: 51 minutes and 34 seconds long.
I see you Jon.
Blake Nelson this was probably a publicity stunt.
Go Cougs
Just like Griffey jr and sr playing on the same team
It is 35 seconds
51:35
“A baseball” -The official ball of baseball. This had me rolling.
31:28 to relive the magic time and time again.
I went to my gear bag and picked up a baseball after watching that, just to remind myself how it feels to baseball baseballs baseballingly with a baseball.
Also, I could throw this ball further than Ibañez in this video and not damage anything in my very average size house
Ahh yes, the baseball. The ball of baseball. The ball used to play the bat and ball game, baseball. In a game of baseball, the baseball is the ball used. What was I throwing to 1st base again?
Like a ball typically does...
"Keep an eye out for one of these bad boys the next time you're at a baseball game" lmao
Jon Bois videos are basically the most incredible storytelling that always ends with the message: 'Sports is stupid. Everything is stupid and that's beautiful." He's like sports Kierkegaard.
Nobody else could write 17776.
Who's Kierkegaard?
@@Thomaas551 Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, arguably the first existentialist in the tradition.
@@candyh4284 ok
I’ll never be able to get past the beginning of this video without tearing up. The image of Junior driving all alone, just to get home, as everything in his past flashes by, just gets me. All the while you’re reminded of everything he brought to this franchise, his talent, his star power, his work against the Yankees, his happiness, god, his happiness, this icon gets a goodbye from no one. He drives alone, as if invisible, yet he radiates joy. He could be bitter and angry at Seattle or frustrated with his own mortality, but when he calls Senior, he can only focus on how happy he is to be coming home. He spent years and years in absolute nowhere, creating an empire out of dust with nothing but his raw ability, experienced the worst tribulations an athlete in his position could ever endure, came back years later to make a home there, only to be lonelier than ever while his family lives on the exact opposite side of the country. He made all of this. Twenty years of his life dedicated to this sport, twenty years with his name and the Mariners name existing in union. Everything you see here exists because of Ken Griffey jr. You could look at this drive as an escape from the horrible place that kept him there all these years, but it’s clear he doesn’t think of it that way. Just look at him. He’s not happy to be free of Seattle. He’s just happy to finally, after 21 years, be going home.
i constantly come back to watch the opening. it’s so beautiful
Rodger szmodis is Jon bois’ preferred identity when he finally completes that time machine in his garage.
Not Jan Nah, Jon Bois is his son for sure
For more on this - Shane Carruth’s Primer
@John Verne and anyone who saw it... crap
Jason RickRoll wouldn’t be surprised if he framed the original arsonist too
@Not Jan Actually Roger Szomdis is still alive today at age 77 and currently resides in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
He moved from Washington to Pennsylvania sometime after the 70’s.
I'm just a russian guy who have never ever watched a single baseball game, but thx to this series i think i've become a mariner. A piece of art, really.
Lol me too, I'm from Brazil and never give a shit about Baseball, now I have a team for root
@Егор Мамонтов I live in Seattle and have been a Mariner Fan since their first game in 1977. WELCOME To the Mariner Club! /cheers! SB Nation is a work of art, I agree. I thank them for this series, it is a great series.
You should be Phillies Fan. We have Anton Kuznetsov in our minor league system. He was born in Russia 🇷🇺
I'm just a Brazilian guy who have also never watches one single inning of the baseball game, and mow i'm a mariner too. It's the better sports documentary i have ever seen!
@@edsonviniciussilvaribeiro6781 já temos a base do fãclube do Mariners no Brasil!
Due to end of this series, I will in fact be announcing my retirement from life. I have lost my passion.
Hey I realize this is probably a joke, but don't quit life. You're awesome and the world needs more people like you.
New Flesh I’m taking a massive shit....
There are other stupid teams. Lord knows I support one.
You need to ride out on a scooter.
hey you can always look forward to the next video in this series after the decade is over...
Other People: The Last Dance is the greatest sports documentary of all time.
Me: I'm not even 100% sure what a World Series is and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that SB Nation's Mariners series has made me feel more feelings than any movie or TV show or movie I have ever seen.
It's like the finals for baseball
This cannot be compared to the last dance because it had some sort of happy ending, everyone here got old and left because Seattle is on Pluto
@@aguy6098 What does a happy ending have to do with anything?
hoop dreams is still the goat sports documentary
@@redskullz1249 You don't even know what a world series is, GET OUT!
Felix Hernandez looked torched after the 2019 season. Everyone said he had nothing left in the tank. I’m sure he thought so too. The Mariners certainly did, failing to so much as offer their longtime ace a minor league deal.
You know who didn’t? The Atlanta Braves. The same Atlanta Braves that gave Lonnie Smith one last shot to prove himself at the age of 33 and watched him pummel the league’s pitching in 1989 with 8.8 WAR. The same Atlanta Braves that took a 1 year flyer on the ghost of Josh Donaldson and saw him become elite again at age 33. The Atlanta Braves signed 33-year old Felix Hernandez in February 2020 to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.
