With news that the first two series of the season have been cancelled due to the Major League Baseball (MLB) owners continued lockout of players, anxious Mariners fans worry that the team’s record 20-year streak of failing to reach the postseason is in jeopardy.
“The owners are keeping the players out, they’re keeping the fans out, and they’re jeopardizing the longest running streak of incompetence in all of American professional sports,” said Sarah Roth, a Mariners fan and blogger. “This lockout has got to end. How can we fail at getting to the playoffs when there isn’t even a season?”
Mariners team officials insist there’s no reason to worry about the labor dispute affecting the club’s continued futility.
“Once we’ve clawed back more money from the players, we’re confident baseball and the fans will return to see their beloved M’s fall short yet again,” said Ray Argyros, a spokesperson for the organization. “Even if one of the concessions we get is an expanded wild card bracket where half the league is eligible, I‘m confident we can keep the streak alive. We have contingency measures in place to squander our exciting young talent, most of whom couldn’t walk the last time we made the post-season. If we could waste the primes of Ichiro and King Felix, just think of what we can do with Julio Rodriguez. This team isn’t just built to lose now—it’s built to lose forever.”
Argyros said he admits he’s not sure if there will be enough time for fans to foolishly get their hopes up of reaching the postseason for them to be sufficiently heartbroken when they’re inevitably eliminated.
“Who knows, but fingers crossed this year is ten times as painful as the end of last year’s season.”
