Lots of teeth-gnashing this morning about the Seahawks and their “bid” for an NFC West division championship next weekend when they take on the St. Louis Rams. Some fans here are saying they’d rather not have the Seahawks win and risk the embarrassment of them getting blown out on a national stage in the first playoff round.

Look, I hear you. I’ve watched my share of good football teams over the years and this Seahawks squad doesn’t immediately trigger comparisons.

And no, I’m not trying to say they’re going to win a Super Bowl. They just don’t have the playmakers, the offensive line, or the “don’t break” kind of defense for that. We won’t get into the whole quarterback thing.

But hey, this is professional sports. No jokes inserted. In pro sports, strange things can happen. And the first step towards winning anything that matters is to get into the playoffs.

We as Mariners observers experienced a lot of similar feelings during the late summer of 2007. A lot of fans writing in to this blog kept stating that, although the Mariners were in the midst of a surprising 88-win season, they’d have rather not seen Seattle make the post-season because they were not a playoff-caliber team.

True, they weren’t playoff caliber. A rotation of Felix Hernandez, Miguel Batista, Jarrod Washburn and Jeff Weaver (photo above) was not going to inspire fear in too many people. But you can’t win if you don’t play.

And as it turned out, that 2007 team was the closest chance the M’s had of making the post-season in nearly a decade since 2003 ended. Think about it: in three seasons since, the M’s have had two 101-loss campaigns and an 87-win, third place season in which their playoff dreams died in late July.

Think what you want about the 2007 M’s and their playoff worthiness. But they were in the playoff discussion right up until early September of that year. That was a time when Hernandez waltzed into Yankee Stadium — his team’s wild-card hopes still flickering — and shut down the Bronx Bombers. Of course, Washburn and the bullpen were both shelled the next night and Seattle pretty much fell off the playoff wagon for good. But what a thrill it was watching Hernandez that night, when you could dream of the playoff possibilities.

And for now, the Seahawks, bad as they are, still have that dream.

Photo Credit: Jim Bates/Seattle Times

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