Mariners Players Were Pissed That The Team Store In Their Ballpark Was Selling Blue Jays Items Right Before This Weekend's Series Vs. Toronto
Tough look for Seattle here. Coming off a great All-Star Weekend, they welcome the Blue Jays into town and got THRASHED by their own players and fans when it was pointed out that the Mariners had a full on Blue Jays stand full of merch in their team store.
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Obviously Seattle is pretty close to Canada (I know Seattle isn't close to Toronto but the Western Provinces are close) and it sounds like a ton of Blue Jays fans flock down for the series which naturally would upset Mariners fans. I get that. Hey, once they set over the border, their money is green like ours! A buck is a buck. I get wanting to make money but I also see how and why it upsets Mariners players and fans.
Imagine walking into Yankee Stadium and seeing Ortiz shirts being sold? The pinstripe faithful would have aneurisms. So I get why they're upset, the players specifically. This is your home ballpark. You don't want to cater to the enemy. This isn't a house guest. You don't have to make everything nice and neat for them. You want to have an advantage at home, not bowing down to them as you battle for a Wild Card spot.
Now the Blue Jays merch was removed and replaced with Seattle shirts and all that which is probably the right decision.
But the fact that it happened in the first place is pretty mind bottling, along with this weak statement explaining how the shirts just happened to hit the shelves right before the Blue Jays series.
"Following the All-Star Game (in Seattle) we had a limited amount of leftover merchandise from different (mostly AL) teams," a Mariners spokesperson said in a statement to Miles Schachner of the New York Post. "The Blue Jays merchandise in question has now been removed from the team store."
Owners only speak in dollars and cents, not common sense. If the fans are unhappy and the players are pissed, you know you messed up. Hope it was worth selling a few Vladdy Jr. t-shirts!
I also kind of like this little rivalry brewing between the teams. Obviously we have this, we have the insane playoff collapse last year by the Jays with the Mariners making the huge comeback, and now we have Vladdy Jr. winning the Derby in Seattle after knocking out Julio Rodriguez. May have something cooking here. I am willing to bet when the Jays have to make their way back to Seattle you won't find any type of Toronto shirts for sale in the ballpark.