On March 10, 2020, Felix was given the mound for a spring training start versus the Boston Red Sox. For 5 innings, he looked like the old Felix. Sure, the fastball didn’t have as much fast on it and his curveball didn’t have as much curve, but he kept up. When the dust settled after his 5 innings of work, he had 6 strikeouts and only a single earned run.
It was the best he’d looked in a long time, and it was not an aberration. Through 13.2 innings of work, he had a 1.98 ERA. I know it’s spring training, and I know sometimes you end up wacky levels of competition and weird strings of good or bad luck in small sample sizes. But if Felix was going to make a comeback, he sure as shit picked the right team to do it with. All seemed to be going well, with Felix even appearing to be the favorite for the #5 spot in the Braves rotation, until the world came crashing down, and baseball along with it.
Maybe he can come back whenever baseball does too. Maybe if next season is played in full, he’ll keep it up. But maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. Baseball has a funny way of working out. Maybe it just wasn’t supposed to work out for the one who we wanted it to work out for the most. So maybe we don’t need to worry about what could have been. Let’s just be glad that we got what we got, because it’s more than enough.
WTF, I love Braves now!
Beautiful comment. I'm a Jays fan but it's pretty cool how the Braves resurrect people's career. I was so happy to see JD do well in Atlanta.
It sure would have been nice to find out. I'm a Yankees fan and have always respected King Felix. This season being canceled will make for a long summer.
I hear there's a pretty good video about the career of Lonnie Smith somewhere on this website.
SirZapdos I just wanna jam some Rafferty
Series in a nutshell: Player X was really good, but the (insert year) Mariners were really bad
@Harry Engel the 1995 team was a complete team
Occasionally the Mariners were really good, but then they decided they were really bad.
I mean if that's all you take from this that's fine; but this whole series is well more than that.
Not really. They didn't have the pitching in 95 to be considered a complete team. There is a reason Johnson was used in relief in the playoffs. They had no pitching depth.
Rory Leonard what even happened in 2001
Over 4 hours about the Mariners and I was hanging on every word. I now wish the year was 2030 so I could have one more episode!!
This from a guy in Ohio that doesn't really care about baseball.
Same i dont watch sports ever found this channels late last night i have binged. I suggest watching the larry bird stuff it blew my mind i cant believe he did that in so much pain i cant even play my xbox im hurtin so bad dudes are different class of men
@@jgvtc559 DUDE! You got it easy!
Those of us that were here from the beginning suffered an excruciating wait for each new episode, and there you are swooping in at the end with a vulture binge. Well played sir! Welcome to the channel, enjoy your stay. I forgot the name of Jon and Kofi's series but I think that's due for a new episode (there was a basketball episode where the WHOLE NBA they drafted only 40 overalls and had to play as them, 0-16 2008 Detroit Lions [2 parter], I think there was a golf course they designed - much like Breaking Madden) time to crack the whip on that! (Fumble Dimension!)
I have not watch a baseball game since the early 90s and before this thought the Mariners were in Miami. I love everymoment of this.
Couldn’t have said it better
J stay get get gettin it in Keep binging. And there is one series you must watch on Jon Bois’s personal channel. The series is Pretty Good.
“Brodie Van Wagenen remember the name”....... As a Mets fan I can’t say I like where this is headed
Jared Kelenic is the next great Mariner that Jon will have to add to this story in 10 years
I hope there’s another video focusing just on the Cano/Diaz trade.
@@Omegaman18 honestly, it was a deal that kind of made sense for the Mets. Everyone will remember it as the Cano trade but it was the Diaz trade and the mets just kind of had to take Cano's contract.
If Diaz wasnt such a monumental disaster then it doesnt look terrible in hindsight.
The Mets need to stay away from AL West closers. Last time they signed K Rod as a free agent and had to give up their first round pick to the Angels....
And yes i know the pick wss Randal Grichuk and Trout was picked with the Yankees draft pick next but its been said they only picked Grichuk ahead of trout for money reasons and if they didnt have both picks Trout would have been the pick.
@@Posirep It made sense for the Mets aka it was going to be another trade where the Mets get a disappointing past their prime hall of famer for way too much so that their cheap owners end up letting their young talent walk away in free agency because they dont want to pay up. I liked it at the time, but I dont make the decisions and maybe management should learn from their predecessors mistakes. Stop eating money and refusing to spend it when actually needed.
@@Omegaman18 like i said. That trade was for Diaz. We forget that in 2018 Diaz had one of the greatest closer seasons ever and hes young and under control for years.
But in order to get that the mets had to give up young talent AND take a guy past his prime with a big contract...which was Cano.
I didnt like giving up Kelenic but the Mets had bullpen issues and my thought at the time is the mets just got the best closer in baseball and hes only 24.
