SEATTLE — Stop me if you've heard it before, but this is the year.
Really. Truly. It's time for the Mariners to end the playoff drought that has become their albatross, and their shame. Beyond time. And this is the year they have the talent, the experience and the circumstances to get it done.
Yes, this sentiment is more aspirational than it is a definitive prediction. I've seen enough Mariners teams over this fallow, two-decade stretch that were touted as postseason contenders (sometimes by me!) only to flame out in spectacular fashion. In fact, it is an inescapably cruel reality that the closer the Mariners have intermittently gotten to the promised land, and the more aggressively they've tried to close the gap in the offseason, the more heartbreakingly awry has the following season gone.
