Christian Umagat and his co-workers at Toyota of Seattle are die-hard Mariners fans, and after their reaction to the team’s dramatic 10-9 comeback victory on Saturday over the Toronto Blue Jays to clinch a spot in the ALDS, the world is taking notice.
On Monday morning, local sports fan Alex Akita, whose father also works at the dealership, tweeted out security cam footage of Umagat, along with co-workers Ian Douglas, Eddie Flores, and Cory Phillips celebrating the game’s final out after the Blue Jays’ Raimel Tapia flew out to Mariners’ center fielder Julio Rodriguez to end it.
In the video, Umagat, Douglas, and Flores leap in the air and cheer with excitement in the lobby of the dealership’s service department, before linking arms and joyfully emulating the Mariners’ famous post-victory dance. After a few seconds, Phillips skips into frame from over in the sales department, and joins in the fun.
In less than a day on Twitter, the video racked up over 2.5 million views, more than 50,000 likes, and more than 8,000 retweets.
“To be honest, I don’t even remember like, what happened on Saturday,” Umagat said. “All I remember was celebrating and then once I saw the video, I just thought it was hilarious. That whole day on Saturday, everyone was, obviously we were working, but especially me, we were scoreboard watching the whole game.”
The shop was already closed for the night, but Umagat, Douglas, and Flores stuck around to watch the game, fearful of missing an epic Mariners comeback on the drive home. It was a wise decision in hindsight, as the Mariners roared back from a seven-run deficit to send fans across the Pacific Northwest into near hysterics.
Umagat, who is wearing a No. 51 Ichiro jersey in the video, attends Mariners games frequently. This season, the 25-year-old claims to have been to at least one game in every home series that the Mariners have played.
“This is crazy,” Umagat said. “I don’t even know how to put it into words, to be honest with you. Baseball has been in the family for a while and I’ve always gone to games ever since I was a little kid. But before, even last season, going to a Mariners game was just kind of like ‘oh, we’ll go to one or two games for the summer, that’s it.’ But ever since last season, we’ve been following it, we’ve been on it, and now it’s crazy to see history unfolding.”
Along with getting a positive reaction on social media, the video has been a hit with his co-workers.
“A lot of the guys that weren’t in the video, they were commenting on how it looked like we had no idea what to do with our bodies toward the end of the celebration,’ Umagat said. “Then we just all started dancing together.”
Phillips said that the viral success of the video is “unbelievable,” especially after Rodriguez responded to the video on Twitter by saying “We enjoy it different in the PNW!!!”
Mariners outfielder Mitch Haniger also responded to the tweet, saying “M’s fans are the best!”
“I’m a huge Mariners fan, so I was super excited. It was a bunch of emotions that day, because they were up, and then they were down big, and then they came back and won it in surprising fashion.” Phillips said. “I think it was a combination of multiple things. My entrance at the end and the reaction from my co-workers as we won the game, and us doing a celebratory dance like the Mariners do, is icing on the cake.”
It has been a dream season for Phillips, who has been a Mariners fan since he was 12 years old. As someone who has followed the team through its ups and many downs over the past several decades, a Mariners playoff berth is long overdue.
“I don’t think words can really express it,” Phillips said. “Because this is something that hasn’t happened in a long time, and just the ups and downs, all the bad seasons, the close calls that we’ve had, especially last year. We were so close last year. For a Mariners fan, this is amazing. It’s awesome, and hopefully we can keep this going. Maybe we can make a run, a push to the World Series. That would be great.”
With the Mariners hosting their first playoff game in 21 years this weekend against the Houston Astros, Umagat knows where he’ll be.
He’s already told his bosses that he plans to be at T-Mobile Park on either Saturday or Sunday, faithfully cheering on his favorite team.
“Everyone thought I was crazy,” Umagat said. “But I knew this was the season.”