If Diaz was anything close to his 2017 and 2018 self this trade isnt as bad as it looks now...and who knows, maybe he bounces back still....OR hes a guy that can dominate the league when noone is paying attention like he did out in Seattle, and not be able to handle New York
Ok, so to put it simple:
The Mariners are the humanification as a team. When they just have to leave, they leave as a human would do. They celebrate themselves as if the team was human and the fans are in on it.
If you leave kind of midway through something, they forgive you, because they understand human struggles and dont punish you for it.
It is just soooo beautiful to see this. There arent many teams with fanbases that would do this in this exceptional way.
You have no idea how much I LOVE this comment. I have been a lifelong Ms fan and that’s such a good way to put it. As Jon said in the Doc, sports isn’t just about endless conquest. There’s a deeper meaning to be found that’s so much more powerful and beautiful.
The joke is inevitable: "Hey, this was a Pretty Good documentary, you guys!" But this transcends even the goofiest of Jon jokes. This was a work of art. This is THE greatest sports documentary I've ever seen, and, from a Giants fan who spent his Oregon elementary school years catching the Mariners on TV, it touches you deep within the heart. This was incredible. A true magnum opus (but I wouldn't be surprised to see it topped one day). Just amazing work!
As a Seattle kid who moved to the SF Bay area, I just don't think people in other places understand northwest sports. I'm still perplexed by how Dodgers fans hate the Giants, or Warriors fans the Lakers. Inevitably at a Mariners game, you'd be sitting next to fans from Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Hawaii, Alaska.. it all felt like one big family. It wasn't about *your* team versus *their* team, it was about the pride and shared experience of an entire region.
@Harry Engel Luckily, our record was better than 2019. we almost made it to the playoffs, due to the collapse of the Astros, but we didn't.
hey, we've got to give alex his props aswell, he was amazing in this.
Hyped for their next magnum opus, Atlanta Falcons
@@reidconti that's tantamount to not understanding how everyone in Washington state can rally around the Seahawks but people in NY argue about Giants/Jets. Pretty easy to explain... None of the places you mentioned in PNW have a rival team in closer proximity they can geographically identify with... Hawaii on other hand is a mixed bag of Seahawks/9ers/Raiders/Rams fans. But if you go to a bar to watch a hawks game naturally it will bring out the hawks fans
Imagine needing a perfect game in order to keep your lead
Timothy But sometimes those tight games keep everything focused. Maybe the Mariners score 5 or 6 runs, maybe the focus on that task is lost for a batter or 3 ???
Pedro Martinez literally pitched his perfect game into the 10th inning because the Expos couldn't fucking score for him.
Why can I just tell that you arnt from Seattle.
In MLB19 I did a 10 inning perfect game lol 😂
@@TheAuck In my MLB 14 The Show franchise (which I'm still rockin') I once pitched 11 perfect innings only to lose it in the 12th (all with the same pitcher). I did manage to still win the game in the 13th, but man I suck at hitting in that game :D
As a lifelong Mariner fan this series has meant so much to me. When people ask why I bother to root for the Mariners the easy answer is I grew up near Seattle, but that's not the whole truth. Something about this team has always captivated me through the ups and downs in such ways that it is often hard to put into words. The highs seem higher than they really are and the lows seem so low that you almost have to commend them. This series has finally been able to show me what I haven't been able to tell people my entire life. The relationship this team has with it's fans, players, and the record books is so fascinating that it goes beyond just winning and losing. I feel like a point I have been trying to make for 15 years without success was just made for me. Thank you guys for this series I cried during it more times than I'd like to admit.
Another lifelong mariners fan here and you described what this series means perfectly.
Well said, agree with every word!
"Will they always be like this?"
Yeah, probably.
God willing.
darthbob88 well, that was mean
@Harry Engel we have better ownership. we are rebuilding the right way for a change.
Harry Engel yeah we are headed in the right direction if we don’t trade our prospects
"Nothing is achieved, nothing is taught, nothing is learned. Things are only meaningful as long as we decide they are."
Two years ago, I knew nothing about baseball. Now, I think about little else. Thanks for ruining my life, Jon.
I'm a Red Sox fan. I never cared for the Mariners before this series. This was a Masterpiece beginning to end. I cried multiple times in this episode. This made quarantine so much better. Thank you Jon
As a Seattle fan this was kinda tough to watch. I’ve never seen them make the playoffs not once. And watching Felix deteriorate and Ichiro leave were some of the saddest moments as a fan of this team
Trygve 001 Same. I’ve been a fan of this team for all 16 years of my life. Its sad. Seattle sports are hard in a way like no other. I used to be a sonics fan too.
Trygve 001 yeah man I live in Idaho but I’m only about five hours from Seattle so when I first started playing and watching baseball the first great players I watched on TV was Ichiro and Felix. They inspired me to play baseball and I loved watching the mariners, even when they’d be losing 90 games a year. As a fan now I’ll be very happy when they finally reach the playoffs but a part of me will always wish I got to see Ichiro and Felix play in the playoffs for Seattle. It’s hard being an M’s fan but I’ll always be a fan for life
As a diehard since I was 8 years old in 1989, I sympathize with you all.
