Seattle Mariners

• 1. Introduction

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  The Seattle Mariners hold a distinction that no other active team in Major League Baseball can claim: they have never appeared in the World Series. After nearly five decades of play, they remain the only franchise in the sport with that particular absence on their record. Yet the Mariners' story is not simply one of failure. It is a story of a city fighting to keep baseball alive, of players who rewrote record books, of fans who invented rituals around french fries and buzz cuts, and of a team that in 2001 won more regular-season games than any American League club in history. How does a franchise that won 116 games in a single year still end each October watching someone else celebrate? And what does it mean to be a fan of a team that keeps pulling you back, year after year, with so much promise and so many near misses?

• 2. Born From a Lawsuit

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  The Mariners did not come into existence through the normal machinery of expansion planning. Bud Selig bought the Seattle Pilots and moved them to Milwaukee after the 1969 season, and in response, the city of Seattle, King County, and the state of Washington filed a lawsuit against the American League for breach of contract. The state's attorney general at the time was Slade Gorton, who would later serve as a U.S. Senator. King County, confident that baseball would eventually return, built the multi-purpose Kingdome, which opened to the NFL's expansion Seattle Seahawks in 1976 before the Mariners ever played a game there.

  The team's name came from a public contest that drew more than 600 submissions from roughly 15,000 entrants. Club officials chose "Mariners" in August 1976, a nod to the marine culture that defines Seattle's identity. The winning entry was submitted by Roger Szmodis of suburban Bellevue, but when the team tried to contact him to award the prize, they could not reach him. Not at first, and not ever.

  The first home run in team history was hit by designated hitter Juan Bernhardt on the 10th of April 1977, in the team's fifth game. That same season, pitcher Diego Seguí became the only player to appear for both the Seattle Pilots and the Seattle Mariners, doing so in his final major league season. The team finished with a record that matched the 1969 Pilots', avoiding last place in the AL West by half a game. They would not post a winning record or finish above fourth place during their first fourteen seasons.

• 3. Ownership and the Nintendo Era

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  California businessman George Argyros bought the Mariners in 1981. In 1989, he sold the team for $76 million to a group led by Jeff Smulyan, an Indianapolis-based owner of radio and television stations. Smulyan proved to be a troublesome steward: by 1992, he was proposing to move the team to Tampa, Florida or another market. He ultimately put the team up for sale instead.

  Nintendo of America stepped in and purchased the franchise after the dismal 1992 season. Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi held a 49 percent share of the club. The detail that stands out about Yamauchi is that he had never attended a baseball game before the purchase. He was not buying into a sport he loved; he was buying into a city his company owed something to, and he wanted to thank Seattle for the role it played in Nintendo's rise.

  Before the 1993 season, the new ownership group hired Lou Piniella as manager. Piniella had already led the Cincinnati Reds to a World Series title in 1990, and he would go on to helm the Mariners for a full decade, from 1993 through 2002, winning two American League Manager of the Year Awards in that stretch. There is a historical footnote worth mentioning: Piniella was actually selected by the old Seattle Pilots in the 1968 expansion draft but never played for Seattle, having been traded to the Kansas City Royals in April 1969, the same year he earned the AL Rookie of the Year award. Seattle had to wait a long time to actually see him in uniform.

• 4. The Moment That Saved Baseball in Seattle

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  Ken Griffey Jr. broke his wrist crashing into the center field wall in May 1995, missing much of the season. Despite that, the Mariners reached the playoffs for the first time that year, defeating the California Angels in a one-game playoff to win the AL West division. What followed in the postseason against the New York Yankees has settled permanently into Seattle sports mythology.

  In Game 5 of the American League Division Series, with the series tied and the game extending into the 11th inning, Edgar Martínez came to bat and hit a walk-off double. Griffey, running from first base, scored to win the game and send the Mariners through. The moment is widely credited as a powerful reason baseball stayed in Seattle when its future in the city seemed genuinely uncertain. Martínez, who played his entire career with the Mariners, was later inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and his No. 11 was retired in a ceremony on the 12th of August 2017, predating his official Hall of Fame election in 2019.

  The Mariners won their second AL West division title in 1997 and returned to the playoffs in 2000. Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson, who threw the first no-hitter in Mariners history on the 2nd of June 1990, was a cornerstone of those playoff-era teams before leaving the club mid-1998. Johnson's No. 51 was retired by the Mariners in a ceremony on the 2nd of May 2026.

