Informal Mariners watch party erupts

For Seattle fans, it may have been enough for the Mariners to just get to the postseason this year — breaking the longest streak of not making the playoffs in North American sports.

But one Mariners fan celebration — one of the most heartwarming moments you’ll see on Twitter today — took place at a Toyota dealership in Seattle about two blocks from the ballpark. Four friends/coworkers absolutely lost their minds over Saturday’s unreal Mariners comeback. They were on camera, but definitely didn’t realize it, and that makes it all the more wonderful.

“Until I watched the video, I had no idea or recollection of what actually happened,” Christian Umagat, the man in the Ichiro jersey, told me in a call. “All I knew is that we went crazy. I completely forgot we even did the dance.”

Umagat, 25 years old, is a diehard Mariners fan. He has been since he was a little kid — mentioning to me he was four years old the last time his team made the postseason. He’s been to almost every home series in 2022.

Umagat and the two guys there from the beginning of the video, Ian and Eddie, work in the service department at Toyota, and the game was on that day while they were working. Although “working” was a difficult concept that afternoon.

“I don’t think anybody was able to get any work done that day,” Umagat said, laughing. “We were all just watching.”

By the time the game was winding down, the shop had been closed for 20 or 30 minutes. But the small crew, superstitious fans to the very end, decided to stick around and not leave their TV-watching spots. 

“We didn’t want to risk getting in the car and missing that part of the game,” Umagat told me.

Again, Umagat doesn’t remember much of their now-viral celebration after the final out, just that most of the time they were happy and yelling, “Finally! We finally made it!”

And then, of course, there was skipping Corey — who came sauntering over from the sales department to join in on the party.

“Yeah, oh yeah, that’s what made it,” Umagat said. “We had no idea he was even watching. Then he just came around the corner skipping.”

Umagat’s boss showed the group the footage on Sunday and they’ve just been “on the ground laughing” seeing their moment of pure joy and ridiculousness.

The crew feels good about the M’s chances going forward, thinking their full, healthy lineup and strong pitching can get them past a very tough Astros team. But, the most important question: Does the foursome plan on watching the games together?

“Oh yeah,” Umagat said, without hesitation. “Oh yeah.”