Why Mariners fans were putting shoes on their heads

October 9th, 2022

Good-luck charms in baseball come in many forms: We've seen a Rally Monkey and Rally Squirrel, a Rally Cat and rally hats. Just this season, the Padres found a spark with a black panther statue (60 percent of the time, it works all the time).

On Saturday, one Mariners fan got creative. Call it a re-shoe-venation in Seattle.

The Mariners' epic comeback in a 10-9 win over the Blue Jays in Toronto -- a game they trailed by seven runs at one point -- to claim an AL Wild Card Series victory came with some help back home.

With the Mariners trailing, 9-5, heading into the eighth, a fan named Ben at the T-Mobile Park watch party decided to do something about it: He put his shoe -- more specifically, a Birkenstock -- on his head. Sure, why not?

Soon, kids and adults alike followed suit. Sure enough, the Mariners scored four in the eighth to tie it before going ahead in the ninth on Adam Frazier's winning double.

In an interview, Ben -- known to countless of his best friends in Seattle as "Rally Shoe Guy" now -- said: "It was mostly a joke to start. But then base hits started dropping, and they were great."

Ben had to make it home on one shoe, but it was all worth it: He signed the shoe, which is headed to the Mariners Hall of Fame.

Enjoy the show. Enjoy the shoe.