In less than 24 hours, the Seattle Mariners will face the Astros in Houston to begin their best-of-five division series.
That’s after their incredible wild card sweep against Toronto in their first playoff bid in 21 years.
The improbable post-season run has given us viral videos of fans jumping for joy. That includes some Snoqualmie Valley students watching last Friday’s game one win.
That video got some important eyes on it. The Mariners’ skipper mentioned the video at one of the news conferences. His wife had shown it to him.
So yes, it has definitely gone viral. And it’s not the only one.
Inside Cascade View Elementary is a fifth-grade teacher who happens to be a devoted Seattle Mariners fan.
“My whole life,” said Tim Rooney. “I remember since I was just a little kid, probably soon as I could walk, (I) loved baseball. It’s always been my favorite.”
And Rooney — Mr. Rooney to his students — is old enough to remember the 1995 Mariners, the first to pitch and hit their way into the postseason.
“Yup, I was a senior in high school,” Rooney said, “and they snuck it on the TV. And we cut a few classes to sneak in and run to the bathroom to go check on the game. It was fantastic.”
When he found out the Mariners would be breaking their latest post-season drought on a Friday, he made his students an offer they couldn’t refuse.
“Told the kids, ‘Hey, we get all of our work done and we have the last, I don’t know, 10, 15 minutes of the day. We can probably watch the first inning,’” he said. “So, ended up just working out perfect.”
So perfect, he pulled out his camera and decided to post the video.
“A couple big, big dudes picked it up,” says Rooney. “And it just kind of took off from there. And wow, my phone hasn’t stopped buzzing since then.”
His isn’t the only video to get a lot of play.
There’s a video the next day of workers at Toyota of Seattle reacting to the Ms’ historic sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays. They even did the Mariners’ “Happy Dance.”
Rooney is looking forward to seeing his students again on Tuesday.
“It’ll be good to see them,” he said, “and see the smile(s) on their faces when they walk in. And it will be game day again.”
Indeed, it will be game day again, as the Mariners try to win the American League Division Series. Come Saturday, they will be fighting for that title at home in Seattle.
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