PDA

View Full Version : The Weight of Success.....


10-09-2001, 11:24 AM
....is the anchor hanging from the Mariners necks as they take their 116 win season into the post-season. No matter how you try to spin it, their season is a failure if they don't win it all. Without the next 11 wins, all that people will remember was a team having a career regular season that couldn't get it done in the post-season. No matter who they face assuming they get by Cleveland, they are going to have their hands full. Oakland-Yankees might be the best playoff series since, well, last year's Oakland-Yankees series that went the full 5 games.


As a big-time Yankee fan, I am extremely skeptic about their chances of 4-peating, as I consider both Oakland and Seattle superior temas to the Bombers. Having said that, I can't wait to play the games because everything else is just b.s.


Let the games begin

10-09-2001, 07:57 PM
think that the yankees can be beaten ...everyone else is a bunch of chokers...we will see,,,by the way congratulations to wb for hid great bet over 109 total wins mariners..jmho...gl

10-10-2001, 10:33 AM
.....and I hope Cleveland continues to play lights out!


Imagine the embarrassment of a team winning 116 games and failing to get out of the 1st round?


Oakland has been the best team in baseball for the lst 2/3 of the season - let's see of they have championship mettle!

10-10-2001, 03:35 PM
I've had this debate with a number of people over the last couple months...is the Mariner's season a total loss without a ring? My answer has been an unwavering "No!". They were "expected" to win about half of their games. They practically wrote a new record book.


Look, people all year have been saying that this might be one of the greatest teams ever. Of course they will never earn those accolades without winning the last game of the year, but only one team will win the world series. Is the season a complete loss for every team except for that one team? Was the season a complete loss for the Phillies? For the Twins? Of course not.


How do you rate the success of a team? Obviously a ring is one way, wins is another, but the ultimate measure is in the pocket book. Do you generate fan interest? Expand you fan base? Increase ticket sales? Increase merchandise sales? If you do these things, you've had a successful season. Baseball players play baseball for the paycheck. The better they play, the more they make. It just so happens that the better you play, the better chance you have to win.


Quite frankly, Mark McGwire and his .188 Batting Average didn't do much to help his team. But he still had a "successful" year, because he put butts in the seats. Chicks dig the long ball.


Likewise, the Mariners set a team record for attendance. Their marketing has never been better (especially when you consider INTERNATIONAL marketing), even when they had the Big 3. They have a huge fan base in America, even moreso when you remember that they are a west-coast team.


The fact is that they massively overacheived, became widely loved, and are one of the greatest teams ever, regardless of what October says. They will not be remembered as such if they don't win the series, but that doesn't change the facts.


Worm

10-10-2001, 04:04 PM
They will absolutely be remebered for choking if they don't win it all. Case closed. They'll become the new baseball version of the Buffalo Bills.


All great teams win it all - they don't stop halfway thru October - the big Red Machine, the '68 Tigers, the battling A's, the '98, '61, and '27 Yankees all had 1 thing in common: they won it all. Great teams don't get beaten. If they don't win it all, their regular season record will be tainted. I believe the Yankees proved last year that the regular season means jack - as long as you qualify for the playoffs. They lost 15 out of theirn last 20, or something like that, but 'turned it on' come October.


That their marketing and attendance is way up is without question, but I wasn't referring to that in my original post - just that they have the pressure squarely on them BECAUSE they won 116 games.


One lst note, I picked Seattle to win it all earlier this year. I felt then, that the regular season game after they blew a 12 run lead to Cleveland, the Mariners came out the next night and jumped right on the Indians and won easy - showing me they have the right stuff to be champions. This series isn't over even if they head back to Cleveland 0-2, that's how good I think Seattle is. But, I stand by my statement, if they don't win it all, they'll be known as the chokers who won 116 regular season games.

10-10-2001, 04:29 PM
Yes, they will be remembered as chokers. But that doesn't mean that


"their season is a failure if they don't win it all."


If you take a college class, ace every midterm and project, but then get a lowly C- on the final, was your experience a "failure". Does it lose some significance and glimmer? Absolutely. But a failure? No way.


Any team that SHATTERS expectations, has a huge financial year, has massively increased its fan base, wins 116 games, leads the division wire-to-wire when they were expected to be in 3rd the whole way DID NOT FAIL. Period. Could they have done better? Yes. But did they fail? No. I can't figure out why people disagree with this. . .


Worm