Mariners had unlikely good luck charm to thank for historic comeback?
The Seattle Mariners pulled off the kind of comeback that you will tell your grandkids about some day, and they may have owed it all to one fan with a vision … as well as a shoe.
Seattle stunned the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday with an unbelievable comeback from seven runs down to win their best-of-three Wild Card series and advance to the ALDS. Trailing Toronto 8-1 at one point, Seattle dropped four runs on them in the sixth inning before adding four more in the eighth and another one in the ninth to somehow eke out a 10-9 victory.
Down 8-1 after 5, the @Mariners take the lead in the top of the 9th! Wow! #postseason pic.twitter.com/6MFXtzzdvL
— MLB (@MLB) October 9, 2022
It was the greatest postseason comeback win in Mariners franchise history and was also just the third time in MLB history that a team rallied from a deficit of seven runs or more to win a playoff game. But it may never have happened if not for one fan who successfully summoned the meme gods.
Mariners executive Kevin Martinez tweeted that he saw an unidentified fan at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park watch party place a shoe on top of his head as the game went into the eighth (with the Mariners still down 9-5 at that point). Other fans followed the shoe guy’s lead and, wouldn’t you know it, Seattle churned out four runs to tie the game at 9-9.
Craziest thing I have ever seen. One Mariners fan puts his shoe on his head at the Mariners Watch Party going into the 8th inning. All the other fans do the same. The team then rallies to score 4 runs to tie the game. #RallyShoe #EmbraceTheChaos
— Kevin Martinez (@Kevin_Martinez) October 8, 2022
Before long, the legend of the “Rally Shoe” had spread around the ballpark like wildfire, and everyone was removing their Nikes to rest them on top of the ol’ noggin.
The legend of the rally shoe. To be told for generations. #SeaUsRise #Mariners #Seattle @komonews pic.twitter.com/NNmRFYjfQJ
— Paul Rivera (@PaulRiveraNews) October 8, 2022
#RallyShoe pic.twitter.com/hVIq1ZO5Dv
— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) October 9, 2022
#RallyShoe is now a thing pic.twitter.com/Z6hi2uaTCj
— Shane Lantz (@ShaneMLantz) October 8, 2022
https://twitter.com/joshc/status/1578889275784847360
Even T-Mobile Park’s official Twitter page got in on the fun.
SHOES. ON YOUR HEADS. RIGHT. NOW.
— T-Mobile Park (@TMobilePark) October 8, 2022
It all makes perfect sense when you think about it. There is no way you can pull off something as weird as a comeback from an 8-1 deficit in the playoffs without an equally weird talisman like a magic shoe guiding you. Those are just simple facts.
Seattle now advances to the ALDS to play a division rival in the Houston Astros that they have already had plenty of bad blood with this season. It goes without saying that, at least for Mariners fans, sneakers will be worn, not on the feet, but on the head for the entire duration of that series.
