SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners got off to a terrible start in 2016, which was then-general manager and now president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto’s first full season with the team. After an especially brutal loss amid that first 2-6 stretch, he went into the office and an administrative assistant looked up at him with forlorn empathy.
“Jerry, I’m so sorry,” she said. “You’ll get used to it. We all have.”
That was how the Mariners’ head of baseball operations was first indoctrinated into The Drought.
Decision to take a ‘step back’
At the time, Seattle hadn’t been to the postseason in 15 years.