SEATTLE -- The 2026 season will be the 50th in Mariners history, which will feature a year-long celebration of Major League Baseball in Seattle. And with that in mind, the time seems ripe to dip into some nostalgia, from the Kingdome to T-Mobile Park and “The Kid” to “Big Dumper.”
Here’s a subjective ranking of the franchise’s top 10 moments:
(Note: For the purposes of this exercise, we’re only taking into account in-game moments, meaning Hall of Fame inductions are off the table, as are All-Star and Home Run Derby performances)
“The Double” that saved baseball in Seattle
Over the first 18 years of their existence, the Mariners never reached the postseason -- until 1995, when they went on a 23-11 run down the stretch and supplanted the Angels for the American League West title in a winner-take-all play-in game. And their first taste of October lived up to the lofty hype, as the Mariners played a tense, best-of-five AL Division Series that went down to the wire, capped with the most iconic moment of Edgar Martinez’s 18-year career -- a walk-off double that scored Ken Griffey Jr. from first base in Game 5. The highlight is one that’s still played countless times in Seattle, and many believe that Martinez’s clutch hit saved baseball in Seattle, as the club was dealing with political and stadium issues and pondering a sale that likely would have led to a move to Florida.
116 wins
It’s touted as a record that might stand the test of time, as only the Dodgers’ 111 wins in 2022 are the closest that any team has come since the 2001 Mariners tied the 1906 Cubs for the most victories in a single season. And Seattle did so on the penultimate day of the season in trademark fashion, riding a dominant pitching effort -- from Denny Stark, Paul Abbott, Joel Piñeiro, Jeff Nelson and Kazuhiro Sasaki -- and a solo homer from Bret Boone to stave off the Rangers, who hadn’t been held scoreless all season to that point. Making the moment sweeter was that Alex Rodriguez, who left in free agency the offseason prior, was Texas’ final out via K. The Mariners were in first place all season, becoming the eighth MLB team ever to lead their respective division wire-to-wire, including the first in the AL West.
King Felix’s perfect game
Felix Hernández’s perfect game on August 15, 2012, felt like the inevitable masterpiece from a pitcher who had carried the Mariners for years. From the first inning, his fastball command and darting changeup had a different sharpness -- calm, deliberate and almost surgical. As the outs stacked up, Safeco Field shifted from curious buzz to collective disbelief, then to roaring urgency. And Felix never wavered. 27 up, 27 down, punctuated by a fist-pumping strikeout that felt like his entire career was crystallizing in one moment. It wasn’t just perfection; it was the definitive Felix performance, forever etched into Mariners history.
Ichiro breaks single-season hit record
The night that Ichiro Suzuki broke the single-season hits record with his 258th on Oct. 1, 2004, carried a quiet inevitability, the kind that builds over months of perfectly placed swings -- and a career defined by them. Safeco Field buzzed with anticipation, aware it was witnessing history in real time. When Ichiro sent that sharp grounder up the middle and to the opposite field, the crowd erupted, a release of awe more than surprise. It was quintessential Ichiro -- precision over power, grace over flash -- an achievement born from daily obsession. That record hit didn’t just rewrite history, it defined an era of Mariners baseball and helped catapult him towards his eventual and near-unanimous Hall of Fame election.
Cal’s 60th homer in 2025 AL West clincher
When Cal Raleigh launched his 60th homer, it felt like a coronation as much as a clincher. A packed house at T-Mobile Park -- howling with “MVP” chants towards the “Big Dumper” -- shook with a tension that broke the moment the ball left his bat, a screamer into the right-field bleachers like it had somewhere urgent to be. As he rounded the bases and gave the Mariners an 8-1 lead, the packed house already knew their first AL West title in 24 years was theirs.
Teammates poured from the dugout, not just celebrating a title soon to be theirs, but the heartbeat of their lineup. And that wasn’t even his biggest homer of the night, as No. 59 reached the third deck beyond right field -- territory that only seven others had reached before him. In a season defined by resilience and big swings, Raleigh delivered the biggest one yet, sealing Seattle’s long-awaited crown.
Geno’s game-winning grand slam in 2025 ALCS
Game 5 of the 2025 American League Championship Series turned the moment Eugenio Suárez stepped in with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, and the season tilting towards either direction. T-Mobile Park carried that nervous, vibrating hum -- given that the Mariners hadn’t given them much to root for in Games 3-4 -- until Suárez unloaded. In a 2-2 count, and after Raleigh tied the game with a solo homer earlier in the eighth, Suárez pummeled a 98-mph fastball and sent it sailing to right field, with just enough carry to clear the fence, flipping tension into bedlam. As Suárez circled the bases with his familiar mix of swagger and gratitude, teammates spilled over the rail as if pulled by gravity. In a matchup defined by thin margins, Suárez delivered the Mariners’ biggest thunderbolt of the series -- and maybe of all time in their limited postseason history.
“The drought is over!”
When Raleigh stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning of a 1-1 game -- as a pinch-hitter in his first full season, to boot -- the moment felt scripted long before the swing. The weight of 21 drought-filled years, the longest active playoff void in North American professional sports at the time, hovered over T-Mobile Park, then Raleigh unleashed. The burly backstop dug out a slider in a 2-2 count below the zone and with a helicopter hack, sent it off the windows of the Hit It Here Café beyond right field. The crack off his bat was sharp, unmistakable and the kind of sound that makes a crowd inhale before it erupts, releasing two decades of waiting in a single roar. As Raleigh rounded the bases, teammates poured onto the field, and Seattle finally exhaled. It wasn’t just a home run -- it was a generational reset.
Griffey’s first career homer
When Ken Griffey Jr. made his Kingdome debut in 1989, he carried the kind of instant clarity that the franchise’s trajectory had just shifted. On the very first pitch he saw, Griffey hit his very first career home run, pummeling an opposite-field shot beyond left field -- an effortless swing that would soon define a generation. The crowd didn’t just cheer; it erupted, sensing the arrival of something bigger than a debut moment. Griffey circled the bases stoically then couldn’t help himself before breaking into that trademark grin when crossing home plate. In a cavernous dome that had long been awaiting its franchise-defining star, this felt new -- “The Kid” announcing himself, loudly, on his very first swing.
Cameron’s 4-homer game
Mike Cameron’s four-homer game in Chicago in 2002 felt remarkable without ever slipping into spectacle. His first two shots looked like the product of a hitter simply locked in, seeing the ball well and taking confident swings -- and to boot, they were each piggybacked with homers from Bret Boone. Cameron’s third, however, turned heads, with teammates leaning over the rail in disbelief. And when the fourth cleared the wall, the dugout finally gave in to laughter and appreciation, knowing they’d witnessed something genuinely rare, as Cameron was just the 13th player in history at the time to clear the fence four times in a single game. And the day was all the more special given that it came against the team that he grew up with, as an 18th-round pick in the 1991 MLB Draft, with whom he played his first four seasons -- and the club that traded him without telling him to the Reds in 1998. For all of these reasons, he called the day “pretty groovy.”
Guillén’s walk-off bunt in 2000 ALDS
It was the kind of play that sneaks up on you and then sticks for years. With one out and runners on the corners in the bottom of the ninth, everyone seemed braced for a big swing. But Carlos Guillén squared early, dropped a perfect bunt up the first-base line and scored Rickey Henderson to cap a three-game sweep and advance the Mariners to the ALCS. The element of surprise did most of the work -- by the time it was chopping up the line, and past the diving first baseman, Henderson was mere steps away from scoring, the game was then over and the Mariners were spilling onto the field. It wasn’t loud or towering, just a smart and gutsy moment that fit a team built on timing and nerve.