"Get out the mustard and the rye bread"

Growing up in the Pacific NorthWest, I have fond memories of the run the Mariners went on in 1995. It was the 19th season in the history of the franchise. The first 15 seasons, the lowly Seattle Mariners had never had a winning record. There was great anticipation for the 1995 season as the previous season had be cut short due to a players’ strike that ended the season prematurely in August. The Mariners ended the ‘94 season 49-63. At the time, future Seattle hall-of-famer Ken Griffey, Jr. put it this way, “Last year was not very fun, so we’ll learn from that mistake.”

The negotiations stretched on between owners and players and delayed the start of the 1995 season, so games didn’t commence until April 25th.

The Mariners started off the season 6-1 but quickly fell back and averaged .500 for the majority of the season. On August 21st, the Mariners were 12.5 games back from the first place Angels. Then things really began to heat-up. The Mariners proceeded to win 17 of their final 22 games to close out the regular season with a record of 78-66. This catapulted them into a tie for first place in the AL West with the Angels.

This setup a tie-breaker game between the Angels and the Mariners to determine the winner of the AL West and earn a playoff birth. The Mariners won that tie-breaker in convincing fashion, 9-1 and moved on to the AL Division series against the Yankees. After losing the first two game, Seattle won the next three in dramatic fashion including a walk-off double in the 11th inning to close out the series.

Ken Griffey Jr’s smile as he gets piled on by excited teammates has forever been etched in my mind. It still brings a joyous tear to my eye watching it again. These guys went from a year that was a “mistake” to a year of jubilee.

So when the words, “My oh my” escaped my lips this morning, it brought back many of these memories.