SEATTLE -- Mike Cameron’s jersey will stay forever untucked at T-Mobile Park.
Growing up in Georgia, Cameron watched his father come home from his job at a factory with his shirttail out. It was the simple signifier that work was over for the night, and it was a lesson that Cameron took with him to the eight teams he played with over his 17-year career: When the last out was made, the jersey got untucked.
“I don’t know any other way I could pay tribute to the guy who got me here on this earth and gave me the opportunity to play baseball,” Cameron said, fighting back tears. “That was my signature, for him.”
Because of that, one of the most lasting images from Cameron’s career has his shirttail out -- when he and Mark McLemore raised the American flag in front of a packed house at Safeco Field after the record-breaking 2001 Mariners clinched the American League West. That scene was immortalized Thursday morning, as the club opened its new Legacy Plaza in a private ceremony, headlined by a statue of Cameron and McLemore with the flag.
It was a different sort of ceremony than the Mariners have held for their previous four statues, of legendary broadcaster Dave Niehaus, Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez and Ichiro Suzuki. The 25-year anniversary of the Mariners team that won a record 116 games coincides with the 25-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, which paused baseball when they happened and affected the entire nation.
The Mariners resumed their schedule on Sept. 18 that year. The next day, the club clinched the division. But no champagne was sprayed in the clubhouse. Instead, the Mariners stayed out on the field, as the crowd stayed at their seats. Carl Hamilton, a marine veteran and the team’s video coordinator, brought a flag with him to the postgame handshake line. Stan Javier was the first to raise it. It found its way to McLemore and Cameron, and created a moment in history.
“That wasn’t a thought in my mind,” McLemore said. “There wasn’t one time I thought that 25 years later, we’d be standing here in front of a statue, talking about it. At the time -- and to this day -- I was proud to represent this country. That’s what went through my head at that time. I knew the eyes of America and the world were watching.”
Thursday’s ceremony reflected that mixture of emotions. Representatives from local fire departments, police departments and other first responder groups sat surrounded by no fewer than 12 American flags -- including the one Cameron and McLemore carried in 2001, which will stay framed on exhibition in the plaza -- setting a tone of remembrance for the day. Ahead of Thursday night's homestand-opener vs. the A's, the two with be joined by local first-responders -- including firefighters who helped combat the historic wildfires this past summer in Spokane -- to throw out the first pitch.
But there was also the note of celebration, remembering one of the greatest teams in baseball history.
“I used to say that we had the biggest block party at 7 o’clock here, every single night,” Cameron said. “I didn’t understand the magnitude of what we were doing, but I knew we were really, really, really good.”
Behind the statue is a display of 116 bats, along with 2,269 commemorative balls that fans were able to customize with personal messages. The funds raised by the art installation -- over $300,000, according to the organization -- will go toward Mariners Legacy Field projects to build and restore youth fields in Washington.
It’s a lot to go into one statue and an exhibition: remembrance and celebration of the past combined with benefiting future generations in the area.
And for the subjects themselves, it’s a chance to be remembered for a moment that defined an era of a franchise.
Untucked jersey and all.
“That is what I remember the most, those are the simplest things we see,” Cameron said. “That was special for me, to be able to do that, and now to have him here to see it, is pretty special.”