Walk-off homer ends longest playoff drought in U.S. sports, a breakdown

The longest playoff drought out of the major four U.S. sports has been broken. 21 years, that's how long it's been since the Mariners made the playoffs. This guy's like, yeah, that's a long time. They need one more win and they clinch a playoff berth. Let's go, Cal! And they're cheering for Cal Raleigh because he's up with two outs in a tie game in the ninth. They just need to win it. This one is brought to you by SeatGeek. Now, that first pitch was a changeup. Catcher discards the ball, goes back to the changeup, makes a nice pitch, kind of falls. Catch says, you okay? You okay? The next pitch, the 2-0, that's called a slider. It looks kind of like a changeup to me, but let's watch it again. Now, 2-0, you're going to throw a pitch that you want to put in the zone because you don't want to fall behind 3-0. So pitchers usually would refer to this as a fastball count, but if you have a pitch that you like more than your fastball, you throw that. So Cal sells out for the fastball, but he gets a slider 2-0. This guy's biting his nails. He's nervous. Come on, Cal! The excited glimmer of hope in this young kid's eyes. He doesn't know what the drought's all about. He just knows the Mariners are good. Fastball. Now he's 3-1. Now, 3-1 is kind of the same count that 2-0 is, a fastball count. So Cal, even though he threw the slider 2-0, he's sitting fastball again, gets the slider again, sells out for the fastball. Now it's 3-2. This kid, he believes. Look, hope in one eye, fear in the other. Oscar doesn't like the noise, but he's excited about what he's going to see. 3-2. The pitcher threw that slider, and he throws it again. He threw it 2-0. He threw it 3-1. Now he's throwing it 3-2. Cal fouls it off to stay alive. He takes a walk. He's like, all right, I think this guy's going to probably throw that pitch again. Instead of sitting fastball, why don't I change my approach? Come play his game. I'll just make sure I get down. Scoop it out. I don't want to watch. I don't want to watch. I don't want to watch. I want to watch so bad. I don't want to watch. What's he going to go? Another 3-2. He throws the same pitch. Cal goes down and gets it and bangs it in the right field for the walk-off win to send him to the postseason for the first time in 21 years. He bat flips, and now watch his eyes and his face. Says what up to his teammates. Pounds the chest. High five. Pounds the chest, but when he rounds second, it's all going to start hitting him. He's like, oh, holy. Watch that again. Just looks around. Holy ****. I did it. Oh, my God. Now here's the dugout celebration. Top rail. Jumped up. Rodriguez. Gilbert. Homegrown kids. Getting him to the postseason. Amazing. And they're going to wait for him to round third and come celebrate. Big old high five. He's going to take the helmet off. Toss that. Over, baby. Now it gets important. Luis Castillo. They traded for him at the deadline. Bottom left of your screen. He's got a bucket of gum, and it's just a beautiful toss. Lights up the sky like fireworks. Perfect timing. Gets great distance. Down on all their heads. The other bucket of gum is in Ty France's right hand. He's got a different strategy. He's just going to get up close and dump it, although he misses. He misses Cal, and he gets it all over Adam Frazier's head, but then they put the bucket on his head. Castillo on your right. He's going to take his hat off of his head, and then he's going to use his left hand with the ring on it to secure the bucket. Make sure it doesn't fall off. You got to crown him with the bucket, and it's a team effort to crown a guy when there's that much movement. Speaking of movement, look at this bat flip. Boom, boom, boom. That is a long toss, and then Haggerty with the helmet way up in the sky. Neither of those came down and hit anyone, and they're celebrating. What a ******* shot. Everyone's going to celebrate, and then he gets crowned the real crown, and he doesn't look like a doofus at all wearing that thing. He looks super cool, and you know it, so don't even begin to say otherwise, and then they do the team dance. Everyone does the team dance. The win dance, and then they're going to get back in the middle, and it's more head grabbing and hat grabbing and hair rubbing and pushing and shoving and congratulations, and we got to have some words with the manager and say, hey, you deserve this. You did a great job, and I'm proud of you. The manager says, thank you. Thank you. Then the manager is going to make his rounds, Scott, and he's going to say, you know, love you, big guy, and then he's going to get serious with J-Rod, and he's going to hat pull. The hat pull, that's his serious tone. Look, Cal, hat pull. Let him know you're serious, okay? Suarez, big old hug. Maybe we missed the hat pull. Fist pump. High five. No. Misses. Hug. I think that guy went for a handshake. Let's watch it again. Ready? So fist pump, handshake. Nah, I'm going to slap your hand. Kind of misses, and then a big old hug. I like that that guy jumps into the hug. Sorry, I don't know his name. Mariners fans, you're going to have to leave it in the comments. I apologize. You're probably mad at me. Gum everywhere. Gum, and then a live sign edit. Nothing like a live sign edit. I don't have to believe because we did it. What good handwriting to do that on the fly in the middle of the celebration? Good seats to take it in. They get the postseason game now. If you want to go there, there might be tickets available. I don't know. Check out Z Keek. You can use code Johnboy and get $20 off your first order, and you can be a live sign editor because there's nothing cooler in sports than editing a sign in live time.