Last October, several hours before Game 7 of the ALCS between the Mariners and the Blue Jays, Abraham McCormick piled his wife and three kids into their RV and made the drive from Whatcom County, Washington, to T-Mobile Park buzzing with anticipation.
The Mariners season-ticket holder—known as “Captain Abe” among fellow diehards—came prepared for the occasion. He brought various signs, wore a bedazzled jacket, and packed a yellow trident he’d molded into the number 44, in honor of star outfielder Julio Rodríguez. When the gates opened, Captain Abe hustled to claim first-come, first-served seats behind the home dugout, then made a quick concessions run before joining a sea of more than 5,000 others clad in navy and teal filling out the stadium’s lower bowl.
Though the game itself was happening nearly 2,000 miles away in Toronto, the team’s discounted watch party inside the stadium throbbed with the tension and electricity of an actual home playoff game. And with the season on the line, McCormick didn’t want to be anywhere else.
“If I travel, I’m in somebody else’s domain. I’m not going to be sitting with my people,” McCormick tells Front Office Sports. “The watch party is a really nice, cost-effective way to give us as fans a reason and a place to grow our fandom.”
