Thursday Quote: Ability

Being in a very pensive mood today, I thought I would introduce the Thursday Quote; a weekly entry where I will use a great quote from history to talk about the Mariners. Today's quote will be from the accomplished American author of detective fiction, Martha Grimes, who earned a bachelor's degree and a masters degree at the University of Maryland (GO TERPS!), just about 45 minutes from where I live. She said:

"We don't know who we are until we see what we can do."

At the end of last season, Mariner fans everywhere were distraught with the fact that a third straight losing season had concluded, and left us in the basement of the AL West as it had done in the two years prior. Some of us were glad that it was finally over, some of us were melancholy going into the long winter's nap without Mariners baseball. But from either perspective, distraught definitely applied. After the initial depression faded, we looked to the one man that could change things, the one man that could give us hope in 2007. That man: Bill Bavasi. We anticipated that "big signing" throughout the entire off-season. We were positive that we would land a studly starting pitcher to bring the Mariner rotation to a new level; you know, like a Zito or a Schmidt. Agonizing days passed and no starting pitcher. Schmidt went to the Dodgers, Zito, to the Giants, and soon enough, the free agent market for pitchers was dwindling down to a few have-beens, who were in for hefty payoffs simply because they were all that was left. On December 7th, Bavasi traded away the injury-prone fireballer Rafael Soriano for left-handed starter Horacio Ramirez; a move that many Mariner fans were outraged over, including myself. Just a week later on December 14th we signed Miguel Batista, a versatile pitcher who we knew wasn't what we wanted or needed, but we were just happy to see something get done that didn't involve giving up prospects. To round off the pitcher acquisitions, we signed the inconsistent Jeff Weaver to a grossly expensive contract on January 29th, 2007. Surely this was one holiday season that Mariner fans wanted to forget. Bill Bavasi was considered the Grinch who stole Christmas from the M's, or maybe even an evil Santa who left only coal in our stockings. Mariner Nation was now convinced that the 07 season was lost for good.

Winter has long since left, and the summer heat has burned away the doubt and depression that was the Seattle Mariners. To everyone's surprise, we've managed to bring a winning record into mid-July. Not hovering above and below the .500 line, not a few games over, but 14 games over. The hope that was lost has now been found, and we are feeding off of our newly-found energy and enthusiasm. We are in a position that we never thought we would be in, just 1.5 games behind the Angels in the division and just a game out of the wildcard. Just as the Ancient Mariner did in Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", we have cast the dead albatross from our neck and moved onto the brighter side of life. Winning has opened up a channel for us to see the true character of a team that we thought was dead in the water. Regardless of what happens the rest of the way, Mariner fans should come out of this season with a new perspective. We should never pre-judge our team based on statistics or what ESPN says about us. More than anything, the character our team has displayed is responsible for the way we are playing. This 2007 season so far is just a microcosm, a single example in the scheme of things, based on the simple idea that "we don't know who we are until we see what we can do."