According to the history of the team, the Mariners were founded as the result of a lawsuit. The City of Seattle, King County and the state of Washington all sued the American League for breach of contract in 1970. The lawsuit continued until 1976, when the American League finally offered to give Seattle an expansion baseball franchise – that is, if they dropped the lawsuit. And in 1977, the Seattle Mariners’ tickets were on sale.

On April 6th 1977, the team played their first game in front of 57,762 baseball loving fans at the Kingdome. Unfortunately, the team lost 7 – 0 to the California Angels. Diego Segui who was the star pitcher for that season, became the first and only player to play for both the Seattle Mariners and the Pilots in his final season. The team finished with a 64 – 98 record.

The Mariners really struggled in the 1980’s even though they had top notch players on their rosters: Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry as pitcher, Alvin Perry (1984 AL Rookie of the year), three-time Gold Glove winner and two-time All-Star Harold Reynolds, Mark Langston (three time American League strikeout leader) and team captain Spike Owens. The Seattle Mariners’ tickets were not even considered to be worth looking at. The team performed horribly all through the end of the 70’s and through the 80’s as well. In 1990, the team finished with a losing record and were thought to have started off the next decade on a pretty bad note.

In 1991 the team had their first winning season, finishing with an 83 – 79 record under a new manager - Jim Lefebvre. This win rekindled hope in their fans and raised ticket sales. The team finished fifth place in the Seven-team American League West. After 1991, the team’s manager was fired and was replaced by Bill Plummer for the 1992 season.

During the 1992 – 1993 off-season, the team hired Lou Piniella as team manger. The hiring of Piniella was good news for Seattle Mariners ticket holders because Piniella was known to have led the Cincinnati Reds to victory in the 1990 World Series. Piniella had the magic alright - from 1993 to 2002 he also won two American League Manager of the Year Awards.

In 1994 the team’s luck began to change. The team had to play outside their home stadium (the Kingdome) when four 15-pound ceiling tiles fell from the stadium’s roof and landed onto the field and into the stadium’s seating bowl, making the venue unsafe. This development forced the team to play their next twenty games on the road. As if that wasn’t bad enough; they had to play twenty games over a span of twenty-one days. With all the odds against them, the team started off with 2-8, but rebounded and went on to win nine games out of their ten games. The winning attitude of the team impressed Seattle Mariners ticket holders.

The Mariners have won three West Division titles (2001, 1997 and 1995) and won a Wild Card berth in 2000.

With the hiring of Don Wakamatsu as the new field manager of the team and the addition of World Series MVP John Wetteland as bullpen coach, Seattle Mariners ticket holders should expect a good performance from this team.

It is quite unfortunate that Ichiro Suzuki was placed on the 15-day disabled list after he was diagnosed with a bleeding ulcer – this is the fist time in his major league career that Suzuki has been placed on a disabled list. However, he certainly will be up and about before the season is over.