SEATTLE — I first started covering the Mariners at the end of the 1985 season, when the manager was Chuck Cottier (but not for long), and the modest hope of fans was pinned (futilely, it turned out) on the likes of Mike Moore, Mark Langston, Phil Bradley and Spike Owen.
I headed to the Bay Area from 1987-96, but returned in time to feel the afterglow of the 1995 miracle playoff run. And I’ve been here ever since, chronicling the ups and downs — but mostly the downs and down-farthers — of this organization.
That’s a long way of saying not just that I’m old, which Seattle Times Mariners beat writer Ryan Divish has already told you ad nauseam, but that I’ve been around for a lot of incarnations of Mariners baseball. And I feel fairly confident in saying that I don’t think I’ve seen a Mariner team that has inspired the level of vitriol of this one.
