50 Fun Facts About Seattle Mariners

In which stadium did the Mariners play their first game in 1977?

The Kingdome drew 57,762 for that first game, a 7–0 loss. In 1994 falling ceiling tiles shut it down, and the Mariners had to play their last 20 games of that season on the road.

The Seattle Pilots' 1970 move to which city led to the lawsuit that created the Mariners?

Milwaukee got the Pilots when a bankruptcy referee approved their sale seven days before the 1970 season. Seattle, King County and the state sued the American League, and a new team was the settlement.

Which future US senator, then state attorney general, led the legal action that created the Mariners?

Slade Gorton hired trial lawyer William Dwyer to press the case. It took nearly six years to reach court, and about a month into the trial the league agreed to give Seattle a new team.

Who suggested the name 'Mariners' for Seattle's new baseball team in 1976?

A Bellevue fan, Roger Szmodis, won the naming contest with 'Mariners' from about 15,000 entries. The club could never find him to hand over his prize of season tickets.

What is the Mariners' mascot?

The Mariner Moose has been the mascot since 1990. In the 1995 postseason he broke an ankle, crashing into the outfield wall while being towed on skates behind a four-wheeler.

Which colours did the Mariners wear before switching to navy and Northwest Green in 1993?

Royal blue and gold were the Mariners' colours for their first 16 seasons. Dropped in 1993, they came back in 2015 on a cream throwback uniform worn for Sunday home games.

The Mariners' original 1977 logo shaped the letter 'M' like which object?

A trident: the first logo was a trident forming a capital M. The club dropped it in 1987, and it has since returned on a 2017 spring-training cap and on the 2023 City Connect uniform.

Which 43-year-old pitcher earned his 300th career win in a Mariners uniform in 1982?

Gaylord Perry beat the Yankees 7–3 that May for win number 300. In August umpires ejected him for doctoring the ball, the only such ejection in a career shadowed by spitball suspicions.

Diego Seguí, who pitched for both the Pilots and the Mariners, earned which nickname?

The Ancient Mariner was 39 when he threw the first pitch in club history, eight years after pitching for the Pilots. He went 0–7 that season and never appeared in the majors again.

What did the Mariners first achieve in 1991, their 15th season?

A winning record: the Mariners went 83–79 under Jim Lefebvre after 14 straight losing seasons. He was dismissed that autumn anyway.

Which video-game company's president bankrolled the 1992 purchase that kept the Mariners in Seattle?

Nintendo's Hiroshi Yamauchi put up most of the money as a thank-you to the region that hosts the company's American arm. He never once saw the Mariners play in person.

Owner Jeff Smulyan planned to move the Mariners to which metropolitan area before selling the team in 1992?

Tampa Bay had a new domed stadium and no team to play in it. Smulyan's lease made him offer the club to local buyers first, at an appraiser's price, and a Seattle group met it.

Which manager led the Mariners for a decade from 1993 and won two AL Manager of the Year awards?

Lou Piniella had a Seattle past: the Pilots took him in the 1968 expansion draft, then traded him a week before their first game. He was the league's Rookie of the Year for Kansas City that season.

Whose 11th-inning walk-off double beat the Yankees in Game 5 of the 1995 Division Series?

Edgar Martínez drove in two runs with the hit Seattle still calls 'The Double'. When he retired in 2004, baseball renamed its award for the best designated hitter after him.

Which team did the Mariners beat in a one-game playoff to win their first division title in 1995?

The California Angels led Seattle by 13 games in August, then collapsed. The two finished level, and the Mariners won the extra game at home to reach the postseason for the first time.

The 2001 Mariners' 116 wins tied which team's 1906 major-league record?

The Chicago Cubs won 116 in 1906 and still lost the World Series, to the crosstown White Sox. The 2001 Mariners fell short too, losing the ALCS to the Yankees in five games.

Which Mariner won both the AL MVP and Rookie of the Year awards in 2001?

Ichiro Suzuki was a 27-year-old rookie who had already led Japan's Pacific League in batting seven years running. Only Fred Lynn, in 1975, had won both awards in the same season before.

