That’s a sentence that hasn’t been written since 2001, saddling Seattle with the longest active playoff drought not only in MLB, but in any of the four major pro sports in North America. At least, it was active until Friday night, when the Mariners finally clinched a playoff berth. At long last, they’re no longer postseason-less in Seattle.
If you’re scoring at home, there were 47,057 regular-season games played from the start of 2002 through the 2021 season, including 3,138 Mariners contests. And Seattle missed out on participating in any of the 702 playoff games in that stretch.
Let’s celebrate the end of this span and put some context on what was (count ’em) 20 seasons between playoff appearances for Seattle. Here, then, are 20 facts, feats and figures that have happened in MLB from the start of the 2002 campaign through 2021.
A traditional dance done by the Māori people before sporting events, The Haka is almost like a call to battle — a way to pump up fans and players. It is very intimidating.
With the assumption that MLB Pipeline’s current No. 1 prospect, Mets catcher Francisco Álvarez, will have exhausted his prospect eligibility by this time next year, Jonathan Mayo takes a shot at predicting his successor.
League leaders and individual records are at stake, along with some teams’ postseason seeding. Tune in live for Orioles vs. Yankees at 1 p.m. ET, A’s vs. Mariners at 4, and Rockies vs. Dodgers joined in progress at 10.
PHI 5 @ WAS 1
CIN 1 @ CHC 6
BAL 2 @ NYY 1
BOS 0 @ TOR 9
KC 3 @ CLE 6
MIN 7 @ DET 0
NYM 2 @ ATL 5
TB 7 @ HOU 3
MIA 0 @ MIL 1
PIT 1 @ STL 2
TEX 1 @ ANA 4
OAK 1 @ SEA 2
CWS 3 @ SD 1
COL 1 @ LA 10
ARI 4 @ SF 10
Today’s Trivia Question
Which AL West team made the postseason the most during the Mariners’ drought from 2002-21?