Mariners fans are holding onto pride and belief even after a heartbreaking end to Seattle’s playoff run.

SEATTLE — After a season built on seizing the moment, Mariners fans are holding onto pride and belief even after a heartbreaking end to their playoff run.

For 76-year-old Joe Cox, a lifelong Mariners fan, that moment came Tuesday morning — standing nearly alone outside T-Mobile Park, where just a night earlier hundreds had crowded inside the ball park for the American League Championship Series Game 7 watch party.

“I would love to see us take this to another level,” Cox said. “In my lifetime.”

Cox has seen it all: the droughts, the rebuilds, the glimmers of hope. He remembers every year the Mariners came close, including this one.

“Because nobody has gone through a drought like this … 48, 49 years,” he said.

Less than 24 hours after the loss, Cox returned to the ballpark to tape typed letters to the Ken Griffey Jr. statue, part of his tribute to a team that captured the city’s heart, reclaiming the division title for the first time since 2001 and putting together a postseason run fans won’t soon forget.

“I’m not a spring chicken anymore,” he said. “I would love to see this thing come through to sweet fruition. And to have it dangled in front of me and snatched away in the seventh inning is not easy.”

Cox admits some might call it just a game. But to him, as to many fans who have waited decades for a World Series appearance, it’s far more than that.

“You say that to a Red Sox fan trying to get out from under the curse of the Bambino 15 or 20 years ago,” Cox said. “It ain’t easy … It leaves a mark.”

That mark runs deep for Mariners fans as the only Major League Baseball franchise still waiting for its first trip to the World Series.

“This year I missed a couple games because I went to the Ichiro induction,” Cox said. “But I’m there all the time. I would’ve given all the money from those tickets for that one game. It’s just hard.”

As the countdown begins for next season, fans like Cox are already looking ahead. 

The Mariners open at home against the Cleveland Guardians on March 26, 2026.