Tag: Seattle Pilots

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Ex-Mariner of the Year: Ross Eversoles Bracket

The page is brown. It’s fifty years old, of course, half a century since I slid a buck and a quarter of lawn mowing money across the counter in Jess Ruttles’ Port Gamble General Store, when Mom turned her back to grab a couple cans of chili. Half a century since a book changed me forever.

No filter. The page has faded but the final words of Ball Four are as true as ever. Copyright – the late Jim Bouton.

It’s brown with age, and it’s brown from flipping to the end countless times in those fifty years.

“…would I do that? When it’s over for me, would I be hanging on with the Ross Eversoles?”

Do you think, when Jim Bouton wrote those words, paused, held his pen over the paper, deciding what to write next… Do you think he knew they’d lead into the greatest closing line of any book ever?

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Ex-Mariner of the Year — MLB postseason bracket

Our home team boys packed up their stuff and left town in September. But 25 ex-Mariners didn’t go home when the 2020 postseason started. Instead, gracing the rosters of new squads, they girded their respective loins for a World Series run. Only one would earn the ring. But would that be enough to garner the coveted Ex-Mariner of the Year (Xmoty)? Let’s revisit the top candidates.

Felix: You think they do this kinda stuff in Atlanta?

Alert and devoted reader Steve from Spokane suggested way back in August that the opted-out Felix Hernandez was a fabulous candidate for Xmoty honors. But Steve, we said, Felix didn’t even play this year. Took himself off the roster. It was the Rona. Exactly, said Steve. And if Atlanta goes deep in October without him, doesn’t he deserve recognition for staying the hell out of the way? Great point, Steve. The Braves went on to lead the NLCS 3 games to 1 but coughed up the series to the Dodgers. How might that have played with the King in the house? Steve seems to know the answer. We’re not so sure over here.

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Your 2019 Ex-Mariner of the Year is…

Pitchers and catchers report to Mariners camp in just eight days. Winter wasn’t so long was it? Over here at Playin’ in the Dirt we spent the offseason deliberating how the hell to come up with a winner. A man fully representative of the perils, glories, and heartbreaks of ex-Marinerdom. A man fit to join our grand pantheon, a man worthy of the title Ex-Mariner of the Year.

A look at our past awardees:
2016: Mike Montgomery
2017: Munenori Kawasaki
2018: Mike Marjama

“When it’s over for me, would I be hanging on with the Ross Eversoles?”
– RIP Jim Bouton

We’ve lost track of how many beloved ex-hometown favorites are out there, still dancing on basepaths somewhere north of the Ross Eversoles. But just a few stood out, for us, in 2019. Continue reading “Your 2019 Ex-Mariner of the Year is…”

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Still 30 years old, still dreaming

Everybody likes to quote the story’s closing line. It’s a classic, no doubt. But the opener sticks with you. And those first few words stay fresh, forever young, while the part about the baseball gripping you back, well, it gets overdone and worn and cheesy.

Here’s to Jim Bouton, pullin’ up a chair and poundin’ some ol’ Budweiser with Schultz, Mincher, and Oyler.

“I’m thirty years old and I have these dreams,” Jim Bouton began in 1969. Jim Bouton died this week. The papers said he was 80. But he’s still right there in our memories, in the green shining grass of that one unforgettable season of Pilots  baseball, and he’ll never be anything but thirty. Still dreaming. still grousing about Schultz and Milkes, still searching for a place to fit. And we, the lucky fans who saw him pitch, who snuck a peek at his book on the grocery store shelf a year later, who saved our dimes and bought a copy when mom wasn’t looking, well, we still have dreams too. Continue reading “Still 30 years old, still dreaming”