Distractions will be few in 2020.

No international games. No overwrought farewells for one-time heroes. The ways to celebrate Edgar Martinez's Hall of Fame induction will dwindle to maybe half a dozen. There won't even be the bearded-lady novelty of a real All-Star such as big-bucks Edwin Encarnacion passing through town for a few games until a good team panics during the season and trades for him.

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As the sports world knows, the Mariners haven’t been to the postseason for 18 years, an absence longer than any current franchise in baseball, football or basketball. But at least 16 of the players they have traded or let go the past couple years reached the postseason this month, including several for the first time.

At least some people with Seattle ties are enjoying personally the MLB postseason.

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This is the 18th consecutive season the Mariners have not made the playoffs, the longest current stretch of any team in major American pro sports. Seattle has never reached the World Series, the only current major league franchise that has never done so (the Washington Senators did so before they moved to D.C. from Montreal and became the Nationals).

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In February 2013, when the Mariners announced their massive contract extension for Felix Hernandez, which is coming to its merciful end next week, two developments foreshadowed the move.

After a third consecutive losing season (75 wins, following seasons of 67 and 61), Mariners' average attendance in 2012 at then-Safeco Field fell to 21,258, still the stadium's all-time low. Considering that 10 years earlier, the average was 43,710, the Mariners had lost half their in-house audience.

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The Mariners season has been in magnum dwindle for so long that it's easy to lose track, especially in the formidable shadow of the sprained-ankle portion of the Seahawks season. But every once in a while the baseball gods like to cross the streams with some unscripted intrigue that looks as if it were intentional: James Paxton in his first return to Seattle since being traded to the Yankees, facing off against the youngster, Justus Sheffield, who was the Mariners' prize in the four-player November deal.

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When Felix Hernandez made his return to the mound Saturday night after missing more than three months to injury, he wore King Felix on the back of his jersey. That’s because all players, per an MLB marketing gimmick, were wearing nicknames for the weekend. Wearing King Felix made sense because of his amazing 15-year career with the Mariners, even if the sentiment behind it no longer seemed relevant.

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In most of the aisle-end seats at T-Mobile Park, there is an image of Fred Hutchinson, showing the Seattle native as he prepares to deliver a pitch. Those images have been there since the park opened 20 years ago. For good reason. Fred Hutchinson means a lot to Seattle. And elsewhere.

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Another day, another Mariners embarassment. This time, it's Tim Beckham. The 29-year-old shortstop was suspended for 80 games Tuesday by MLB for the use of stanozolol, an old-school performance-enhancing steroid on the sport's banned list. He's done for this season, and the punishment will linger into next season for any team signing him.

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My seminal cringe-worthy Mariners game was the 1992 season opener. It was the first game following the stunning news a few months earlier that, from out of nowhere, international man of mystery Hiroshi Yamauchi bought the franchise from Jeff Smulyan to keep him from moving it to Tampa Bay.

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Mike Leake, 31, nearly pitched a perfect game two starts ago for the Mariners against the Angels and their Terminator, Mike Trout. Such is the wackiness of MLB that his value at the trade deadline Wednesday was a mere high-A infielder.

Jose Caballero, 22, was hitting .268 in the Diamondbacks system. He has 28 stolen bases, so if he does make the majors, it appears he's fast enough to keep the Mariners out of a few double plays. Incremental value, yes; but something.

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COOPERSTOWN, NY -- Officially inducted Sunday afternoon, Yankees closer Mariano Rivera was the first voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by every single BBWAA voter. Not even Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron or Ken Griffey Jr. were unanimous.

Meanwhile, Edgar Martinez did not get voted in until his 10th and final year of eligibility in January.

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Just about all that can be said about Edgar Martinez has been said, more than a few times. The 10-year wait for baseball writers to recognize the Mariners star's Hall of Fame bona fides provided more runway for scientific analysis than President Kennedy gave NASA 59 years ago to get men on the moon.

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Anticipation and astonishment are two expectations that are marbled into the fundamental appeal of big-time spectator sports. Most fans don't think of their sports passions in those terms, but the characteristics seem more topical now, if only for their absence in local baseball.

Ahead of MLB's July 31 trade deadline, it can be said the Mariners have neither going for them.

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Not only did the U.S. Women's National Team defend its World Cup title, they appear to be taking rental of the crown as the globe's hottest celebs. After a ticker-tape parade Wednesday morning for the champs in New York City's Canyon of Heroes (webcast here), the team will immediately depart for a flight to Los Angeles, where in the evening, the soccer champs will be hailed at the annual ESPY sports awards.

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Entering the weekend, the Mariners were said by the gambling site BetOnline.ag to have odds of 1,000-to-1 to win the 2019 World Series. While that will surprise no one who watched this season -- particularly the 25,816 who Sunday observed the sheet-soiling first inning of a 7-4 loss (box) to the Oakland A's at T-ball Park -- the noteworthy aspect is that those odds were better than five other MLB teams.

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The happiest Mariners employee Sunday afternoon was Daniel Vogelbach. The most gratified employee had to be general manager Jerry Dipoto, who had taken three years of grief for acquiring Vogelbach at the cost of Mike Montgomery, a versatile starter/reliever who helped the Chicago Cubs win the 2016 World Series.

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The Mariners are upon a minor anniversary, one unlikely to inspire the sentimental fetes for which the club's marketers are locally renowned. On July 5, 2018, the Mariners beat the Angels 4-1. Their ninth win in 10 games improved the record to 56-32, two games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West.

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Gary Bell was born in 1936. George Kirby was born in 1998. Their career arcs as right-handed pro pitchers crossed Saturday afternoon in Seattle through the ethereal Pilots, a single-year sports wormhole that flawlessly connected flawed moments in major league baseball.

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The Mariners Saturday will be acknowledging, or commemorating -- "celebrating" doesn't seem quite the right word -- the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Seattle Pilots, the awkward runt of MLB that lasted a single season. Enough time has passed that the criminal ineptitude of the operation now seems more like a childhood prank on the order of stuffing Aunt Thusnelda's wig down the toilet.

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Since the Mariners pitching staff was, entering Sunday, 26th in MLB in strikeouts (561), next to last in earned run average (5.49) and WHIP (1.47), and last in batting average against (.274), it is understandable that general manager Jerry Dipoto senses a bit of a deficiency there.

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