Which major-league single-season record did a Mariner break with 262 in 2004?

Hits: the old mark of 257 had stood since George Sisler set it in 1920. Sisler's 81-year-old daughter was in the Seattle crowd, and the new record-holder walked over to greet her after the hit.

Which future Red Sox legend did the Mariners trade to Minnesota in 1996 as a minor leaguer?

David Ortiz was the player to be named later in a deal for third baseman Dave Hollins. Known until then as David Arias, he went on to hit 541 home runs, none of them for Seattle.

Which number have the Mariners retired twice, for two different Hall of Famers?

51 belonged first to one Hall of Famer and then to another, who vowed not to embarrass it. The second wearer was honoured first, in 2025; the original owner's turn came in 2026.

Which Mariner's number did the club retire first, in 2016?

Ken Griffey Jr. and his father became Mariners team-mates in 1990, and that September the two hit back-to-back home runs. His 24 is retired at every level of the organisation, minor leagues included.

Which Mariner was the 2022 AL Rookie of the Year as the club ended its long playoff drought?

Julio Rodríguez also reached the final of that summer's Home Run Derby. In August, still a rookie, he signed a contract extension that could be worth as much as $470 million.

Which slogan became the rallying cry of the Mariners' 1995 run to their first playoff berth?

Refuse to Lose caught on as Seattle piled up late comeback wins that September. The run is credited with winning support for a new ballpark, which kept the club in the city.

Which song replaced 'Louie Louie' at Mariners games in 2022?

'Can't Hold Us' by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis lasted three seasons in the seventh-inning stretch. The club dropped it in 2024 after remarks the rapper made at a benefit concert, and 'Louie Louie' returned in 2025.

Which Mariners pitcher threw the franchise's first perfect game on August 15, 2012?

Félix Hernández struck out 12 in a 1–0 win. That April the Mariners had been on the wrong end of Philip Humber's perfect game, so they won one and lost one in the same season.

What was the yellow-shirted, K-card-waving cheering section at Mariners home games from 2011 to 2019 called?

The King's Court gathered for every home start by the club's ace, known as the King. After his finest game, in 2012, the Mariners stretched it to the whole ballpark for a night and called it the Supreme Court.

The 'Maple Grove' fan section, with a potted tree named 'Stick Rizzs', celebrated which Canadian pitcher?

James Paxton's Grove was the fans' own idea, and they waved 'Eh' cards whenever he reached two strikes. In 2018 he rewarded them with a no-hitter thrown in his native Canada.

Which Mariners promotion, begun in 1994, gave a free ticket to any fan who had their head shaved?

Buhner Buzz Cut Night was built around bald outfielder Jay Buhner, who often worked the clippers himself. The club revived it in 2024, 30 years on, and he shaved one of the current Mariners before the game.

Which food tradition did Mariners broadcaster Mike Blowers start in 2007?

Rally Fries began when a fan chasing a foul ball spilled his fries and Blowers sent him a fresh tray. Fans started bringing signs to ask for their own, and the team seemed to rally whenever the fries arrived.

Who was the Mariners' play-by-play announcer from 1977 until his death in November 2010?

Dave Niehaus greeted grand slams by telling Grandma to get out the rye bread and mustard, because it was 'grand salami time'. The club put a bronze statue of him, seated at his microphone, inside the ballpark.

What was T-Mobile Park called from its 1999 opening until 2018?

Safeco Field carried the name of a Seattle insurance company that bought the naming rights for 20 years. When that deal ran out after the 2018 season, T-Mobile signed a 25-year one.

In which Seattle neighbourhood is T-Mobile Park located?

SoDo, the district just south of downtown, lent its name to the club's early-2000s catchphrase 'SoDo Mojo'. The phrase is still stitched inside the collar of the Mariners' City Connect jersey.

Through 2025, the Mariners were the only active MLB franchise never to do what?

Appear in a World Series: the Mariners came closest in 2025, leading Game 7 of the ALCS 3–1 in the seventh inning before a three-run home run beat them 4–3.