• 5. 116 Wins and a Long Silence

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  Griffey, Johnson, and Alex Rodriguez all departed before the 2001 season. The team that replaced them, centered on newly signed outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, proceeded to win 116 games. That figure broke the American League single-season record of 114 wins set by the 1998 New York Yankees and tied the all-time MLB record held by the 1906 Chicago Cubs. At season's end, Ichiro won the AL Most Valuable Player award, the AL Rookie of the Year, and one of three outfield Gold Glove Awards, becoming the first player since Fred Lynn in 1975 to win all three in the same season.

  Despite all that, the Mariners lost to the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. It was the last time Seattle reached the postseason for 21 years.

  Ichiro's statistical legacy grew throughout his time with the club. In 2004, he set the MLB record with 262 hits in a single season, breaking a record that had stood for 84 years. His career totals as a Mariner include 2,542 hits and 438 stolen bases, both franchise records. His No. 51 was retired in a ceremony on the 9th of August 2025, days after his induction into the Hall of Fame.

  Dave Niehaus, the Mariners' play-by-play broadcaster from their very first game in 1977, died of a heart attack on the 10th of November 2010, at the age of 75. Seattle rapper Macklemore wrote a tribute song called "My Oh My" in December 2010 and performed it at the Mariners' Opening Day game on the 8th of April 2011.

• 6. Traditions and Fan Culture

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  From the 1990 season through 2021, the seventh-inning stretch at Mariners games included the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie," a song that had been a regional hit in the Northwest before the Portland-based Kingsmen recorded it in 1963. A campaign in 1985 tried to make the song the official state song of Washington. The tradition was solidified on the 2nd of June 1990, when the Kingsmen performed it live from atop a dugout, the same game in which Randy Johnson threw the first no-hitter in Mariners history. The song returned to games in the 2025 season, remixed to a slightly more uptempo beat.

  In 1994, the Mariners launched "Buhner Buzz Cut Night," inspired by outfielder Jay Buhner's shaved head. Fans willing to have their heads shaved before the game received a free ticket and a T-shirt with slogans like "Bald Is Buhnerful" or "Take Me Out to the Bald Game." Hair ten inches or longer was collected for charity. The promotion ran until Buhner retired in 2001 and was revived for its 30th anniversary in 2024, with Buhner giving catcher Cal Raleigh a buzz cut.

  The Rally Fries tradition began in 2007 when broadcaster Mike Blowers sent his intern to deliver a replacement tray of french fries to a fan who had spilled his during a game against the Cincinnati Reds. At the next game, fans showed up with signs asking for fries, and the Mariners started rallying whenever Blowers made a delivery. The fries typically came from Ivar's, a Seattle-based seafood restaurant with a location at T-Mobile Park. The promotion ended in 2012.

  When Felix Hernandez dominated opposing lineups, the Mariners marketing team created King's Court, a designated cheering section in the lower seats along the third baseline where fans wore yellow T-shirts and held "K" cards for every strikeout. Inspired by that tradition, fans themselves organized the Maple Grove during the 2017 season to celebrate Canadian pitcher James Paxton, with potted maple trees and "Eh" Cards replacing the "K" cards. One of those "Eh" cards is now part of the Baseball Hall of Fame's collection.

• 7. The End of a Drought

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  Jerry Dipoto joined the organization as general manager in 2015 and Scott Servais became manager later that same year. In 2016, Nintendo sold its controlling stake in the Mariners to a limited partnership led by John W. Stanton, with the franchise valued at $1.4 billion at the time. Nintendo retained a ten percent ownership share after the sale was completed in August 2016.

  For years the rebuilt roster kept falling short. The team won 89 games in 2018 without reaching the playoffs, then shifted to a full rebuild. In 2022, with a new core that included center fielder Julio Rodriguez, shortstop J.P. Crawford, catcher Cal Raleigh, and pitchers Luis Castillo, George Kirby, and Logan Gilbert, the Mariners returned to the postseason for the first time since 2001. The drought had lasted 21 years, the longest active postseason absence in the four major North American sports leagues at the time. Rodriguez won the AL Rookie of the Year that season.

  In 2025, the Mariners won the AL West for the first time in 24 years, clinching it with a 9-2 win against the Colorado Rockies on September 24. They defeated the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS in five games. In the ALCS against the Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle took a 2-0 series lead on the road but blew a 3-1 lead, losing Game 7 at home in Toronto. It was the first time the franchise ever played in a Game 7, and the closest they have ever come to a World Series appearance.

  Cal Raleigh set the franchise single-season home run record in 2025 with 60, surpassing Ken Griffey Jr.'s previous mark, and the Mariners still hold the distinction of being the only active MLB franchise never to appear in the World Series.