Nine better things to do than watch nine innings of the Mariners play (and lose to) the Twins on YouTube

Seriously, find just about anything else to do, and you’re likely to have more fun

1. See the sights in the wonderful city of Seattle. The YouTube broadcast focused on a lot of the stereotypical trappings that Seattle is known for. Grunge music? Check. Seafood offerings? Check. People throwing seafood at one another in that market on a street named after a fish? All of the checks. I grew up in the greater Seattle area though, so I know firsthand that the city is one of the most beautiful, culturally diverse cities on the planet. It has so much more to offer than the stereotypical trappings if you know how to find it. Right now, I am stuck in Idaho writing about the 2022 Seattle Mariners. Meanwhile another Lookout Landing rookie, Jacob Parr, recently finished his multi-leg flights from Texas to Seattle and is going to be spending the next several days enjoying everything he can about the great Pacific Northwest. Don’t be like me, be like Jacob, and choose joy.

Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images

2. Have you tried video games? No, seriously. I am very much biased, as I have been playing video games since I was a small child, my first console being the Sega Master System. However we live in a golden age of video games. You can play games not only on specialized home devices, but on your computer, and even your phone. There are games of every variety for every type of person, AAA cinematic experiences or quirky, free puzzlers, and much, much more. All of the three major device makers even offer subscription based services that get you access to a wide catalogue of games. If you have Xbox Game Pass you’ll even have access to the most recent edition of MLB The Show, where you can enjoy all the Seattle Mariners players you know and love, with an objectively better statistical shot at winning. I am not very good at The Show, but I definitely do better than going 0-10 with runners in scoring position, like the real life Seattle Mariners did today.

3. If you are a parent, remember what it was like to be a kid, or just generally consider yourself a human being, you can try watching Bluey. Sorry, yes, I am one of those parents. We have a little one of nine months at home, and having heard good things about the show, we put it on for the baby one day. Our kid soon fell asleep, and much, much later we were still watching the show. We laughed, we cried. One of the wonderful things about the show is that it is in very digestible seven minute bites. Even better, it features characters that are flawed but trying their best, that overcome their faux pas with resilience. Maybe the 2022 Seattle Mariners should watch more Bluey.

4. Podcasts! Podcasts are one of the most accessible ways to access educational and entertaining media today. Lookout Landing offers its own podcast, and it has long been a favorite of mine. If you’re looking for another great baseball podcast, another I highly recommend is Its Never Sunny In Seattle, which discusses the Seattle Mariners from an analytics perspective. Yes, it is about the Mariners, but the astute observations and entertaining banter make up for that. If you’re a wildlife enthusiast like me you can give Just the Zoo of Us a try, where Ellen and Christian Weatherford inform about their favorite animals, and rate them based on effectiveness, ingenuity, and aesthetics. It’s also family friendly, so you can listen to it with everyone in your household if you are so inclined. My final recommendation goes to Dungeons and Daddies (not a BDSM podcast), an actual play, rules-light dungeons and dragons podcast that is hands down one of the funniest pieces of media I have ever consumed. That one is decidedly less family friendly though.

Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images

5. You can watch yesterday’s game. Or if you prefer, you can read Kate’s always enjoyable recap of it. Logan Gilbert was good. The offense was good. The bullpen was good. 10/10 recommend yesterday’s game over today’s. (To be fair, Marco Gonzales was very good today, but that doesn’t outweigh, well, everything else.)

6. You can read about the Mariners minors in yesterday’s Midshipmen’s Log. One of the best things about the 2022 Seattle Mariners is that for many of the players in the system there is indeed a bright future ahead. Some of that is already paying dividends at the big league level, like Julio Rodríguez who even doubled today, but much of it is still waiting in the wings. Lookout Landing has had extensive coverage of all things Mariner’s minor leagues this year, and if you haven’t been paying attention, you should be.

7. You can watch Everything Everywhere All at Once. Brilliant acting, amazing visuals, and a compelling story; it has everything you could hope for in a movie. I won’t spoil anything else about it, just trust me, watch it. You’ll thank me later.

8. Sing out loud. Not good at it? Doesn’t matter. Sing out loud like you’re the best singer to ever live. Sing happy songs, sing sad songs, sing goofy songs. You likely aren’t reading this if you aren’t a Mariners fan, and if I know Mariners fans, we tend to wear our heart on our sleeves. Wear your heart out loud, sing like nobody is listening.

9. If you find yourself in need of a good book, you can’t go wrong with The Soul of and Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness. At 261 pages it is a fairly light read, and it will take you into the wonders of inter-species interactions, and how much more we still have yet to learn about the creatures we share this planet with, and ourselves.

In all seriousness though, today’s game was just bad. Very little good things to talk about, and even less highlights to share, unless you are a Twins fan. Shout out to Marco Gonzales who went 6.2 innings without allowing a run. Yes, I know what the scorecard says, he technically was pegged with one earned run. In my opinion though he should have been able to finish out the inning, and Sewald is the one responsible for that run scored. Either way it doesn’t matter who takes the blame for that one run though, because one or one hundred the Mariners offense went 0-10 with runners in scoring position. Trammell was one of those runners, after turning a leadoff double into a triple on a throwing error. Another shout out goes to Jesse Winker who had himself a 2-for-3 night with a walk, providing the production you want from the DH role he was in today. So go try any of these nine things that are better than thinking about the Seattle Mariners today, or anything else you find joy in, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow when the Mariners begin a pivotal five game homestand (two on Saturday) against the rival Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim California.