I was 2 in 2001, so I guess I'm basically in the same boat as you.
@@Antonio-wc1db U were 4 when they left m8
My mom divorced my dad when I was 3. For ten years I visited my dad every summer in Washington. Now, I live in Utah where professional baseball is limited to an Angels minor league team. Every year during the summer I would go to Washington, a small town called North Bend about 30 minutes East of Seattle. Going to my dad's house was never easy for various reasons, but there is one thing I will always remember about those trips that make me smile. My dad would take me to a Mariners game. We never got good seats, but I didn't care, the atmosphere made me so happy, in those tough times, it made me smile. I remember chanting Rauuuuuuuullllll in 2013 when Ibanez would step up to the plate.I remember seeing King Felix mow past batters. I remember odd endings like a game-winning pick off at second when the opposite team's runner tried to steal before the pitcher even entered his motion. The smell of the iconic garlic fries from Safeco field is burned into my nose. I remember standing at the base of that incredible building, looking up at its sheer magnitude and beauty. I was too young to really follow sports at the time, so I didn't know how bad the Mariners really were, but to me, it didn't matter. I would go to those games and cheer like it was the World Series every time. I've never really been a true Mariners fan, my preference has always lied with the Giants, but because of those Mariners games, they've always held a special place for me. Sometimes in sports, it's not about winning, it's about bringing people together.
Beautiful story man!
ive only ever been to one mariners game in my life, but ive lived about 2 hours away from seattle my entire life. i dont follow baseball and haven't until about a year ago when (curse you adhd) i was suddenly obsessed with the history of baseball. i used to go to the local Bears games with my family as a kid- they were terrible and we loved them. i was one of the few kids who went, so they had games on the field for us before the game started. races against the mascot (that we always won) or trying to put on frozen clothes (that us kids never won.) I still have an old kid's bat and a backpack from them, even long after the team was traded away.
That mariners game felt like those old minor league games- i do not care who wins, i dont know most of your names, and i'm mostly here for a hot dog and delicious garlic fries. but it's *fun* and it doesn't matter if you know what's happening or not.
hopefully when the world stops burning i'll take my friends to a game, and we can all cheer just because the people around us are.
Whether I sound corny or not, this has been nothing short of a sports lifesaver during this Rona.
Harrison Lee it’s been nothing short of a life saver period
That is pretty corona-y
You don't and agreed.
perfect timing. i got lucky enough to find the series when the fifth episode dropped and i binged all 5 in a row.
wavy kate it’s totals to 3.6 hours
All I can say, I'm on a semester abroad in New Zealand and have been stuck in student accommodations during the country's lockdown. I'll forever remember this documentary series as what helped me get through it. It gave me my baseball fix. This series was something to look forward to when the streets were empty. This is the work of legends, packaged in a beautiful way.
I've lived in Seattle for most of my life but never really had an appreciation for the Mariners until now. They were always an ambient presence in my life and I understood that they made their fans upset but I never understood what it meant to be a Mariners Fan until now. It's sitting on the edge of my bed at 1:45 in the morning nearly in tears.
I finally understand.
Welcome to it.
This was one of my all time favorite sports documentaries. I'm not even a baseball fan. Well done.
The last dance doesn’t stand a chance against this
I felt like crying many times and actually cried like a baby when Edgar Martinez hit the home run to save the Mariners
And I don't even know how to play baseball
Well when the Nationals won the series the Mariners became the last team to not appear in a world series. Instead of "Who gives a shit" he should have said "Nuff said".
Same
Lol amen. I could give a shit about baseball, let alone the Mariners, and I’m DEVOURING this series. I’d watch one on every team.
As a lifelong Mariners fan, I can’t thank you guys enough for this. When people ask about my team it’s hard to explain WHY we continue to suffer. This team has something, it’s just extraordinarily hard to see at times. This is the best baseball series I’ve ever seen and I can’t believe it’s on my team. Thanks guys!
I got the strangest feeling from this, because while I almost never sat through 9 innings of Mariners past the age of 16 I always followed either intentionally through radio or news, or passively through a car trip where we could listen to a game, or seeing the front page in newspaper boxes. Watching this was like walking through a dream with brief periods of lucidity.
*And here I am thinking Griffey had a happy retirement tour*
that was sad, like legitimately sad.
Agreed, but its also beautiful in the way Griffey was Griffey. To me it seemed that It wasn't about Money, World Series or Even fame. with Griffey, It was about heart. When his heart told him he needed to go to his family, he followed it.
@@SynapseNervosa That is large part of the reason he was so loved. He is an icon of a player who played out of pure passion for the game. When the flame of passion went out, so did his career, money be dammed.
Yeah the 2010 team they put around Griffey was a disaster.
Jack Zduriencik tried replacing Adrian Beltre with an aging Chone Figgins
He relied too highly on veterans past their prime like Griffey, Eric Byrnes, Mike Sweeney, and Jack Wilson.
