Take a chance on greatness

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Last January, the Seahawks fired the most successful coach in franchise history, the team’s ownership concluding that while the team might remain perfectly good under his watch, it wasn’t getting any closer to a championship.

In other words, the Seahawks had become the kind of team the Mariners ownership appears to be content to have.

I think it’s worth pointing this out on a day when the calendars of those two teams intersected, the Seahawks opening training camp in Renton on Wednesday at the same time the Mariners were in SoDo wrapping up a homestand that left skidmarks.

For nearly a full month now, the Mariners have been in outright freefall. The lineup that was at first just awful, is now awful and injured and yet nothing has been done to bolster it. Seattle scored a total of three runs in the three games they lost to the gawdawful Angels of Anaheim.

I know, it’s tempting to throw up your hands and proclaim this team doesn’t deserve to make any trade-deadline additions.

Resist this urge!

Even after this month-long death spiral, the Mariners are just a game back of the Houston Astros in the division. There are 58 games left. Do something to improve this lineup, even if it costs you a couple of prospects.

What’s the point of being a good team if you never take the risks that are necessary to be great?

And to be clear, I do think a team needs to take some risks in order to be great. I think its leaders have to close their eyes, grit their teeth and make a big ol’ leap of faith and given the way the Mariners have been operating for the past 20 months or so it seems this franchise is intimidated by that prospect.

The Seahawks on the other hand? They’ll plunge headfirst. They’ve showed that on plenty of occasions, but never more dramatically than when they turned the page on Carroll.

Not only was he the coach that led the team to its first title, but the Seahawks remained a good team. Seattle finished with a losing record just once in the last 12 seasons, and that was the year that Russell Wilson missed time with a broken finger.

After Wilson was traded following that season, many expected the team to be among the worst in the league. Instead, the Seahawks won nine games and Geno Smith became the third quarterback to lead Seattle to the playoffs during Carroll’s tenure.

The problem was that Seattle didn’t show signs of getting much better than that. At least not in the postseason.

After winning nine playoff games in Carroll’s first seven seasons as coach, the Seahawks won exactly one in his last seven seasons.

So last January, Jody Allen came to the conclusion that Seattle had plateaued. She decided Carroll wasn’t going to be able to get the Seahawks back to the summit again and instead of continuing to hang out at base camp, waiting to mount another effort, they decided it was time to find a new expedition leader.

Put another way: The Seahawks weren’t getting any closer to another championship under Carrol and so the franchise needed to go find someone else who would have a shot at leading them there.

When they did so, I thought of the Groz – that inimitable presence among the Seattle sports commentariat – who had a phrase he liked to recite in situations like these: Don’t ever get tired of winning.

In other words, don’t spoil a good thing just because it’s not as great as it used to be.

However, I tend to think that philosophy works better in real life than it does in professional sports, where the clear objective is to finish on top. That’s the one thing that really matters, which is why I respect the decision to replace Carroll even if I’m unsure it will pan out.

The Seahawks weren’t content simply being good under Carroll. They could have continued on for another year, preaching consistency and patience and getting hot at the right time. The stadium would have still sold out.

But once ownership decided that the ultimate goal was out of reach, it made a change even if that change entailed significant risk.

Now I’m not saying that the Seattle Mariners are content being merely good. I’m sure everyone in that organization — if given the choice — would prefer the team that was great.

The issue is that the Mariners seem to be a bit skittish when it comes to making the kind of decisions that would give it a chance of reaching that plateau.

The Seahawks took a chance. They fired Carroll and then hired Macdonald, who may or may be able to get Seattle over the hump.

The Mariners took a chance two years ago, trading for Luis Castillo. The result was the first playoff berth in two years.

Since then? The team has preferred to rearrange the deck chairs on the operatio as opposed to make significant changes. It appears the Mariners would rather be certain of remaining good than make the sacrifices necessary to give this team a chance at being great.

Those sacrifices come in two flavors:

1) Cash, which you can spend to acquire veterans in the offseason;

2) Prospects, which you can trade to acquire veterans during the season.

We all know what happened this offseason, or more accurately, didn’t happen. The Mariners shopped open-box specials.

Over the past month we’ve watched as the Mariners stood pat even as the offense flat-lined. Now, Julio Rodriguez and J.P. Crawford are on the disabled list and what was a 10-game lead in the division is nothing but a memory.

It’s possible that this is the correct long-term play. Maybe next year or the year after that, Seattle’s suddenly fertile farm system will yield a major-league lineup that can provide the pitching staff with the support it needs and the Mariners will be great.

Or maybe, by the time that Seattle’s suddenly fertile farm system yields that lineup some members of this pitching staff will have become prohibitively expensive and Seattle will remain simply good without ever getting great.

If that’s the case, it wouldn’t just be sad, it would be cowardly. There’s no glory in remaining good because you’re afraid of what might happen if you try to be great.

I don’t know if Macdonald will be able to get the Seahawks over the hump. I do know that I am excited that the Seahawks are willing to let him try.