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Seattle Mariners

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

After years of futility, the 1989 Mariners showed signs of developing a good young team. Playing in the Kingdome, the American League's first domed stadium, the Mariners were born of controversy. When Seattle's original franchise, the Pilots, moved in 1970 to Milwaukee and became the Brewers, the city of Seattle threatened the American League with litigation and was awarded an expansion franchise in 1977. Owned by a group that included entertainer Danny Kaye, the Mariners made Kansas City outfielder Ruppert Jones their first pick in the league expansion draft and played their first game under the manager Darrell Johnson on April 6, 1977.

On April 6, Major League Baseball returned to Seattle when the Mariners played the California Angels before a Kingdome crowd of 57,762. The Mariners went onto lose the game, 7-0 and finished the inaugural season with a 64-98 record. The dominant Langston was 19-13 with a 3.84 Earned Run Average, while the speedy Reynolds stole club-record of 60 bases.

The Seattle Mariners struggled through their second consecutive 90-loss season as they finished 69-93. After going 12-12 in April, the Mariners stumbled to a 9-18 mark in May and never recovered, posting losing months in June, July and August. Lack of offense plagued the Mariners in 2005, as they ranked last in the American League in 0.256 hitting and 699 second-to-last in runs. Ichiro Suzuki became the first player in Major League history to begin his career with five straight 200-hit seasons and rookie right-hander Felix Hernandez dazzled in his debut to highlight the Mariners' campaign.

Richie Sexson turned in a huge season at the plate with 39 homers and 121 Runs Batted Ins. In 12 starts, Hernandez posted a 4-4 record with a 2.67 Earned Run Average. Jamie Moyer led the club with 13 wins. The Mariners were busy in the off-season, signing lefty Jarrod Washburn to bolster the starting rotation and adding Carl Everett, Matt Lawton and Kenji Johjima to shore up the offense and defense.

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