June 4th: SEA vs BAL

Happy Pride Night, and to honor the entire Greater Seattle Area Polycule, the Seattle Mariners lost to the Baltimore Orioles in a one-run game.

Regardless of that outcome, it's important to remember that Seattle is not only a young, queer city, also a baseball city. Wearing a Mariners hat can feel like wearing a big rainbow flag sometimes, and I wouldn't want anything less.

The truth is that Seattle has always been queer. Gay bars and gay bath houses, owned by queer people for queer people, as early as the 1930s. The history is a really interesting one, including bribing police not to raid gay bars, the Dorian Society, and more. When I say Seattle is queer, I mean Seattle has always been queer, almost loudly so, before anyone even thought about baseball in "Southern Alaska".

The Mariners started doing Pride Night during the 2016 season, which makes 2026's pride night the 10th year in a row they've done it. With all the bullshit happening now, even if it's motivated by capitalism and greed, the Mariners vocal support for queerness has been reflected by the likes of Julio Rodriguez, and even Ken Griffey Jr., who said about a potential gay teammate in 2005, "if you can play, you can play".

But... isn't the point of these posts supposed to be a game recap? I've digressed here.

I'm going to digress further.

Twitter casuals wonder why the Mariners won't go after Jarren Duran.

Is this the only reason? No. Is this probably one of them? Yes. When one of your biggest stars is following a path that Nipsey Hussle would be proud of, Jarren Duran doesn't have a place on your roster.

Anyway, Pride Night at T-Mobile Park. Ma Nishtana, right?