Krell: When the Kingdome welcomed the Mariners
From SABR member David Krell at The Sports Post on January 21, 2016:
Famed for its portrayal in Jim Bouton’s tell-all book Ball Four, the Seattle Pilots lasted one season—1969. While the Mets inched toward an improbable World Series victory against the Baltimore Orioles, the Pilots went 64-98. After the ’69 season, bankruptcy disrupted Seattle’s major league plans. New ownership—future Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig—brought the team to Milwaukee under the Brewers label.
Seattle became a Major League Baseball city for the second time when the Mariners took the field on April 6, 1977. A 7-0 loss to the California Angeles inaugurated the Mariners, joined by the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League’s expansion during the year of the New York City Blackout, the disco craze ignited by John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, and the death of Elvis Presley. In the Los Angeles Times, Ross Newhan wrote, “The young, inexperienced Mariners were outmanned in the field and at the plate, made errors that led to runs, failed to take advantage of scoring opportunities and were forced to go with pitchers who would probably be in some other line of work had it not been for the dilution of talent generated by baseball’s repeated expansion.”
Angels pitcher Frank Tanana dominated the Mariners—he struck out nine, walked two, and left nine Mariners on base. Diego Segui started for the Mariners, leaving the game after 3 2/3 innings; the Angels scored five hits and four earned runs against the veteran pitcher, who went 0-7 in 1977, his last year in the major leagues.
Read the full article here: http://thesportspost.com/baseball-history-seattle-mariners-the-kingdome/#axzz3xunW2qhS
Originally published: January 25, 2016. Last Updated: January 25, 2016.