Mariners' playoff run is 'inspiring'

As they made the roughly 2,400-mile flight to Jacksonville on Friday evening, the Seattle Seahawks were tuned into the Seattle Mariners’ marathon, 15-inning, do-or-die playoff game against the Detroit Tigers.

“The Mariners game was on the whole flight,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said during his weekly conversation with Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Monday. “And then, not gonna lie, the Wi-Fi was a little not that sweet toward the end of the flight.

“But then once we landed, it’s on the phone. And then … they had it (on) in the meal room at the hotel. So all the guys, we were huddled around.”

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The Mariners, of course, ended up winning the deciding Game 5 of the American League Division Series in dramatic fashion. After nearly five hours of white-knuckle tension, Jorge Polanco delivered a walkoff single in the 15th inning that sent the Pacific Northwest into pandemonium and lifted the Mariners into the AL Championship Series for the first time since 2001.

But while most of the Seahawks are pulling for the M’s, Macdonald mentioned that a couple of players have prior allegiances that have prevented them from hopping on the bandwagon.

“I will not name names, but we’re not 100% right now on rooting for the Mariners, which is a problem,” Macdonald said. “So we’re working on a couple of those guys.”

Macdonald has a strong baseball background. According to Perfect Game, he was a third baseman at Centennial High School in Roswell, Ga., and was committed to play baseball at Army. Instead, he ended up attending the University of Georgia, where he ultimately earned a spot on the football team’s coaching staff to help kickstart his coaching career.

Macdonald said it’s been “inspiring” to watch the Mariners’ run to the ALCS this season. He said the M’s have a lot of the same qualities that he’s striving to build with the Seahawks, who are off to a 4-2 start after their road win in Jacksonville on Sunday.

“It is inspiring to watch them play,” Macdonald said. “I mean, they are absolutely relentless. And they’re just a fun team to watch, man.

“And you can see the stuff that we’re chasing here – the connection, the toughness, all those things that we say all the time that we believe in – I mean, you see that on their baseball team. It’s great.”

Mike Macdonald joins Brock and Salk om Mondays after Seahawks games at 9:30 a.m. for The Mike Macdonald Show. Listen to the full conversation at this link or watch the video in this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

Mariners’ playoff run is ‘inspiring’

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