Lights framing the small stage in center field clicked off for the final time. A pile of tissues used to dry tears sat on the desk that no longer will have the ROOT Sports nameplate on the front.
There were sad smiles and happy hugs, a mixture of thankfulness for what they’ve had and sadness that it’ll no longer be the same. Pictures were posed for. Baseballs were signed. Place tags saying “ROOT Sports” were snagged from the press box as mementos.
Fans — and the Mariner Moose — stopped by the set in center field to say, “Thank you,” to Brad Adam and Angie Mentink. They were two of the countless faces in a production bringing Mariners baseball to the airways across the region for the last 30-plus years.
All that made Sunday a gloomy afternoon for the final ROOT Sports telecast of Mariners baseball and brought to a close a major chapter of sports in the Pacific Northwest.
“We’re having several moments here today,” Adam said on the last postgame show.
There was an overwhelming feeling of finality for Sunday's Game 162 at T-Mobile Park, even with more Mariners baseball still to be played next weekend in the AL Division Series. The final game of a season that started back in late March. The final regular-season start of Clayton Kershaw’s career that certainly seems bound for a spot in Cooperstown.
And the final ROOT Sports broadcast after the Mariners announced Friday that the station will be going dark.
At one time, the network — in all its previous incarnations — was the epicenter of sports for seemingly all the Pacific Northwest teams. There was content around the Seahawks. They were the home of the SuperSonics and later the Portland Trail Blazers. It was the first home of the Kraken, and home for the Portland Timbers. The Pac-10 and later the Pac-12 played on ROOT. So did the Big Sky, the NCAA Division II GNAC and plenty of high-school state championships.
And, of course, there were the Mariners. For more than 30 years, the Mariners called Prime Sports Northwest, Fox Sports Northwest and eventually ROOT Sports their home.
But not anymore.
“It’s hard to boil four decades into just one day today. I’m so lucky to work with so many good people,” Mentink said during the broadcast.
The Mariners announced Friday that their regional sports network will cease to exist and that Major League Baseball, which has handled all the production for their game broadcasts this season, will also take over distribution of the Mariners telecasts through cable providers and streaming platforms.
Mariners chairman John Stanton attended a meeting last Monday where ROOT employees were informed that Sunday would be the final broadcast. The station has been owned and operated by the franchise since 2013. Some of the more than 25 employees at ROOT will be let go as of Nov. 3 with the rest of the staff done before the end of the calendar year.
This was the likely outcome, especially with MLB’s hopes of bringing all local broadcast rights under its local broadcasting division in the future.
But the likelihood doesn’t take away the sting.
“We love you guys,” a fan yelled to Adam and Mentink from the second deck in center field during a break in the final postgame show. One fan came up to Mentink before the final show started and said, “You’re my childhood.”
Adam tried to crack a few jokes along the way. Joking is an obvious way to cope with loss, but there weren’t many lighthearted moments for the final broadcast.
“I would hate to be part of the crew, because their main job is to make us look good,” he joked.
There was, however, sadness.
Sadness about the loss of jobs as a once robust staff at ROOT Sports, which previously went through job reductions, will be no more.
Sadness that the evolving media landscape has left regional sports networks in peril and led to the Mariners' decision.
Sadness that something so familiar for decades — baseball on Prime Sports Northwest or Fox Sports Northwest or ROOT Sports — is ending.
When Mariners broadcasts return to air next season, they’ll likely look similar and with familiar voices and faces on the screen. Television play-by-play announcer Aaron Goldsmith is an employee of the team. Mentink, Adam and Ryan Rowland-Smith are ROOT employees but are all likely to return to the future broadcast team.
One member of the ROOT team that won’t be returning is reporter Jen Mueller, who announced after the game that she would be moving on from working with the Mariners after 19 years. Mueller said her focus will be on her work with the Seahawks, separate shows she produces, speaking engagements and writing a book.
“I’m not even worried about ugly crying on TV because there’s nobody back at the station to cut a blooper reel,” Mueller joked during her final signoff.
But her joke and her compliments toward colleagues only started the tears for Adam and Mentink. Once the cameras went off air, Mentink yelled to no one in particular: “Dammit, Jen. Jen started it,” as she dabbed tears with a smile.
Before the game, Goldsmith voiced a video package that recognized nine employees that were part of the Mariners broadcasts since Prime Sports Northwest started its coverage of the team in 1994.
Curtis Wilson, Todd Kalamar, Rob Nielsen, Scott Bergen, Steve Linger, Dave “Bubba” Wegner, Jeremy Wilson, Dave Wallingford and Justin Dexter were all recognized for more than 30 years of working on Mariners broadcasts.
Some could be back next year on whatever form the broadcasts take moving forward. But those decisions will be made by Major League Baseball.
Goldsmith also made a point in the later innings of the M's 6-1 loss to recognize camera operators around the stadium, those who worked in the TV booth and the various engineers and producers in the production trucks outside the stadium.
“We love all you guys,” Goldsmith said. “You have made this so great.”
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