What's up, South End?
I'm coming to you this week live from my own lonely island. I'm the only person I know who isn't excited for the Mariners.
Look. I'm not rooting against the Mariners. I just don't have it in me to root for them.
Growing up in Seattle, baseball was my first love. I played in the city league at Garfield community center. I batted left-handed just like Griffey (I'm not a lefty and would have been so much better off batting properly).
I was at the 2001 MLB All-Star Game at Safeco Field. At my mom's house, I still have a signed pennant flag from the 2001 team that I won in a contest at Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club.
The Mariners have always been Seattle's team. But as a young kid, convinced we would win it all in 2001, my dreams and fanhood were shattered by the Yankees. I never recovered.
And I watched as everyone in my whole world rooted for the Mariners season after mediocre season. The decades-long playoff drought y'all suffered. I never hopped back on the bandwagon. Not even in 2022, when y'all had the "Believe" campaign and they won a playoff series — I was live on KUOW telling the city that I did not believe.
Now, I'm hearing this year will be different. This is the Mariners' year. Maybe it is. I'm not going to rain on y'alls parade like I've done in the past. I've matured. I'll watch from afar and even be happy for y'all, whatever the outcome is.
To get ready for the playoffs, I spoke with former Seattle sports writer Glenn Nelson. Most of us remember him as the Seattle Times NBA columnist (and at the Emerald, we know him as Executive Director Florangela Davila's husband), but Glenn loves baseball and spoke with me about how he fell in love with the sport, why Seattle loves the Mariners so much, and his playoff prediction.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
MD: You're known as an NBA guy. Where did your love of baseball come from?
GN: I was born in Japan. My late mother is from there. We came over when I was months old on a boat to San Francisco and then up here. Baseball in Japan is like football here. I grew up on Beacon Hill, and then this is going to age me, but we had the Pilots for one year playing down in Mount Baker where the Lowe's is now. My dad took us to a bunch of those games, and then I had my heart ripped out because they moved to Milwaukee after one year. When you're a young kid growing up in Seattle, the easiest sport to follow remotely is baseball, because you can get the story, the narrative of the game, just by looking at the box score. So, I used to pore over the box scores. You know, read everything I could about baseball. It's kind of what set me on my path of being a sports writer.
MD: What is it about the Mariners that pulls everyone in? The love of the Mariners feels unique even with us having other teams here.
GN: In every sport, people talk about how fanatical Seattle crowds are. I think that's a product of geographical isolation, and we kind of have a chip on our shoulder. You could say it's a Seattle thing. You're in a small town, you're isolated, and you're surrounded by this natural beauty — and then you get disrespect. No one talks about you nationally. So when something good happens, you kind of have a chip on your shoulder about it. So you win the NBA championship in '79 and you're just overboard in love, and then you win the Super Bowl. But with baseball, baseball is an everyman's game. You don't have to be 7 feet tall to play. You don't have to be 300 pounds to play. So it's a more relatable game. In my generation, every kid grew up playing sandlot ball.
MD: I know it's early, and we don't know who we are going to play. But do you have a prediction? Do you think we will win at least a series this year?
GN: They already won a series in 2022, so we've witnessed the Mariners winning a series in the playoffs. When I was at The Seattle Times, I helped to cover that 1995 Mariners season, and then the playoff run, and that was a miracle. I've seen the Sonics go to the NBA finals on my watch. So, I've seen miracles happen. And this team, its lineup is as deep as they've ever had. And they have pitching. Those two ingredients are the formula that equals winning. So I think they're as good as anybody in the American League. So it's not going to be surprising if they go to the league championship, and I wouldn't be surprised if they win the World Series. I'm not predicting it, because I don't know how it's going to unfold yet, but definitely the team they'd draw, as the bracket stands now in the American League Division Series, is a team they can beat if it's Detroit or Cleveland, because they've already done so. And then they'll be here. That's huge.
Emerald contributor Maya Tizon reports the Seattle City Council voted unanimously in favor of a bill that will give density bonuses to development projects in historically marginalized communities.
The "Roots to Roofs" bill, sponsored by Councilmembers Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Mark Solomon, intends to increase housing options and make more affordable housing available.
Community members, however, are split on the potential effectiveness of the legislation. Last month, a group of elders from the Central District wrote an op-ed opposing the bill.
You can get the full rundown of the bill and the community responses in Maya's article.
Save the date! The Emerald's 6th annual T'Challaween will be on Beacon Hill on Oct. 25.
The event is a celebration of the heroes in our lives and communities. And I could give you all the boilerplate official language on the event — but y'all know me better than that.
T'Challaween is fun! It's a parade of kids in costumes with volunteers and community members passing out candy along the way. Neighbors participate with candy chutes from front porches and little parties to wave at the costumed kids. This is our big event, and we hope to see everyone there.
We do need volunteers. If you're available to lend a helping hand, please let us know.
You can get all the details (parade route, volunteer sign-up, etc.) in Emerald contributor Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero's latest article.
Dr. Quintard Taylor recently passed, and there have been many words written in many publications and social media posts in remembrance of Dr. Taylor, who, among many other accomplishments, founded BlackPast.org.
Emerald columnist and editor-at-large Lola E. Peters wrote these beautiful words in memory of Dr. Taylor.
This is an abbreviated version of The Roundup newsletter. To get the entire newsletter, including a weekly list of events to check out and my shout-out to South End Gems, subscribe here. See you next week!
Mike Davis is the newsletter editor and Voices editor at the South Seattle Emerald. Born and raised in Seattle's South End, Mike is a longtime journalist who's covered everything from arts and culture to sports to politics.
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