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Hi friends. Inspired by @jon_bois and Alex Rubenstein’s incredible video series about the Seattle Mariners, I want to discuss a way that the Mariners altered the course of a World Series title, one that Jon and Alex are unlikely to cover.
Strap in. 1/
Strap in. 1/
First: If you are interested in the narrative power of sports and what we make of them, you should be watching everything @jon_bois has ever made. (His videos are NFL/MLB heavy, but I believe they’re largely accessible to folks.) 2/
Jon’s oddball investigations have been balanced by many imaginative projects, most notably the astonishing Football in 17776, a multimedia speculative fiction series that transcends traditional storytelling and really defies any kind of categorization. 3/ https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football
This Mariners series is as grand in scope than almost any sports journalism has ever been (aside from Ken Burns). At 2 hours and counting, it’s a tribute to a franchise that seeks out the absurd and the connected, drawing beautiful parallels where nobody would think to look. 4/
The last 2 parts of the series are presumably split between the magical 2001 season and the subsequent decline. But one season I do not expect to get a ton of attention is the 2007 season. The Mariners went 88-74, but missed the playoffs by six games. Unremarkable, right? 5/
But in 2007, the Mariners, I believe, swung the World Series. Not between the Red Sox and the Rockies, as the Rockies were extremely swept that year. But away from the ALCS loser, my beloved team, the Cleveland Racial Slurs.
Let’s dive in. 6/
Let’s dive in. 6/
The Mariners were set to play Cleveland in the second series of the season, a 4-game home-opening set at Jacobs Field from April 6 to April 9. Mike Hargrove, who managed the powerhouse Cleveland teams of the 1990s, was now managing the Mariners. 7/
Hargrove was a beloved figure in Cleveland, having also played for the team in the 1980s. As a player, he’d been nicknamed “The Human Rain Delay” due to his deliberate nature in the batter’s box. 8/
The temperature was in the 20s all day on April 6, 2007, but the game went forward. Cleveland had a 4-0 lead in the 5th, and Cleveland’s #4 pitcher, Paul Byrd, was working on a no-hitter.
But then it started snowing. 9/
But then it started snowing. 9/
Baseball games can be called due to weather, but if there are at least five innings in, the game still counts. So if Byrd could retire the side in the 5th, Cleveland would escape with a win. And Byrd might have a shortened no-hitter. 10/
Byrd got two outs, but he also walked the bases full. With Jose Lopez up and a 1-2 count, Byrd shook off catcher Kelly Shoppach’s sign, and Lopez called for time, claiming that he couldn’t see.
And at this point, Hargrove stepped out of the dugout to argue about the snow. 11/
And at this point, Hargrove stepped out of the dugout to argue about the snow. 11/
During the argument, the snow started to ramp up. The umpires made the call to delay the game for fifteen minutes and reassess at that time. Because of the unusual snow-producing qualities of the Great Lakes, it was difficult to predict what the snow would do. 12/
But instead, the snow worsened. The game was called, one strike away from an official game and a no-hitter for Byrd. The entire series ended up being snowed out, and Cleveland’s next home series, against Anaheim, had to be moved to Milwaukee. 13/ https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=2830648
The games got made up one by one, along the way, with 3 games scheduled on mutual off days in Cleveland and one, out of necessity, played in Seattle with Cleveland as the home team, as part of a doubleheader during their September series. 14/ https://www.nbcrightnow.com/archives/mariners-playing-rare-double-header/article_3ebf672f-98c8-5448-bd53-1af8e4d7bce5.html
Cleveland went 3-1 in these makeup games. So no harm, no foul, right? Well, sorta. If only three makeup games were needed instead of four, that Seattle doubleheader would not have happened.
And that means that Jeremy Sowers would not have been called up for the night half. 15/
And that means that Jeremy Sowers would not have been called up for the night half. 15/
Sowers actually pitched 5 good innings. But as a callup on a tight leash, he didn't start the 6th. And Cleveland had to rely on a shorter bullpen, many of whom had thrown 20+ pitches the night before.