And relied too highly on the young players as well, plus almost had nothing at catcher going into the year.
It was shocking that guy lasted 5 more years as our GM.
That was depressing as fuck
He did, it's just that unfortunately he kept playing afterwards.
I can already picture it: "Welcome, to the Julio Rodriguez era."
They also gotta mention Kyle Lewis lol. It sucks he got traded tho
@@joaquinnieto4237 I feel kinda sorry for him not going to lie. He’s a talented guy who unfortunately couldn’t stay healthy.
Yeah
It's 2022, and Seattle has made the playoffs. If my Angels can't win, I hope that Seattle and her people can conquer the waves this season. Best of luck, Mariners. I deeply hope you can do it.
Me: “Hey grandpa watch this!”
Me: Does absolutely nothing
Grandpa: 26:08
💀💀💀
Greatest comment of all time
As a Mariners fan, that wasn't born in the glory days, never saw Griffeys beautiful swing, never witnessed Randy force his will onto the enemy team or Edgar bomb a ball into the stands, let me tell you, thanks for this Documentary, that puts into words why I love this franchise that in my lifetime hasn't been to the playoffs and still produces so many great moments of fandom and love, the Mariners might be a bad team, but they are a great franchise! In the end, who cares about baseball when you can just enjoy sport and its people.
You just love them geographically.
@@uruiamnot Do I? Wait, you know where I am from? Interesting.
"who cares about baseball when you can just enjoy sport and its people."
This should be in brass above the entrance to Safeco Field...
@@uruiamnot Your reply suggests to me that you are not from Seattle. In which case, you don't understand that loving Seattle is a LOT like loving the Mariners. There's lots there (for instance, rainy and damp weather, and ridiculously crowded freeways) that many despise. And we Seattleites wave goodbye and nod in understanding. We get it. But we love Seattle, and the Mariners, anyway. (I don't live there any more, but I still love it.)
So, in the end, you have said something deep and meaningful, though I'm not sure you intended to.
@@jgischer Very funny reply. I'm glad it got a rise in someone, even to this level of particularity and peculiarity.
My long-term story arc of sports fanaticism is that it is virtually always a geographically-centered enterprise, much as rooting for your favorite war-mongering conquerors of weak and insignificant peons is derived from loose geopolitical, dogmatic, and cultural influences, to say nothing of rooting for your national team out of pride and propaganda, locally known as _patriotism_ and constrained by the concomitant struggle to agree with one's peers versus the independent and cognitive fortitude it takes to appreciate foreign skill and aptitude, whether in the realm of war or team sports.
Others just root for the underdog or are ambivalent to the whole concept of sportsmanship, being a prideful and menacingly troublesome reminder of marauding fools, pompous popes, and murdering thieves of the past and present, all in lock-step to the mantra of worldwide domination, clansmanship, and (in modern times,) the merchandising potential of standards, jerseys, flags, and memorabilia invented out of whole cloth to keep fanatics paying for their passion.
I am of the later group. But I went to Seattle once.
The Mariners brought me to tears 3 times in 2019. Ichiro, Edgar, and Felix. That last quote is perfect. The Mariners reward you through their challenges.
The fact that they didn’t mention how Seattle in their best year ever still managed to blow a 14-2 lead in the 7th inning just shows how random they are
All they had to do was hold that insanely sizable lead and they would be the sole owners of the best record of all time in a season. But you know, Mariners.
Fun fact: The color commentator for the Indians was Mike Hegan: The only all star in Seattle Pilots history.
As a sports fan who has lived their entire life in the Pacific Northwest, this is a beautiful gift I didn't know I could ask for. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, you awesome nerds.
As a long time Mariner fan, this whole series has left me angry, frustrated, awestruck, and somehow still happy at moments. Thank you!
THIS series gets my vote for mlb hall of fame. I wanna see the induction speech by the ball mentioned in episode 6!
7:05
I can't be the only one that heard that as "Tampa Bay Raisin Town"
An incredible ending to an incredible series. Hard to believe it's over, but it's been an amazing ride.
DrChillbrain When I heard it, I had an instant where my brain desperately rearranged the letters for the words I’d just heard. Is Tampa bay known for raisins?
Jon Bois is the future of sports journalism. I've been saying it for years.
as far as i'm concerned he is sports journalism. rubenstein is great too
And now... the journalist of the future is graduating into the journalist of the present.
I felt that, as an adult born after October 2001, when he said that the Mariners haven't made the postseason in my entire existence.
so you were born in 2002
Ry B December 2001
They made one this year
Part 7: “and the man to bring them to the light of the playoffs…his name was Big Dumper.”
What we all have been waiting for, the king
Another fun fact about Félixs’ home run: both Johan and him apart from being venezuelans played for the two biggest teams down here that also hate each other. Johan with the Leones del Caracas and Félix with the Navegantes del Magallanes. It is fair to say that grand slam made waves here in Venezuela and you can bet that Johan was really upset with that home run
Can't wait for the NHL Seattle expansion to be this interesting
Don't you put that evil on them, DoShee33.
