Vince Grippi: Seattle Mariners spend a lot of time in past, maybe understandably

Does Easter Sunday get you thinking about the past? Or the future?

Or both?

When my kids were young, Easter egg hunts were often done in the snow. They had to shovel the steps and sidewalk even to get where the bunny had dropped its treats.

Kids were tougher then. Must have been.

Just like the Mariners. They were tougher in the past. Must have been.

At least better.

Because the Mariners organization spends more time in the past than Ken Burns.

It was at it again this week, unveiling a statue of the team’s greatest player, Ken Griffey Jr., on Thursday’s off day.

That’s not to say Griffey didn’t deserve a statue. He did and does, even if he forced a trade in the prime of his career because he wasn’t happy with Safeco Field’s dimensions or the direction of the organization or whatever.

He’s a Hall of Famer, hit 417 home runs in an M’s uniform and made more highlight-reel Spider-Man catches than Peter Parker.

It’s just that the Mariners seem all-too-willing to celebrate this anniversary and that occasion, all the while floundering through the now.

Remember 1995? Sure you do. You can’t forget it. Watch a week of M’s games and your bound to see Griffey rounding third and heading home in the playoffs against the Yankees.

Remember 1997? When more than 3 million people watched the Mariners at home for the first time as they hit the 90-win mark – also for the first time?

Remember 2001? The 116-win season, one of the two or three best regular seasons in major league baseball history?

Those three seasons, part of a nine-year stretch in which the M’s had seven above .500, is the pinnacle of Seattle baseball. And the organization, through bobbleheads and statues and whatever, spends more time dwelling there than in 2017.

Want more evidence? Ichiro comes to town this week.

The M’s will delve into their past again, handing out bobbleheads. Yep, for an opposing player. So what he happened to have more hits in an M’s uniform than anyone else. He’s a Miami Marlin these days, in case you’ve forgotten. He will be trying to hand them their ninth loss of the season.

But maybe there’s a good reason for the fascination with the past.

Fifteen seasons have passed since the M’s last made the playoffs, a record of futility unmatched in baseball. And this season, despite Seattle sweeping Texas over the weekend, isn’t starting that well.

Except in one obvious way.

The emergence of James Paxton.

Is the big Canadian the Future (with a capital F) of the franchise? He certainly is the present.

He’s made three starts this season, his fifth in the bigs.

He’s thrown 21 innings. He’s yet to give up a run, earned or otherwise. Eight hits, 22 strikeouts, four walks. It’s the best stretch of his young career, even better than his debut season of 2013, when he gave up just four runs in four starts and was immediately proclaimed the ace of the future.

He’s been overpowering at times, just what was predicted when he, Danny Hultzen and Taijuan Walker made up the Mariners’ minor league Big Three. The other two are out of the picture, but Paxton has soldiered on.

After three years of injuries, mechanical changes and just plain struggles, the future seems to be now.

Who knows? Maybe in a dozen years or so, we’ll hear a Dave Sims call of the final out Paxton’s first no-hitter or his pennant-clinching complete game. Over and over again.

That seems to be the M’s way.