Cleveland lost in 10 innings. 16/ https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap/_/id/270926312
Cleveland lost in 10 innings. 16/ https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap/_/id/270926312
But, one regular season game doesn’t mean anything, right? Well, Cleveland finished in a tie with the Red Sox for the best record in baseball. The Red Sox won the tiebreaker and thus had home-field advantage when the two teams ultimately met in the ALCS. 17/
While it’s hard to quantify a home-field advantage in baseball, two Cleveland players had large home/away splits that year: CC Sabathia and Fausto Carmona (now Roberto Hernandez), the two 19-win pitchers who anchored the rotation that season. (CC won the Cy Young that year.) 18/
CC allowed just a .648 OPS in his 19 home starts, but a .731 OPS in his away starts. He was untouchable at home, but merely average on the road. Likewise, Fausto allowed only a .238 average against at home, but that jumped to .259 on the road. 19/
These stats weren’t really noticed, since their win-loss splits were even. But these underlying numbers reared their head in the ALCS. CC and Fausto were scheduled to start games 1, 2, 5, and 6, and losing home-field meant that 3 of these games were on the road. 20/
In those 3 road games, they got lit up. CC gave up 8 runs in Game 1, Fausto gave up 4 runs in 4 innings in Game 2, and he gave up 7 runs in Game 6. Compare to two good home starts in the ALDS, including Fausto’s famous Bug Game in ALDS Game 2. 21/
https://www.mlb.com/news/bug-game-forever-part-of-tribe-yankees-lore-c257346172
Cleveland was so close in that ALCS, blowing a 3-1 lead. And while a series victory against Colorado was not assured, the Rockies, who were coming into the World Series on the highest of highs, got demolished by Boston, outscored 29-10 in the sweep. 22/
Cleveland baseball history is littered with postseason heartbreak. 1954, 1997, 2016. But for me, age 16, living the most exciting sports year of his life (with a 10-6 Browns season and the Cavs' Finals trip), 2007 will stick with me as a year where we could have had it all. 23/
There were plenty of what-ifs on that 2007 team. A game against the Orioles was protested because the umps added a Baltimore run 3 innings after it happened. And Cliff Lee, the next year’s Cy Young winner, was so bad that he was demoted to AAA and left off the playoff roster. 24/
But when I think of that stacked 2007 team, and honestly any time it snows in April, I think of Mike Hargrove, the Human Rain Delay, standing in the snow and arguing with the umpires about whether Paul Byrd gets to throw one more pitch to perhaps finish the game. 25/
Hargrove, by the way, resigned suddenly during that 2007 season. He’s the only manager since 1900 to do so after a winning streak of 8+ games. All he offered was that his “passion has begun to fade.”
Hargrove still lives in the Cleveland area today. 26/ https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=2922500
Hargrove still lives in the Cleveland area today. 26/ https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=2922500
Is this story a stretch? Yes. Can it still be one that I feel and believe deeply, even if nobody else does? Surely. We get out of sports what we put in, and what we put in is so tied to our own experiences that our takeaways must be different. It’s a mirror, to some extent. 27/
But it’s a mirror that still includes a shared experience. We understand each other through the narratives we value and the perspectives we provide. It's a tangled pile of stories, with different ones that may catch my eye as a Cleveland sports fan as compared to yours. 28/
I’m in no way implying that my Mariners story is an important part of their overall narrative, or even an important part of any narrative other than mine. But as sports fandom is just an emotional bet you make, the personal is as worthwhile to explore as the collective. 29/
And it just goes to show how rich those narratives can be, how there’s always more behind the story you know. As @jon_bois once said at the conclusion of a 94-minute meditation on a single name: 30/
“If there’s a lesson, it’s that. There are no dull stories. People are full of wonder. No matter how you study our history, you will always, always find it.” 31/31
Anyway, thank you, @jon_bois, and also @terrypluto and @JPosnanski, for keeping those stories alive for me and everyone. They shape our sense of the world.
And I’m sure others are using that sense productively, even if I’m doing crap like this. 32/31 https://subwayrecord.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/every-browns-loss-since-1999-ranked/
And I’m sure others are using that sense productively, even if I’m doing crap like this. 32/31 https://subwayrecord.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/every-browns-loss-since-1999-ranked/
And thank you, @PaulByrd36, @CC_Sabathia, and everybody on that 2007 team that got us so close. These things, and our individual and collective memories of them, matter.