The NHL Seattle expansion will be delayed by a crippling pandemic.
The last Seattle hockey team, the Seattle Metropolitans, had their Stanley cup championship series cancelled by a crippling pandemic.
EDIT: This is what is engraved on the Stanley Cup for the 1919 season.
1919
Montreal Canadiens
Seattle Metropolitans
Series Not Completed
I got you, bro. I'm off to burn down the ShoWare Center right now.
@@willistuttle966 Expos return confirmed
After the Golden Knights success, there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic! But it's also Seattle so probably not
as you read the mariners quote at the end, i started crying and applauding. This moved me more than anything in quarantine. Amazing work guys.
Man I don't even like baseball but 14:30-15:30 legit made me tear up for Felix Hernandez once I realized where things were going.
"It requires a special brand of incompetence to take a season so special by a pitcher, yet not even have any inherent advantage in the ballgame when he's on the mound." Mets fans know this all too well...
Mets are the NL version of the Mariners- they've won a World Series, so not as bad, but there are a lot of similarities
@@douggoldwater1734 if you took the M's, added some playoff appearances, and changed the source of pain from existential to political -- that's the Mets!
and last season was a special kind of pain since Mariners great Edwin Diaz managed to fuck up any win deGrom might be in line for.
All the reasons we're screwed up. Drug problems, Bernie Madoff, the Wilpons' internal cult of personality, fighting the City over ballparks and such, the papers, etc.
@@SimuLord Rick Reed was always solid tho considering he was literally a replacement player that managed to hang around once the real players came back.
If Albert Camus created a team to show what absurdity meant, it would be the Mariners
This is it. Exactly this.
They really are the Absurd Heroes of the MLB. Endlessly rolling the rock up the mountain each season. So close to glory many times yet still failing. But they still push that rock up each season, laughing in the face of their own absurd existence.
Fun Fact: In his youth, Camus played top level football in the Goalkeeper position. Apt right?
IIRC he got Tuberculosis in his late teens which scuppered his potential career, so he went to university instead.
I was expecting Jon to say something along the lines of:
"This exceptional man, Rodger Szmodis, as random, and eccentric, and ultimately irrelevant as the Mariners throughout their time, just happens to be... my father."
*outro music*
Koop
Mlll
Oooooopoooooo
This was the most beautiful thing I've ever watched. I'm 37 and I've never watched baseball. I've watched every Mariners game since restart. Also you should win a Grammy for best use of a free music library (?).
They're back! We need part 7 of this series! Make it happen!
"They say stats are for losers."
"Well, Seattle has some of the best stats."
@Harry Engel like, that literally proved the point of the joke.
Man, I teared up at the image of the Griffeys tearing up simultaneously during that speech.
17:57 Even in a 6-part Mariners' history breakdown, Jon sneaks in a LOLMets story.
As soon as he mentioned Cano's contract I knew the mets were gonna get clowned
@Lucas Franco Yeah as a Mariners fan we wanna send Brodie a gift basket for Kelenic and Dunn for Cano and Diaz! 😂
@@JWex-jy7sk Yeah the Mets got clowned. Can't wait for 2020fffuuuuu
shit you ALMOST got McNeil in that deal too. He was literally pulled out last second
Just finished this series...and I have to say, its easily one of the most interesting, best things I've ever watched in my 37 years on this planet. Well done boys, you should be VERY proud of this.
I know I’m over 2 years late to the party and this comment will probably never see the light of day but I can’t express my appreciation enough for this series. I’ve followed this channel for many years (mostly for football and basketball related content) and have never seen a single baseball game start to finish but I eventually gave into my curiosity and decided to check out this series and by the end of the first episode I couldn’t wait to watch more. Endlessly fascinating and enthralling, it’s so great that you guys bring these stories (that would probably fall to the wayside otherwise and be forgotten about by anyone except diehard baseball fans) to light for outside people like myself to see. Nothing short of brilliance from the first second to the last and I’m incredibly excited to see what franchise will be fortunate enough to get this same treatment next.
I know!!! I’ve been following it closely. I can’t imagine how satisfying this must be for Mariners fans.
I absolutely cannot believe we get to watch this for free
Probably the best docuseries I’ve ever seen on TH-cam, congratulations SB.
Check out his MMA doc "Fighting in the Age of Loneliness." Oscar-worthy stuff...
As a lifetime Mariners fan since 1977, I just want to say thank you so much for this amazing series.
Awww., this got me a little weepy. I was at that final 2014 game and there was that murmur in the crowd when the As won their game. But that moment of allowing the standing ovation for Felix, then one for Cano a bit later was a moment of true love for a team. We felt good about that season no matter what and it was a ton of fun games. If I remember right, I saw 10 in person and they won all 10 of those games.
It's weird having no baseball this year...after the weirdness of last year's team, no one had a clue what to expect had 2020 not decided to be an asshole. But thank you for this series. Possibly one of the best sports documentaries I've ever seen.
