Game 162, The Seattle Mariners, And You
Last year the Seattle Mariners played a 162nd regular season game, as they are wont to do. It was the last game of their season, but it was played with the possibility that there would be at least one more. Or at least, it began with such a possibility. Midway through that game the Oakland A’s wrapped up their victory the Texas Rangers and clinched the AL’s final playoff spot. It was a rather anticlimatic conclusion to what had promised to be a thrilling day.
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That’s not going to happen again. Not because the Mariners aren’t going to be playing meaningful baseball this September – it’d be a total bummer if the Mariners aren’t playing meaningful baseball this September, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that MLB came up with a great way to afford game 162 every opportunity to be as dramatic and enticing as possible.
On the last day of the 2015 regular season, every single MLB game will start at the same time. No more checking the scoreboard to find out that the playoff race is over while your favorite team’s game is still in the fifth inning – everything’s going to be synced up. This is good news for everyone.
What if the Mariners hadn’t known the result of A’s-Rangers halfway through their game with the Angels? They wouldn’t have pulled Felix Hernandez and Robinson Cano to mid-game ovations, that’s for sure. Maybe they wouldn’t have even pulled Felix at all. He looked amazing, you know. They would have had to play the whole game as if it were a playoff contest, instead of admitting halfway through that their season was over.
Remember 2011? The simultaneous drama of Orioles-Red Sox and Rays-Yankees, with all the drama of Dan Johnson sending it to extras, then the Orioles walking off, then Evan Longoria‘s line drive walk-off to put Tampa Bay in the playoffs. That beats the hell out of Felix getting pulled because there’s nothing left to play for.
Kudos to MLB for making this change. We were all excited for the last day of the 2014 season, and then it wasn’t as exciting as it could have been. Hopefully there will be an opportunity for someone else to enjoy game 162 as much this year as Rays fans did in 2011. But not Mariners fans, since you know the M’s are totally clinching the West in August. Totally.