If I mentioned 1-for-97, what would immediately come to your mind?
No, it’s not how many hits Dylan Moore had in his last 97 at-bats with the Mariners.
One is the number of championships the city of Seattle has had in a combined 97 seasons for the Seahawks and the Mariners. We all remember when that happened - during the 2013 season when the Seahawks crushed the Broncos in the Super Bowl.
When it comes to just plain old appearances in the Super Bowl or the World Series, Seattle’s NFL team and Major League Baseball team have combined for only three, all by the Seahawks in 2005, 2013 and 2014.
As you know, the Mariners are the only MLB team to have never played in the World Series, even blowing it in 2001 when they won a record 116 games.
Further research would no doubt discover other cities with hapless histories, but I’d put Seattle at the top or near the top of anyone’s Most Consistently Pathetic Cities list based on sporadic success by its major sports teams.
But don’t you think that just might change this year? Don’t you sense that the Mariners might be equipped enough to appear in their first World Series and maybe even win the whole thing?
And the Seahawks? Could you at least make a case for a surprising run to the Super Bowl in Mike Macdonald’s second season?
All right, if I’m shooting too high, how about lowering the bar a bit. I’ll predict that for the first time ever, the Mariners and Seahawks will both win their divisions this year.
Yep, that’s never happened. The Mariners have finished first in the AL West only three times - in 1995, ‘97 and 2001. The Seahawks have won 11 division titles - nine in the NFC West and two in the AFC West - but none occurred when the Mariners won the AL West.
This is the time of year when we usually shift our attention from the Mariners to the Seahawks. Our hopes for the Mariners are typically fading in late August, but this year they’re hanging around as playoff and AL West title contenders.
They’ll probably make it to the postseason as a wild-card team, currently holding a four-game lead over Kansas City for the last playoff spot.
And the Mariners are only 1 1/2 games behind the Astros in the AL West but have more firepower in their bats and a better pitching staff, components that should allow them to overtake Houston in the final month of the season.
Once they’re in the playoffs, the Mariners have as good of a shot as any other team to win the World Series with their starters, back-end relievers and beefed-up lineup.
In a rare turn of events, it’s easier to build an argument for the Mariners than the Seahawks as the most likely Seattle team to do postseason damage. But it’s not a pipe dream to suggest that the Seahawks could win their division too.
They might have the longest odds to win the NFC West at 5-1 at Draft Kings, but does anyone look at the 49ers, Rams or Cardinals as assuredly being better than the Seahawks?
I’m guessing they will benefit from the same thing that’s helping the Mariners - playing in a weak division this year. Or if you don’t want to call the NFC West weak, how about short of elite? I don’t think any one of the four teams will win more than 10 games, and the Seahawks won 10 games last year. Why can’t they do it again this year with a new offensive coordinator and a supposedly improved defense?
So let’s go back to the original premise and raise the bar again to a city winning a World Series and Super Bowl in the same year [Editor’s note: this depends on the distinction between calendar years and sports team seasons]. According to some AI bot on the Internet, this has happened only five times in modern day history:
1969: New York - Jets and Mets.
1970: Baltimore - Colts and Orioles.
1979: Pittsburgh - Steelers and Pirates.
1986: New York - Giants and Mets.
2018: Boston - Patriots and Red Sox.
Don’t you think, even with all of your hopelessness in the past, that this could be the year? If you believe in sports gods like I do, don’t you think the football gods and baseball gods are meeting at a heavenly corner bar somewhere, discussing the thought of allowing the seemingly impossible to finally show up?
Why not here this year? It’s time to turn 1-for-97 into 3-for-99. This is rich coming from me, a born skeptic and cynic, but let’s think positive and give that AI bot a new addition to the list. 2025: Seattle - Seahawks and Mariners.
Jim Moore has covered Washington’s sports scene from every angle for multiple news outlets. He appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10 a.m. on Jason Puckett’s podcast at PuckSports.com. He writes a Substack blog at jimmoorethego2guy.substack.com. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) @cougsgo.