Angie Mentink AI video takes lead for dumbest Mariners 'controversy' of 2026

Here we were thinking that Seattle Mariners-related controversies couldn't get dumber than the Cal Raleigh-Randy Arozarena handshake drama. And then someone went and covertly filmed Mariners TV broadcaster Angie Mentink while she was using A.I. and posted it online, apparently as a "gotcha!" thing.

In case anyone is in the dark, this whole thing started with a post on Thursday from a user on X. It contained cell phone footage shot from over Mentink's shoulder while she was working a game, in which she could be seen typing, “Good questions after a tough loss in baseball.”

This was apparently meant to portray Mentink as too incompetent to know what to do after the Mariners took a brutal loss to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday. The post went viral, in part because Barstool Sports gave it a signal boost.

But as one can tell from how both their post and the original post are now no longer accessible, it's pretty clear who was in the wrong.

Viral video of Mariners reporter only proved how many people have her back

Any time someone films someone else and posts the footage online without the other person's consent, that's out of line at best and wrong at worst. And in this case, the original poster even had the nerve to misrepresent the timing of the footage. It was shot at T-Mobile Park, not at Petco Park where the Mariners had lost the previous night.

Further, using A.I. to ask for help generating questions is nowhere near as across the line as asking A.I. to make up quotes. And then there's the kinda-sorta very important context that Mentink is two months removed from suffering a stroke. At least momentarily, it caused real doubts as to whether she would be able to return to work covering the Mariners.

Frankly, she had every reason to not take this in stride. Yet she did anyway, basically laughing the whole thing off on X:

Otherwise, it was truly gratifying to see how many people went on the attack in defense of Mentink. It wasn't merely fellow travelers in the Mariners media circle. National media personalities came to her defense as well, as did countless Mariners fans and Mentink appreciators.

No broadcaster has a 100 percent approval rating, but Mentink is basically a Seattle institution. She was a softball legend at the University of Washington and a professional women's baseball player before she got into broadcasting. She's been covering the Mariners since 1997 as a mainstay on the field and in the booth.

As alleged controversies go, at least the Cal-Randy thing had real intrigue to it. What Angie Mentink was put through was just plain uncool, even if it did bring her strongest supporters out of the woodwork.

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