When Rob Manfred said “an overwhelming majority” of owners supported expanded playoffs, no one should have been surprised at all. Of course an overwhelming majority of owners want more teams in the playoffs, because an overwhelming majority of owners also want to make as much money as possible. More playoff opportunities = more playoff games = more money. The equation could not be any simpler.
I’d also venture to say that one of those majority of owners has to come from the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners, as we all know, have not been to the playoffs for 19-consecutive years now. Damn right they probably support expanded playoffs. If the sub .500 Houston Astros can make it in, then the Mariners might accidentally trip and fall into such a spot and finally blast the playoff curse to absolute pieces.
And that in itself is depressing and everything that is wrong with what is happening to all sports right now. The very idea of maximizing every single penny worth of profit no matter what the cost to the spirit of the game is the most American way possible. In some cases, having these uber-rich human beings make more and more money works. You get spirited owners, such as Mark Cuban, who become living mascots for their teams.
In other cases, you get the Mariners–an ownership group of nameless and faceless rich white men whose only claim to fame in life is that they have more money than the next person. They are not a group of Mark Cubans or even the soulless demon spawn of Arte Moreno. They are a group of men who tighten the purse strings when they feel the draft coming from the bottom of the bag and who are largely content on making more money each and every year by doing exactly nothing.
Now, of course, credit must be given where it is due. Occasionally, the Scrooge McDuck forgets to lock the safe properly and individuals go from rich to disgustingly wealthy (Robbie Cano, I’m looking at you). But by the fortune of middling to mediocre general managers for the past 19 years, combined with a bit of bad luck (I see you early 2000s), and a reluctance to make a big splash in free agency, the Mariners are where they are today: consistent losers.
As Mariner fans, we are all desperately clamoring for the playoffs. The story of 2020 is how many consecutive playoff games the Minnesota Twins have lost. And here we sit, just drooling uncontrollably at the idea of having the potential to even lose ONE playoff game.
On one hand, the idea of an expanded playoff means that the Mariners are now more likely to finally make the god damn October classic before the world implodes. On the other hand, the Mariners, baseball’s version of a second glass of tea made from an already used teabag, very well could stop at just that: making the playoffs. Making the playoffs is one embarrassing monkey off the back and nicely ignores the fact that the Mariners are still the only team in history to not have appeared in the World Series.
In general, teams that enter the playoffs under .500 do not make the World Series. Granted, we don’t really have the proper data points for that because baseball’s previous playoff arrangement meant only good teams make the playoffs. But, by large and far, the better to best team wins every year.
What that means is the Mariners ownership group, the kings of mediocrity, who would probably raise ticket prices 150% after one playoff season and justify it by accidentally leaking an internal racism/sexism/whatever scandal, are the ones who will have to push the Mariners over the hump. To win the World Series, a lot needs to go right. Players need to develop and free agents need to work. Oftentimes, those well-working free agents cost a tidy sum of money.
Jerry Dipoto is not going to build a World Series-level squad of talent through the farm system alone. The odds of that happening are most likely statistically impossible. The Mariners ownership will have to make the big decision, just how much money is that World Series ring worth?
