Mariners In 2014 Looked Like Hollywood Script

So the 2014 Mariners shocked everyone. Not only did the Mariners finish 3rd in the American League West, but they just missed the playoffs by one game. It came down to the final game of the season but the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers to eliminate any playoff hope for the Mariners, but the M’s finished the season with a 3 game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels.

Now as a movie fan the 2014 Mariners to me reminded me of two baseball films, Major League and Little Big League. Now before you start criticizing me, yes I freakin know that in Little Big League the Mariners were the team who won their league at the end of the movie, so we have that out of the way. Now getting back to what I was saying, the Mariners 2014 season was a combination of those two movies in their own ways.

First off, let’s compare the movie Major League to the 2014 Mariners shall we? First every expert picked the M’s this season to finish last or second to last in their division. Boy did those M’s give those experts in Lou Brown’s word’s “a big ol’ s***burger to eat”. The Mariners season also saw low attendance during most of the season but did see the fan base get into the thought of October baseball.

The Mariners also saw a low during the season where they were looming around the .500 mark, they also suffered an 8 game losing streak but they found a way to put together mini win streaks and end the season so close to the playoffs. You had your flamethrower “Rick Vaughn” pitcher in King Felix Hernandez, your “Willie Mays Hayes” in James Jones, your “Pedro Cerano” in Robinson Cano, your “Jake Taylor” in Endy Chavez, basically this team was the talk of baseball but was unfortunately overshadowed by the Kansas City Royals amazing run.

As for the Little Big League comparison, just watch the movie. In Little Big League an 11-year-old boy suddenly becomes the owner of the Minnesota Twins after his grandfather passes away. Now normally this wouldn’t be a real good comparison right? Right. But again this post wouldn’t be called a comparison if there wasn’t something that was you know, in common. Near the end of the film the Twins are in the hunt for the playoffs and their entire season comes down to the final game.

The more ironic thing about Little Big League is that the final game of the year the Twins face off with non other than the Seattle Mariners! Ken Griffey, Jr., Lou Piniella, and Randy Johnson all made cameos in the film. Junior even found some time to smack a signature Jr home run in the film. Anyways that is really the only comparison that Little Big League and the 2014 Mariners have, is that both teams season and post season hopes came down to the final game of the year and both teams playoff hopes were dashed against the rocks in heartbreak.

I’m wondering which movie the 2015 Mariners will choose to portray this upcoming season? Hoping it’ll be another Major League type year but this time lets make it Major League 2, cause in the 2nd Major League, the Indians went to the World Series. Its going to be interesting though this December as the Mariners have drawn a lot of interest from some top players around the majors including Nelson Cruz, Matt Kemp, and Justin Upton.

Either way its going to be an exciting 2015 season!