Here we thought a Seattle Mariners-related controversy couldn’t possibly be as stupid as the Cal Lowry-Randy Arozarena handshake. And someone secretly filmed Mariners TV anchor Angie Mentink using the AI and posted it online as an apparent “gotcha.” thing.
In case some people don’t know, this all started with a post from user X on Thursday. The post included cell phone footage taken over Mentink’s shoulder during the game, which showed him typing “Good question after a big baseball loss.”
This was clearly intended to portray Mentink as too incompetent to know what to do after the Mariners’ crushing loss to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday. The post went viral thanks in part to Barstool Sports’ amplification.
But it’s clear who was wrong, as both their post and the original post are now inaccessible.
Mariners reporter’s viral video just proves how many people support her
When someone films another person and posts the footage online without their consent, it is at best unconventional and at worst wrong. And in this case, the original poster even had the nerve to misrepresent the timing of the footage. The photo was taken at T-Mobile Park, not Petco Park, where the Mariners lost the night before.
Additionally, asking AI to help you create questions is no more of a red line than asking AI to create a quote for you. And then there’s the kind of very important context that Mentink is two months removed from his stroke. There was significant doubt, at least temporarily, as to whether she would be able to return to her job covering the Mariners.
Frankly, she had good reason to do so. do not have Please accept this. But she did it anyway and basically laughed off the whole thing about X.
We are currently asking AI how to deal with virality when using AI. 😅
Truth be told, I’m late to the AI party. Earlier this season, we experimented with AI to see if there were any questions to add to the list of postgame coverage. We have come a long way from paper and pen…
— Angie Mentink (@AngieMentink) April 16, 2026
Otherwise, it was really nice to see how many people joined in the attack to protect Mentingk. It wasn’t just compatriots in the Mariners’ media circle. Celebrities in the national media came to her defense as well, as did countless Mariners fans and Mentink fans.
No station has a 100 percent approval rating, but Mentink is essentially a Seattle institution. She is a softball legend at the University of Washington and was also a women’s professional baseball player before entering the broadcasting industry. She has been covering the Mariners since 1997 as a mainstay on the field and in the booth.
As alleged controversies go, there was at least a real conspiracy in the Cal Lundy case. What Angie Mentink went through was not cool at all, even if it took her strongest supporters out of touch with reality.
Add us as a preferred source googleto follow
