Dear The Seattle Mariners

Jeff Braimes

2610 Ellis Street

Bellingham, WA 98225

Seattle Mariners

T-Mobile Park
1250 First Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98134

                                                                                                                          Wednesday, May 12 2021

To whom it may,

 I’m a 30-year radio devotee and a former season ticket holder. I’ve celebrated many memorable events at T-Mobile Park and before that the Kingdome. The sounds of Mariner baseball are the audio soundscape of my kids’ lives, the broadcast playing in the background of every summer night of their childhoods. I am genuinely true to the Blue.

 But I am super bugged by this year’s Billy Graham Association ad campaign. As a fan, I have the luxury of not having to balance the team’s budget in a climate of diversified sports consumption in general and baseball’s shrinking popularity in specific. But honestly…

 Where is the separation of Church and Sport? The UGM campaign is near the edge, but their message is at least one of inclusion. However, the sin scaring of this BGA campaign is fully not OK. Put your hand on the radio and pray with me? Where and when is this? It does not sound like the Pacific Northwest in the modern era. This sounds like bible belt radio evangelism of the 1930s to me— a time and place in which non-whites and non-straights were not welcome, or worse.

 Is this really the association we want? I do not believe this message is one that is embraced by baseball fans in the Northwest.

 Please pull these ads at once, even if it means having to tighten the rotation of the revolting EMQ campaign more than it already is.

 Very sincerely,

Jeff Braimes, Bellingham