Yesterday the Kansas City Royals clinched the AL Central division title with a win over the Mariners. This means the Mariners players had to watch while they all celebrated on the field.
It has been my experience that players and managers of opposing teams do not want to watch the other team celebrate – no matter how bad the season has been. A team can be 30 games under .500 and mathematically eliminated since May, and they don’t want to see the other team celebrate when they clinch a title.
Many years ago – I can’t recall the exact details; and this is the type of thing that is tough to look up – the Rainiers saw two teams clinch against them in less than a week. Tacoma was playing one team, they clinched the division with a win, and then a couple of days later was playing another team that clinched. I do recall the Rainiers manager being quite peeved about this.
You know who else doesn’t like clinching celebrations? The home team’s stadium operations crew, when the road team clinches.
Tacoma has a clubhouse manager who takes care of the visiting team at Cheney Stadium. If the Rainiers are playing Las Vegas, and Vegas can clinch the Pac-South with a win, the clubhouse manager has to get the champagne ready, he has to hang up plastic in front of the lockers, and worst of all… he has to clean up the mess later. Every visiting-side clubbie in the league would just as soon see a team clinch in some other city.
These aren’t problems when the home team clinches – that’s what everyone has been pulling for all season. But when it’s the road team, the general thought is “not in my backyard.”
Links:
- The Mariners lost 10-4 yesterday in Kansas City, allowing the Royals to clinch the AL-Central.
- Robinson Cano collected his 2,000th hit in the Mariners 4-3 loss to the Royals on Wednesday night.
- Bob Dutton’s Mariners Notebooks are available from today and yesterday.
- In his massive weekly notes column, Jon Heyman names who he believes are the two finalists for the Mariners vacant General Manager position.
- John McGrath wrote about My Main Man Jared Goff – and yes, there is a baseball and even a Mariners connection.
- MiLB.com posted a PCL Season In Review.
- Baseball America has a fun story on some unexpected September call-ups. One of the players featured is El Paso catcher Rocky Gale.
- More on Yogi Berra: Roger Angell is/was a contemporary of Yogi’s and he penned this remembrance for The New Yorker. Angell beautifully describes watching Berra play – something he did many times.
Have a great weekend, and we’ll have a fresh post for you on Monday afternoon.
