I grew up a fan of two teams. My first team was the San Francisco Giants. As a young child, the name Willie Mays stuck in my head, and he became my boyhood idol. Living in Idaho, my second team was the Minnesota Twins. With Harmon Killebrew as their big star, it was a natural fit. I flirted for one season with the Seattle Pilots, because I could listen to their games on the radio. That ended when the Pilots became the *Milwaukee Brewers.

As is prone to happen, I lost interest in baseball (and other sports) when I went to college. Ours was not a big athletic school (the football program was disbanded while I was there), so there wasn’t a lot of interest in collegiate sports. Between getting busy with studies, friends, and relationships, plus the thoughts that I didn’t have time for such childish and trivial things, baseball went by the wayside.

This changed in 1983. I went to a convention in Seattle in early April. While there, someone suggested we go to a baseball game. Sure, why not…I used to watch baseball, I’d never seen a major league game before, and it was something to do.

I was mesmerized. Here was a chance to see a real major league game. I couldn’t believe the size of the stadium, and we were watching real major league baseball! I had a great time…hollering insults at the Yankees, watching Todd Cruz hit two home runs to lead the Mariners to a 4-1 victory. I was reminded just how wonderful the game of baseball was.

I returned home a few days later. My six month old son was already asleep, and as I checked on him, I remember thinking that I wanted to teach my sons about baseball. While my father had taught me about fishing, I wanted to pass baseball on to my sons.

That is how I became a Mariner fan.

What does it mean to be a fan of the Seattle Mariners? I think the answer may surprise many of you. In one word…HISTORY. Scoffers may wonder how an expansion team can be a historical team. Teams like the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Giants, the Red Sox…now that’s history. Why, the Mariners have only been in existence for 30 years.

That, my friends, is why I chose history. Many of us who are Mariner fans can recall the entire history of the team. To fully appreciate the modern day Mariners, you need to be able to remember what it was like way back when.

1977 brought us the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays. While 1992 saw the Blue Jays win their first of two consecutive World Series Championships, it also saw the Mariners finish 64-98. The Mariners had achieved only one winning season, that being in 1991 when they won a whopping 83 games.

Not that the early years didn’t have their moments. There were memorable players like Mark Langston and Harold Reynolds. Randy Johnson learned how to control his thunderbolt of an arm in those years. Ken Griffey Jr. became a man in a Mariner uniform, and provided one of the “feel-good” stories of 1990 when father and son hit back to back homers. Jay Buhner became a fan favorite and provided some wallop in right field.

But for every great player, there were painful counterparts. Watching Steve Trout enter a game provided a feeling of doom. When closer Bobby Ayala came in to pitch the ninth, an entire ballpark would hold it’s breath, wondering if it would be the good Bobby or the awful Bobby we’d see that night (there was nothing in between). Left field seemed to be a  place that careers came to die. The likes of  Kevin Mitchell, Jeffery Leonard, Vince Coleman, Rickey Henderson, and many more made a brief stay in left field, never reaching the brilliance they had achieved in other places. The Mariners, god love ‘em, were nothing short of an awful team for 19 seasons.

But all that changed in 1995. Lou Pinella’s ballclub, 12 ½ games back of the Angels, came charging back. Led by Edgar Martinez, who arguably should have been the MVP that year, the Mariners caught the Angels by the end of the season. In a one-game playoff, they won their division and reached the playoffs for the first time ever. The city was ecstatic! No longer were they the inept stumblebums of baseball. Seattle finally had a winner, by god! Not only did they reach the playoffs, but they knocked out the mighty Yankees in the division series. It was a magical time to be a Mariners fan, even if they were beaten in the League Championship series by the Indians.

To prove that it wasn’t just a fluke, the Mariners went on to reach the playoffs in 1997, 2000, and 2001. The 2001 season was one for the ages. The Mariners set a major league record with an incredible 116 wins!

The length of a blog doesn’t allow me to talk about everything it means to be a Mariner fan. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Edgar Martinez. Edgar was the heart and soul of the Mariners during his career. A third baseman turned designated hitter, Edgar was not only one of the best right handed hitters ever, but was truly a gentleman and leader to his ballclub. Plenty of big stars have played for the Mariners. But for every mention of Griffey, Johnson, Buhner, Ichiro, and many more, the one face that exemplifies the Mariners and their history is Edgar Martinez.

Two other things I’ll mention briefly. Being a Mariner fan means you are treated to the best commercials in baseball! With the exception of the year that they made “home shopping network” style commercials, the Mariner commercials have always been very entertaining and often downright hilarious. The other is the ballpark. Safeco Field, for those of you not fortunate enough to visit the beautiful Pacific Northwest, is a gem. It helps make the Mariners a regional team, inviting many of us to drive 5 hours to see a game (sometimes even driving to and from the game in the same day!)

It’s been a challenge to write this in the middle of a Mariner slump that is likely going to keep them out of the playoffs this year. But, the history of the Mariners always points to hope…hope that, like in 1995, the Mariners can once again “Refuse to Lose” and once again have us on the edge of our seats, cheering every pitch, every hit, every stolen base.

(Author’s note: I have deliberately not been reading the entries since September 1, in order to attempt to avoid being influenced by anyone’s writing style. My apologies for posting this a few hours early, but my schedule tomorrow would keep me from posting until tomorrow is over for many of you. I hope you enjoy, and I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s entries in a day or two!)