TORONTO – When it comes to being a fan, athletes are just like you. They'll have moments that might gnaw away at them forever. And they can also be eternal optimists, never stopping the belief that this is the year.
Take Seattle Mariners outfielder Jesse Winker. He's been a Bills fan since he was a kid. A certain football game played in January in Kansas City will be hard for him to forget. But he's looking ahead, too.
Winker, 28, was born in Buffalo and lived in Niagara Falls until he was 7. He obviously doesn't remember the Super Bowl years. Mostly, he's a child of The Drought. But with the championship window now cracked wide open, in Josh Allen he trusts.
"This is what you wait for as a sports fan. My whole life, I've waited," Winker said before a game against the Blue Jays last week in Rogers Centre. "I've wanted the Bills to win a Super Bowl. And I think they're gonna do it. I honestly think this is the year that they do it. And I know that it's not an easy task by any means. But I just think it's gonna happen. It's an exciting time to be a fan of the team. They've got their guys and they've got them for a while. It's going to be fun to see if they can capitalize on it."
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Jesse Winker and his family attend a Bills game against the Patriots on Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017.
"To me, that pretty much put the finishing touches on what should be a Super Bowl winning team," he said. "Really big. Everybody's excited about that."
The Bills, of course, have celebrity fans all over. But when it comes to non-Buffalo athletes, an MLB All-Star outfielder is high on the list. Perhaps the most prominent non-Buffalo athletes who are diehards are Winker, San Jose Sharks veteran forward Logan Couture (an Ontario native who grew up going to games in Orchard Park) and former Olympic swimmer Summer Sanders (who married a Western New York native).
As such, Winker was asked his story about the infamous playoff loss in Arrowhead Stadium against the Chiefs.
"I was at my house in Orlando and I got so many messages, my phone like fried," he said. "It just shut itself off and came back on. That game was a heartbreaker for sure. The best way I could put it is that's the first time I ever truly had my heart broken outside of baseball, outside a baseball game. The first time a sports game broke my heart. That one did for sure.
"Usually I'm playing like the optimistic Bills fan. But when that one happened, I was just bummed. Really stunned. But I wasn't a part of the they-should-change-the-rule crowd, either. I believe in rules. If the Bills won the toss, the Bills win and the Chiefs are the ones that don't touch the ball, right?"
After leaving Niagara Falls, Winker's family moved to Orlando and he's stayed there. When he played in Sahlen Field for the Louisville Bats in 2017, he stayed with his grandmother in the Falls.
How big a Bills fan is he? During a spring training telecast in March, the Mariners put him on an in-game interview from the dugout. Winker got asked if he liked college football tailgates. Big mistake.
“You can tell him I have. And it will happen again.” 🤣 pic.twitter.com/CkTQnC6FFb
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) March 29, 2022
“I don’t go to college football tailgates,” said Winker. “I go to Buffalo Bills tailgates, man. I’m not going to no college football tailgate. I’m going with the real tailgaters.”
The conversation continued like this:
"Are you Bills Mafia, Jesse?
"Through and through."
"Have you ever jumped on a folding plastic table off of an RV?"
"Um, who's asking because I have."
"(Mariners GM) Jerry DiPoto is asking."
"I have. You can tell him I have. And it will happen again."
A smiling Winker said last week he and DiPoto haven't discussed the point further since the season began.
"I think he knows where I stand with that," Winker cracked. "If I've still got to show my loyalty. I'll jump through one. But I feel like I'm good at this point."
Jesse Winker wears a Jim Kelly jersey at a Bills game in Miami against the Dolphins.
Winker grew up in the Orlando area with Bills linebacker Matt Milano ("Amazing player. Good dude. A real stud.") and has developed some friends in the team's front office. He also has a regular text relationship with former Bills lineman Eric Wood, who played at the University of Louisville. They met in Winker's rookie year in the big leagues with the Cincinnati Reds and last June, Wood tweeted a video asking Bills Mafia members to vote for Winker and then-teammate Nick Castellanos for the All-Star Game in Denver.
"That was so cool," Winker said. "Being in a small market like Cincinnati, you kind of need everything you can get when it comes to that stuff. And being appreciated not just by baseball fans, but football fans as well as – and especially the Bills crowd – was awesome for me."
He’s a member of #BillsMafia and deserves to be an All-Star.Help us send @Reds OF Jesse Winker to the @MLB All-Star game!https://t.co/YnrwvwzRwI | https://t.co/6pUrE6V17O pic.twitter.com/ppuljghqOL
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) June 30, 2021
Winker batted .305 with 24 homers and 71 RBIs for the Reds last year but was traded in March to Seattle as part of the Reds' sudden selloff when the lockout ended. He's had a difficult start.
Winker hit the weekend batting just .222 for the Mariners, but it's already been a tale of two seasons. He hit just .169 with no home runs in April but has bounced back in May. He lost a nine-game hitting streak in Wednesday's 5-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays but still contributed the game's opening run with a sacrifice fly.
Overall in the month, Winker is batting .282 and has hit safely in 12 of his last 14 games. Still, he only has two home runs and 13 RBIs for the season.
"He has had stretches throughout his career where he has been really good for months and then he dips down for a month. I just thought he got off to a slow start here," Seattle manager Scott Servais said. "Obviously, anytime you go to a new team, there's an adjustment there and new ballpark, new city, things like that. I like the way he's swinging the bat now. I think he has been really good the last few weeks. Hopefully that continues."
Winker agreed.
"You want to show why you're getting traded, why a team is so interested in acquiring you, but it's a new experience for me," he said. "It's a new city and I'm enjoying it, but it's just baseball really. I've had worse months. So at the end of it, I believe in myself. And I believe in the work I do and how I was hitting the ball, and at the end of it, all the other stuff will take care of itself."
Winker, of course, knows all about playoff droughts. And the Mariners have the longest current one going in North American pro sports, with no postseason trips since 2001. Winker said he's studied the Bills' schedule but hasn't committed to attending any games yet because he hopes he's busy come fall.
"Hopefully, I don't see any Bills games until after October," he said. "I'm hoping to get up there and get to some home games and be a part of it all.
"Of course that's hopefully after our playoff run is over and same with the parade that follows that."