“Brodie Van Wagenen. Do me a favor and remember that name for a minute”
Jon idk what’s coming next in the video, but I think It’s going to involve breaking my fragile Mets heart.
One of the best series' ever. I'm not even a baseball fan, and I've been so invested in the little mimi-series. Well done by the... Bois. 😂
Thank you guys so much for making this extraordinary, wonderful series. When I first moved to Seattle 12 years ago I hated the Mariners because of the rivalry with my beloved Indians in the mid to late 90s. I fell in love with this team within a couple years and I’m really happy that others now know the weird circumstances that led to us falling in love with the sports worlds most lovable losers. Please drop this on DVD! I will buy 14 copies.
"It appears likely to have been the greatest start of exactly 5 and 1/3 innings in the history of major league baseball."
It's stuff like this that show why I love baseball and why I love Jon Bois.
I never written a comment on any TH-cam board for the obvious reasons. But, I felt unbelievably compelled to do so in regards to this video. And I'm by no means a sycophant, but, this creative team is truly talented. I loved the 'Barry Bonds without a bat' piece as well. This is by far one best Sports Docs ever. If your a Seattle sports fan (well, first god bless you) then you have to watch this six-part masterpiece. I always thought the Seattle Mariners were special, but, I could have never summed up the colossal waste of talent over the years. Nor did I know about the crazy stories that started this franchise. Thank Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein for culminating one of the most agonizing and original fan experience in all of sports in this beautiful docu-series.
49:59 perfect way to end it tying it all back to Roger’s reason for picking the name Mariners. This is just a masterpiece
25:58 i am legitimately crying at the 'this is something a sim would do' comment
This whole series is one of the few things I've been looking forward to throughout this pandemic.
The sax at the 7ish minute on during the Felix Hernandez part made me feel nostalgic for like everything single good thing in life
This was an amazing series. I'm british and have never watched a baseball game in my life, but I think I'm now a baseball fan??
I believe baseball to be the most intellectual professional sport. So many variables and facets determine the outcome of a game. And SB Nation does an amazing job of illustrating just that.
This series is pure magic. I am crying. Thank you so much for making this. It is beautiful and moving and sublime. I would call you all angels, but that feels wrong in this division. I am a historian by profession, and I hope someday I produce a work of history half this good. Maybe I need more charts. Anyway, live forever Jon, Alex, and Co.
This series has officially made Seattle my second team...and that's not the easiest thing to say as a Yankees fan.
MLGisNOTdead YoloSweg LITERALLYKillMe yeah, if there’s ever a year that the Mariners make the playoffs and the Yanks don’t, they’ll be my team for the playoffs
Matt maybe one day you will live that momment with your great great grandkids
Seattle is now my third team after this, only behind the Tigers and Brewers
@@emmetc5 technically you're rooting for 2 Seattle teams😂
@@Zfrk One of us! One of us! One of us!
This is by far my favorite thing that Jon has touched, and i've watched everything he has produced. Thank you Jon and Alex for giving us this masterpiece of a series.
This is one of the best documentary i've ever seen, and i'm including non-sports documentaries.
8:30 I appreciate that Felix Hernandez's pitching is complimented by the poster in the back: "The Mark of Linear Motion."
Such a great series. I hope that the Mariners win it all someday.
This series is the best sport team documentary ever... Thank you!
As a Seattleite and lifelong M’s fan, this series made me a bit misty. (I cried.) Very well done.
Adam Boyd I cried and I really don’t care about baseball and I’ve only ever spent 24 hours of my life in Seattle.
I hope this is the year we can make the playoffs, we have some good young talent and are pitching isn’t t bad either
This series proves that the 'all time mariners' would probably compete with any all time team outside of the yankees, and still somehow lose in 7
More like 5 games before being Eliminated. Trust me. As a Mariners fan from 2002 onward, even if they made the playoffs, I have an extreme amount of doubt that any M's squad would make it to a Game 7. Let alone a Game 6.
@@SpyroGamer2008 All time Mariners would win a 1 game playoff against the all time angels then get beat by the all time yankees in 5, with games 4 and 5 being 10 run losses
Besides Griffey and Edgar, the all time mariners all end up being part of what would be the all time yanks anyways
@@gusbozeman8337 Ichiro was an all time Yankee?!?! I know he played for your guys but...
@@gusbozeman8337 Similarly...is Wade Boggs an all time Yankee? :)
I'm wheeze laughing at "This is now a homicide squeeze"
imc440 Like that one the Red Sox tried in Baltimore with Alex Cora at the plate and Coco Crisp on 3rd.
Funniest part of the whole video
I can't figure out what's more stupid...a squeeze take, a walk off strikeout, or a triple play from falling off the base.
@@cnking27 How can you not love the mariners :-)
This season was supposed to be plunk-an-astro from opening day. Covid fucked that!
We need this series as there's nothing else happening!
and you didn't need the "Law and Order" cast to figure out this one.....