In which city did the Mariners win the 2022 Wild Card Series with a comeback from 8–1 down?

Toronto led Game 2 by seven runs before Seattle won 10–9. The tying hit was a bloop double that dropped when two Blue Jays fielders collided chasing it.

Which team beat the Mariners 1–0 in an 18-inning playoff game in 2022?

The Houston Astros won it on Jeremy Peña's home run in the 18th, finishing a sweep. Seattle's crowd sat through 6 hours 22 minutes of playoff baseball without seeing their team score.

The Mariners' interleague rivalry with a National League team is named after which musician?

Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam's frontman, has lived in both clubs' cities, so fans jokingly named the series for him. In 2025 the teams made it official, with a trophy he designed himself, and Seattle won it.

The Mariners share their spring-training home in Peoria, Arizona, with which team?

The San Diego Padres have shared the Peoria complex with Seattle since 1994. With little else to link the clubs, baseball made them interleague 'natural rivals', and they have met almost every year since 1997.

Which catcher set the Mariners' single-season home run record with 60 in 2025?

Cal Raleigh became the first catcher in major-league history to hit 60 in a season. That July he had also won the Home Run Derby, with his father pitching to him.

Which pitcher set the Mariners' single-season strikeout record with 308 in 1993?

Randy Johnson had led the league in walks three times when he sought out Nolan Ryan in 1992 for advice on his delivery. The next season he struck out 308.

Who set the Mariners' single-season saves record with 57 in 2018?

Edwin Díaz beat the old club record of 48 by nine and led the majors in saves. Barely two months after the season, the rebuilding Mariners traded him to the Mets.

Which manager, hired in 2015, took the Mariners back to the playoffs in 2022 and was fired in 2024?

Scott Servais was dismissed that August, two months after his team led its division by ten games. The Mariners had gone 20–33 since, the worst record in baseball bar one club.

Which team did the 2025 Mariners beat in the Division Series after winning their first AL West title since 2001?

The Detroit Tigers pushed Seattle to a deciding fifth game that ran 15 innings. Jorge Polanco's bases-loaded single ended it and sent the Mariners to their first League Championship Series in 24 years.

Which 2008 Cy Young winner did the Mariners acquire from Philadelphia in a December 2009 trade?

Cliff Lee lasted half a season in Seattle. With the club heading for 101 losses, he was traded to Texas in July 2010, and by October he was pitching in the World Series.

Who led the ownership group that bought a controlling stake in the Mariners in 2016?

John W. Stanton, a cellular-phone pioneer and longtime minority partner, took charge in a deal that valued the club at $1.4 billion. The same franchise had been valued at about $100 million in 1992.

Which Mariner set the club's single-season record for stolen bases, with 60 in 1987?

Harold Reynolds's 60 steals led the league, the only time between 1980 and 1991 that anyone but Rickey Henderson did. Henderson missed much of that season with a hamstring injury.

Which Mariner won the 1996 batting title at 21 and set club records for runs and doubles?

Alex Rodriguez hit .358 with 141 runs and 54 doubles in his first full season and missed the MVP award by three points. Four years later he left for Texas and a record $252 million contract.

Which star second baseman signed a 10-year, $240 million Mariners contract in December 2013?

Robinson Canó played only five of the ten seasons in Seattle. After an 80-game drug suspension in 2018, the Mariners traded him to the Mets with five years left on the deal.

Which pitcher set the Mariners' single-season record for wins, with 21 in 2003?

Jamie Moyer was 40 when he won 21, an age at which most pitchers are long retired. He was nowhere near done: in 2012, at 49, he became the oldest pitcher ever to win a major-league game.

Which closer left the Mariners with a club-record 129 career saves?

Kazuhiro Sasaki, nicknamed Daimajin after a movie character, was a 32-year-old rookie. After four seasons he gave up the final year of his contract, saying he wanted to be with his family in Japan.

Which Mariner hit four home runs in one game against the White Sox in 2002?

Mike Cameron hit two of them in the first inning, each right after a Bret Boone home run, and had four by the fifth. Hit by a pitch his next time up, he then sent his last swing to the warning track.