THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016

Chances are, if they had a little more success, it might not take another 10 or so years before the Seattle Mariners wind up on a nationally televised game on ESPN again.

Then again, long suffering Mariners fans don’t need much of a reminder of that now, do they.

MAYBE IT was the appeal of having Felix Hernandez on the mound against the Chicago Cubs — at Wrigley Field — when the teams met for the first time in Chicago since 2007 that made ESPN jump at the chance to show it nationally.

Or maybe they’re trying to get the Mariners to motivate themselves in a pennant chase.

Whatever helps you sleep at night.

The game — the team’s first Sunday game on the network since 2004 — started about as well as you could imagine for the Mariners, with two-run home runs from Nelson Cruz, Robinson Cano and Dae-Ho Lee to jump out 6-0 after three innings against the Cubs.

Not too bad.

The rest of the game was — well — flat awful.

Seattle didn’t score a run the rest of the night and managed to let a 6-2 advantage left by Hernandez when he was taken out of the game after five innings, slowly slip away.

Chicago eventually fought back and won the game, getting a walk-off bunt by Jon Lester in extra innings for another crushing defeat.

All in all, it was a pretty entertaining game. If nothing else, they kept the game entertaining once it ran into the fourth hour.

Unfortunately, that loss could be one that keeps them out of the playoffs for another year.

It was nice to have the Mariners on a stage usually reserved for the elite teams in baseball for a change. Hopefully it won’t be another 12 or so years before the team’s next chance in the spotlight.

WITH PRACTICES beginning in the coming weeks for area high school fall sports teams, those quiet Friday nights will be long gone.

While fans will have to wait until the end of this month — only three weeks this Friday — as a handful of area teams take the field on that night.

Madison High of Rexburg will venture up north to face Lake City in the debut of head coach Bryce Erickson. Meanwhile in other games that night, Post Falls visits Sandpoint, Bonners Ferry plays at Lakeland in the renewal of an old Intermountain League matchup, as will Kellogg playing at St. Maries.

Coeur d’Alene High will have to wait until Aug. 26 to kick things off when they travel to Folsom, Calif.

Area soccer teams will be two, if not three games, into the 2016 schedule by the time football teams kick things off.

Whether you like it or not, business is about to pick up.

Hopefully all the athletes are ready for that spotlight again.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.