Mike Salk: Now is the time to enjoy the ‘sweet spot’ of Mariners baseball

Brock Huard called Monday night at Safeco Field one of the top-10 baseball experiences of his life. There was the bang-bang play at home, the clutch three-run homer and a historic Felix Hernandez win. Plus, he was able to spend the kind of quality time with his teenage daughter that he never seems to get anymore.

Huard’s 710 ESPN Seattle producer, Boy Howdy, placed the game in his top five of all-time, in part because it was his infant son Jude’s first ever visit to the stadium.

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Add those reasons with the fact that much of Seattle is still coming around to seeing the first-place Mariners and you have what Mike Salk describes as the “sweet spot” of Mariners fandom.

“This may be the perfect sweet spot if you want to take your family to a baseball game,” Salk said. “You’ve got a good team that’s fun to watch that is in first place and playing some great baseball, at a beautiful park with good weather right now and nobody is there.”

Seattle ranks 20^th in attendance thus far, with an average of 25,652 through 13 games. That’s roughly on pace with last season’s averages of 27,081, which was good for 21^st. While the Mariners finished with just 76 wins last season, the 2016 squad leads the American League West division and has won eight of its last 11 games entering Tuesday. Still, Seattle’s attendance lags behind that of the Yankees, Astros, Brewers and Padres, all of which are in last place of their respective divisions.

Salk said Mariners fans should take advantage of this “market inefficacy” while they can.

“Let’s face it, as great as it is when a ballpark is banged out with 45,000 people and the energy and excitement is awesome – parking is a pain and sitting in traffic stinks and it’s a line to get into the urinal and then a problem trying to get to the concession stand,” he said. “It’s fun and you’re willing to do all those things because the atmosphere is sweet. But you’re secretly annoyed that you have to go through all of that. Right now is your sweet spot.”

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