SEATTLE — As if the Mariners and their fans aren’t already stewing over the thousands of fans invading their brilliant downtown stadium this weekend, they had to look no further than first base for more gloom.
There in Blue Jays blue they will find former Mariner Justin Smoak, whose renaissance season continues to be impressive in Toronto and frustrating in these parts considering the big first basemen never quite flourished with the M’s.
Long before Toronto fans were down on Smoak, he faced a similar wrath from baseball fans here in the Puget Sound area.
Acquired in a 2010 trade with Texas, the Mariners had hoped that Smoak would live up to the promise the Rangers saw in him when they made him a first-round pick in 2008.