Ive never seen a game of baseball in my life. However I couldnt stop watching this web series. Fantastic work. Thank you from Australia
PLEASE! We love your Mariners coverage and it would be awesome to see 2022 and 2023 videos!
As a Rays fan, the fact that even they’ve been to a World Series and Seattle hasn’t amazes me.
As a Marlins fan I second this
@Matthew Dembo And the fact your team has been to postseason 5 times and a World Series, while the last time the Mariners were in the postseason the Rays were just in their 4th year of existence.
No disrespect intended, but that really only shows how little you've been paying attention. While the franchise has a few incredible stories very well told by this series, from a competitive standpoint they've been quite realistically the worst franchise in the history of major pro sports in North America. Only the Cleveland Browns (who were world-beaters in the NFL's early days) and maybe the Los Angeles Clippers (seven playoff berths in the last eight seasons) come close to comparing.
Emerald Aly id say the leafs could be on that list. We’ve effectively been awful for 53 years
Do you guys can make a PDF or even sell a physical edition of this graphic?, this series was glorious
superninja252 agreed I’d want this so bad
might be difficult because of the layering used in some places
@@ArenaTeams2024 PDF is possible
Not JUST a pdf but an interactive webpage with each snippet as a clickable link to the full article/youtube clip.
Come on sb nation, that could be a 'making of' behind-the-scenes episode showing us how it's done.
@Harry Engel link?
When Jon doesn’t add your Road to the Show player that is on the Mariners
lol
Yea wheres the respect for my boy Bones Bronco whos hit .450 the last 5 years and given Seattle 5 rings?
bruh I won the WS last week in RTTS playing for this team
it's like a dream come true
I just want to say, you guys did a truly amazing job on this 6 part series. I am a 33 year old life long Seattle Mariners fan from the NW, and with this series of videos have awoke so many emotions in me it's hard to put into words. Throughout watching I have had tears in my eyes multiple times, and have had goosebumps covering my body several times as well. Reliving some of my greatest childhood memories over the 3 hours of coverage has been simply awe inspiring. There is nothing like being a lifelong Mariners fan, but you have captured the emotional roller coaster unlike anyone I have seen before. Amidst the longest playoff drought in American sports, we still love our Ms and watch day in and day out, year in and year out, praying and hoping for the day we finally make it to the world series. But like you guys elliquentally put it, this team is so much more than wins and losses. The group of guys we had in the mid 90s, and again in 2001, were so much more than just a team. They were a group of guys we loved to watch and were so proud to call our own. Even thou we never made it to the peak, those teams provided memories I will have for the rest of my life. From the walk off homerun by tino Martinez in 95 you guys chronicled, to several games in 2001, to felix Hernandez's final start last season, I was there with my father for all of them, and I will cherish those memories for the rest of my life. I truly thank you guys for this amazing documentary, and I will leave it on this infamous Dave Niehouse call from 1995... "and the 0-1 pitch to Edgar Martinez...is lined down the left field line for a base hit. Here comes Joey, here is Jr to 3rd base and they are gonna wave him in! the throw to the plate will be late! the Mariners are going to play for the American league championship! I DON'T BELIEVE IT, IT JUST CONTINUES! MY OH MY!!!
I never watched baseball in my entire life, yet i'm moved and almost cried in the end of this series. That last shot of King Felix crying and the King's Court cheering him, even without a single playoff trip is... heartbreaking and heartwarming at same time. I don't watch baseball, but now i have a team to cheer for.
This made me love the Seattle Mariners. My new favorite American league team.
Welcome to the madhouse.
I moved to Germany and still haven't escaped. Damn you 2018, for breaking my heart at 6 AM all August...
It will be worth it some day
As a Mariners fan, this series has been amazing, especially during corona. Loved every minute of it, start to finish. You guys did a great job. Thank you!
5:52 Me as a Mets fan: Hmm, this sounds like Jacob deGrom.
(Sees that deGrom is right by Felix in terms of Cy Young winners with no run support)
Yup, I'm right
DeGrom has Felix to thank for forcing stubborn traditionalist CY Young Voters to re-think how they vote for the award, eschewing the useless win/loss stat and looking at the larger picture.
Remarkable that JdG occupies the 2nd _and_ 3rd position on that list
The fact that felix's perfect game had a 1-0 score perfectly summarizes his best years. He does everything perfect and still is only one pitch away from a no decision
@@brandonb.5304 Someone likes Foolish Baseball too :D
Jacob deGrom had one of the best seasons by a pitcher in baseball history in 2018. The Mets still had a losing record overall in his starts. Solidarity with Ms fans here
This is the best series I've watched on TH-cam. I would argue that its better than most TV series. Its hard to watch all the failure of this team, but it always sends chills down my spine rewatching the victories. Even if we have never been to the world series, you are right that for true fans, that doesn't really matter. Its about the love of the game and the special moments.
This might be the best sports documentary on TH-cam. This is also the reason why the mariners are my second favorite team