The curse of the Jogbino? So long, Seattle

Today, it is with giddy pleasure that I must report that, with three weeks left in this melted Popsickle of a season, the Seattle Mariners have effectively checked out of the 2017 Wild Card race.

Having lost three in a row, they have fallen four games out in the battle for the one-game, away-field berth, and - more importantly - must now gain ground on five teams. Sorry, Seattle. Your baseball team didn't even make it until the start of the NFL season. Oh, well, there's always next year!

What warms my heart is the red-black hurricane of vengeance, which stirs anew whenever I think of Jogginson Cano's grand quest to bring fame, or respectability, or maybe just Beyonce, to the Emerald City, after loping away from future iconic Yankee status for a few extra pieces of gold. Nope, I haven't forgiven him. And nope, nope... I never will. 

By the way, this year, at age 34, Cano is hitting .280 with 21 home runs - not bad, unless you recognize that among MLB second basemen, he ranks 11th in average and sixth in homers. He's a fine, upper-tier second baseman, unless you consider that Seattle has him for - gulp - six more years at - double-gulp - $24 million per. Yep. Trump will be 77 and Mitch McConnell 81, when Cano retires in 2023, at 40, and it is my sincere hope that he remains ring-less to the end. 

Okay, I know what you're thinking: My anti-Cano rage is irrational; he's got mouths to feed, a roof to put over his family. He merely did what anybody would do - score the extra year of cash and go wherever some fool is wealthy enough to supply it. If an owner wants to pay a guy $24 million at age 40, why say no? Besides, it's just Monopoly money to billionaires, and Food Stamps Steinbrenner he could have ponied up the extra $24 million out of his clam dip budget, thus sparing us the perpetual carnival sideshow - Stephen Drew, Brian Roberts, my boy, Brigadoon Refsnyder, (now .171 in 76 AB in Toronto) et al - that occupied 2B until Starlin Castro arrived, now at 27 and hitting .313. 

I'm angry - always will be - at Cano for his wandering eyes of greed, looking for more money when he had a team, a city and fan base that loved him. It's like a guy with a loving wife of eight years, who runs off with a hooker. He bought into Jay-Z's naive plan to become the new Scott Boras, to build a sports agency colossus, which required somebody to chase the most money he could find, regardless of whether it was the right move. Now, Robbie's gone four years without a playoff appearance - and another bungled season is nearly in the books. 

Good riddance. Not many players can make me side with Food Stamps Hal. But a jilted lover has a right to be resentful, and Cano still draws boos in Yankee Stadium. I just remember John Sterling back in 2013 assuring us that a deal would be made, that the Yankees would never - NEVER - let Robbie leave. Then came the day he left, and our response was to sign Jacoby Ellsbury to a nearly equally bad contract. Damn. Bad news all around. 

It's been a crapola four years since Robbie left. But the Yankees seem to be pulling out of it. With any luck, by this time next year, we should be awash in enough young infield talent - Glyber Torres, Miguel Andujar, Tyler Wade - (not to mention Didi and Starlin) - that the notion of keeping Cano would have us shaking our heads. We'll be done missing him. But he could have been a Yankee Hall of Famer. He could have been the next Jeter. He could have stayed a Yankee until his final days as a DH. He wanted an extra year of salary, when he'll already have too much money to count. So long, Seattle, and good luck: He's only going to jog slower.