toronto–sometimes seattle mariners Clubhouse’s “Top Gun Anthem”, full of soaring guitar notes and pick-me-up vibes, would randomly blast from inside a locker. Everyone knows the culprit. George PolancoThe Mariners’ veteran second baseman is not a fan of silencing his phone.
“But he loves Maverick and the Iceman,” Mariners star cal raleigh Said.
No one really minds. When a player is doing what Polanco has done this postseason — saving the Mariners from the danger zone on a daily basis, his latest move was a three-run home run that paved the way for Monday win 10-3 – Her ringtone could be Limp Bizkit and no one would peep.
Instead, it’s the perfect soundtrack to this Mariners run, which currently sees them two games to none toronto blue jays In the American League Championship Series. “Top Gun Anthem” is an epic song filled with a variety of highs and lows that represents an organization that has spent 49 years alternating between the desolation of mediocrity and the misery of underachievement. The only team in Major League Baseball to never play in the World Series, Seattle is two wins away from capturing its first American League pennant and heads to T-Mobile Park for Game 3.
The Mariners’ dominant status is largely thanks to a 32-year-old infielder whose exploits have earned him the right to be called the Iceman himself — and yet that’s not the nickname Polanco wears these days.
“That’s George Bonds,” M’s catcher mitch garver Said.
Yes, Polanco’s alter ego is the Anglicized version of his first name and the surname of Major League Baseball’s all-time home run leader. He earned it early this season, Garver said, when “all he hit was 110. [mph] In a gap or over a fence. It was incredible.”
Especially when considering the previous winter, Polanco did not know whether he would be healthy enough to continue major league pitching. Polanco, who had struggled with left knee problems for years, underwent surgery to repair his patellar tendon in October 2024. A free agent, Polanco drew limited interest on the market and ended up re-signing with the Mariners for one more year and $7.75 million.
“It’s been a journey, man,” Polanco said. “I can say it like that. I wouldn’t say it’s been bad. I won’t say it’s been easy. I think God just prepared me for this year. I’ve had a little bit of a injury, yes, but now we’re here, and I’m happy to be back.”
“You just have to believe. You win. And come back stronger.”
Polanco’s power has been on display throughout October. It first appeared in the second game of Seattle’s Division Series detroit tigers When he hit two home runs with an ace tariq skubalWho is about to win his second consecutive Cy Young Award. This continued three games later in a winner-take-all Game 5, when he hit a single to right field in the 15th inning, leading the Mariners to their first ALCS since 2001. It didn’t stop there, going on with Polanco’s single in the sixth inning of Game 1 against the Blue Jays on Sunday.
What followed was a fifth-inning blast from a Toronto reliever. louis verlandThat put a 98 mph fastball across the plate and saw it release the bat at 105.2 mph, flying 400 feet, turned a 3-3 tie into a 6-3 Seattle lead.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson said, “He’s always been a great hitter.” “His swing is very short right now. That ball tonight, I wasn’t sure it was going to go out of the ballpark, but I think he’s getting the kind of spin on it right now where it stays up.”
This is not an accident. Polanco reaches the major leagues minnesota twins At the age of 20, the bat-to-ball hitter whose ability to hit from both sides of the plate earned him a regular role on the team.
“He wasn’t the first George Bonds,” Garver said. “It was Harry Potter. Because he was a wizard. He just put out hit movies.”
Polanco found power five years into his career and hit 33 home runs in 2021, but his knee degeneration took away the juice from his bat and caused him to stumble too often on pitches he had previously spit on. Last year, his first season with the Mariners, his numbers were down, but the organization appreciated Polanco’s calm demeanor and believed that fixing his knee would also fix his swing.
Those mariners are right. George Bonds was born during a ridiculous first month of the 2025 season, when he hit nine homers in 80 plate appearances. Polanco adopted the M’s ethos of pulling the ball into the air. Raley led MLB with a 1.594 OPS on drawn balls. third baseman eugenio suarez Was in second place at 1.497. Polanco hit 23 of his 26 home runs this season into the pull side, and both of his homers against Skubal (hit to right) and Worland (left) met the face of the plate and hit over the fence.
“All these years, I just didn’t like going to Minnesota because of him,” the shortstop said. JP CrawfordLongest living mariner. “That guy single-handedly beat us a few times. We all know what type of player he is when he’s healthy, and it’s clearly visible right now.”
Never in the 150-year history of the game had a player hit three consecutive game-winning hits after the fifth inning of the postseason. Teams need similar performances to win pennants–and championships. Raley has been as brilliant as he has been aggressive in a potential MVP campaign. julio rodriguez Was in the second half And as impressive as Seattle’s pitching has been up to this point, it takes more to win in playoff baseball.
Like, let’s say, a man who worked as a late-night cleaning job during the winter and never faltered even in the highest-leverage situations.
“The most impressive thing is to bounce back after a tough year last year,” he said. brian wooWho will start Game 3 against Toronto on Wednesday shane bieber“Especially for a player on his other team who’s gone half his career. What he’s doing — get healthy, come back, help the team the same way — that’s even more impressive than just playing good baseball.”
Playing good baseball helps, too. Polanco has helped take Seattle to a place that seemed impossible to imagine barely a month ago. From mid-August to early September, the Mariners lost 13 of 18, finishing three and a half games behind Houston in the AL West and holding a half-game lead over Texas for the final wild-card spot. From there, the Mariners went 17–4, won the West, earned a first-round bye and made history.
They are not there. And yet Polanco acknowledged that Mariners players can’t ignore the team’s history and recognize what it would mean to reach the World Series.
“Yeah, we think about it,” he said. “We’ve heard it a lot. We know.”
Knowledge has not perturbed him. Raleigh is growing. Rodriguez is slipping. Josh Naylorgrew up in nearby Mississauga, blasted a two-run home run in Game 2. And George Bonds shows up in style, cool as the Iceman, cool as Maverick, perfectly happy to eschew silent mode in favor of loud contact.
