Harger: 5 legendary Seattle Mariners moments that define October baseball at T-Mobile Park

As the American League Divisional Series (ALDS) returns to Seattle, here is one fan’s totally biased list of the sounds that built Seattle into a baseball city.

Saturday, the ALDS returns to T-Mobile Park, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve already warned your family that you’ll be emotionally unavailable for the next week. This city’s ready for playoff baseball again after missing out in 2023 and 2024, and I mean ready in that uniquely Seattle way where we’re simultaneously confident and terrified because, well, we’re Mariners fans.

Quick primer for the uninitiated: the ALDS is the second round of the MLB playoffs, it’s best of five games, and the winner moves on to the Championship Series. The Mariners are back after a two-year absence, which felt like another eternity from the 21-year drought between 2001 and 2022. Yes, you read that right. Twenty-one years. Some of you weren’t even born when we last made the playoffs before that.

If you love the Mariners like I do (and my wife says that’s “concerning”), you carry a whole soundtrack of moments in your head. These are my five legendary Mariners moments, the ones that shaped what baseball means in this corner of America. Your list might be different, and you’d be wrong, but that’s okay.

The Griffeys make history: September 14, 1990

Father and son, same uniform, same inning, consecutive at-bats, both going yard. September 14, 1990, against the California Angels. Ken Griffey Senior connects. Junior steps up and matches him. It’s the only time in MLB history that this has happened, and of course, it happened here, because Seattle baseball has always been about the impossible mixed with the improbable, served with a side of “wait, what?”

This is the moment that launched a thousand father-son catches in backyards across America, most ending with dad pulling a hamstring and son discovering video games.

Ichiro rewrites the record books: October 1, 2004

When Ichiro Suzuki broke George Sisler’s 84-year-old single-season hits record with No. 258 on October 1, 2004, Seattle had officially become the home of the coolest player in baseball.

Ichiro made beating out infield singles look like performance art. He turned baseball into something elegant, precise, and borderline supernatural. The man stretched in the on-deck circle like he was auditioning for Cirque du Soleil. We weren’t just watching baseball; we were watching someone reinvent it, one perfectly placed ground ball at a time.

King Félix’s perfect crown: August 15, 2012

Twenty-seven up, twenty-seven down. When Félix Hernández threw his perfect game on that Wednesday afternoon in August 2012, T-Mobile Park became a cathedral of nervous energy. The King’s Court was in full session, and by the seventh inning, nobody dared to mention what was happening. Baseball superstition is real, folks.

I was standing outside the stadium at the end of the game. When Félix got that final out, the explosion of joy probably set off car alarms in Ballard. Our homegrown ace had achieved perfection. In Seattle. Where perfection usually means the construction on your street is only supposed to last another three months.

Cal Raleigh ends the drought: September 30, 2022

Two strikes. Bottom of the ninth. Cal Raleigh at the plate as a pinch hitter. Twenty-one years of playoff drought hanging over everything like perpetual November drizzle.

Then the Big Dumper launched one into the Seattle night. The drought was over. Grown adults lost their minds. Strangers hugged strangers. Dogs and cats, living together. Mass hysteria. Beautiful, beautiful hysteria.

That swing turned “maybe next year” from a depressing annual tradition into actual optimism. Then we missed the playoffs two straight years because, you know. But hey, we’re back!

The Double that saved baseball: October 8, 1995

But nothing, and I mean nothing, tops The Double. October 8, 1995. Edgar Martinez. Two runners on. Yankees in town. Bottom of the 11th in Game 5 of the ALDS.

Edgar rips one down the line. Ken Griffey Jr. comes flying around third base like he’s being chased by the ghost of Yankees past. The slide, the call, the dogpile, the Yankees going home, and Baseball staying in Seattle.

Without that swing, there’s no Safeco Field, no T-Mobile Park, no tomorrow. Every Mariners fan of a certain age can close their eyes and hear Dave Niehaus’s call. If you can’t, are you really even from here?

Honorable mentions

Look, I only included The Double from 1995 because I didn’t want this to become a love letter to that single season. But for those of us who were here, 1995 was the year that turned us into forever fans, no matter how much pain that would eventually bring.

Everybody scores: October 2, 1995

Luis Sojo hits a ground ball to second base. Simple enough, right? Wrong. This is 1995 Mariners baseball. The ball hits something (the bag? divine intervention? the hopes and dreams of California fans?) and bounces over the second baseman’s head. By the time the Angels figure out what’s happening, Sojo is rounding third and sliding home for an inside-the-park grand slam.

“Everybody scores!” Rick Rizzs screamed, and suddenly the Kingdome sounded like a jet engine. That tiebreaker game sent us to the playoffs for the first time in history. I still get chills thinking about 57,000 people refusing to leave, demanding a curtain call from a team that had just given us our first taste of October baseball.

Edgar’s grand slam saves the season: October 7, 1995

Game 4 of the ALDS, tied 6-6 to the Yankees in the eighth inning. Season on the line, facing elimination. Edgar Martinez said, “Not this time.” Bases loaded, Edgar connects, and I swear the Kingdome actually lifted off its foundation for a second.

I was there for this one, and I’ve never heard anything louder in my life. My ears rang for three days. Worth it. That grand slam didn’t just break the tie (which we’d go on to win 11-8); it sent a message that this team didn’t know how to quit. Still gives me goosebumps, and still the greatest live sports moment of my life.

Chris Bosio’s no-hitter: April 22, 1993

Before perfect games and playoff runs, before we knew what hope felt like, Chris Bosio threw the franchise’s first no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox on April 22, 1993. We weren’t great that year (finished 82-80, which felt like a miracle), but for one night, we were perfect.

A guy who threw 87-mph fastballs shut down a Red Sox lineup through sheer willpower and location. It was the most Seattle thing ever: unexpected, improbable, and absolutely perfect.

Griffey hits the warehouse: July 12, 1993

The 1993 All-Star Game Home Run Derby at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Ken Griffey Jr. didn’t just win it; he turned it into his personal art exhibition. But the moment everyone remembers? When Junior became the first player to hit the B&O Warehouse beyond right field.

That ball traveled 465 feet on a rope, hitting a building that sat there untouched since 1905. They marked the spot with a plaque because that’s what you do when someone rewrites the laws of physics. Griffey made the rest of baseball realize what Seattle already knew: we had the coolest player on the planet, and he was just getting started. Every kid in Seattle spent that summer trying to hit their garage. Results varied.

The eagle has landed: April 5, 2018

Because this is Seattle and normal things don’t happen here, a bald eagle named Challenger decided to land on James Paxton during the national anthem in spring training. On March 24, 2018, in Minnesota. Paxton, to his credit, barely flinched, which is more than I can say for anyone watching.

This wasn’t technically a great baseball moment, but it was the most Seattle Mariners thing to ever Seattle Mariner. Nature literally chose us. If that’s not a sign from the baseball gods (or at least the bird gods), I don’t know what is. Paxton threw a no-hitter in Toronto a month later, so maybe the eagle knew something.

From the Kingdome to Safeco to T-Mobile Park, this team’s DNA is equal parts triumph and “well, there’s always next year,” but that’s what makes it ours. We’ve lived through the lean years (okay, decades), which makes these moments even sweeter.

Tomorrow, we get to add another chapter. Will it join this list? Will it end in heartbreak? Both? Nah. This is our year. That’s Mariners baseball, baby.

Can’t wait. Go Mariners.

What are your favorite Seattle Mariners moments? Did I miss any that should have made the list? Share your memories in the comments below!

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here. 

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