I’m a huge baseball fan. Like, more than is healthy. August is hot. Just about everywhere. August is called the dog days of summer. I’m not sure why. I’m not sure that dogs like hot weather. And obviously, if you have a dog, you have the dog all year long. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, the dog days of summer are July 3 through August 11. It has to do with the ancient Greeks and Sirius rising. Or something like that.
Baseball players are called “the boys of summer.” And although the dog days of summer and the boys of summer are both phrases that use summer, they typically are not interchangeable.
The baseball season is about 3/4 fo the way done. I’m a Mariners fan. The Seattle Mariners have been around for 45 years. I’ve been a fan for slightly less time. In their nearly half century, the Mariners have won their division pennant three times, 1995, 1997 and 2001. That last year they set the record for the most wins in a season. They won 116 games out of a total of 162. But, despite that record, the Mariners have not been a very good team. Out of the 30 teams int eh Major Leagues, the Seattle Mariners are the only team to never play in the World Series.
And for the past 21 years, nearly half the life of the franchise, the Seattle Mariners have failed to get to the post season. Their 21 years of futility are the longest streak in the Major Leagues. So, we are 75% of the way through the series and this year the Mariners are in the hunt for the post season. They are leading the race for one of the three wildcard spots.
So, we’ll slog through the dog days of August. The Mariners will either break their playoff drought, or they will again collapse and miss the playoffs.
Welcome to the dog days.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren. Order Miscellany II, an anthology including his latest short story, “The Mercy System” here
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