Drayer: Mariners’ Safeco Field opener in 1999 was a curveball for the team
May 4, 2020, 3:08 PM
The dimensions of Safeco Field were different than what Ken Griffey Jr. was used to. (Getty)
(Getty)
With baseball season delayed for the foreseeable future, 710 ESPN Seattle is broadcasting classic Mariners games throughout the spring. At 7 p.m. tonight we turn back the clock to a party from 1999. Here’s Shannon Drayer’s preview of the airing of the first game in the history of Safeco Field, or as it’s known now, T-Mobile Park.
July 15, 1999
Big day. Big, big day.
The Mariners came out of the All Star break 42-45, a struggling team caught in between the playoff runs of 1995 and 1997 and not quite to the 2000 and 2001 teams that would return to the postseason. The M’s had lost five straight but that was certainly not the story on this day. Rather it was the ballpark, Safeco Field, which was about to see its first ballgame.
Baseball had been saved in Seattle, the Mariners’ new palace erected and ready to go. Fans passed by the deteriorating, concrete Kingdome on their way into the spectacular retro-modern-style brick ballpark, eager to get inside and see the real grass and the retractable roof in action.
The sights, sounds, even smells oh so different. If the fans came in the home plate entrance, they saw the magnificent bat chandelier hanging from the high ceiling. There was not a King Dog to be seen in the concourse concession stands, rather sushi and Ivar’s clam chowder among the new offerings. Excited conversations with friends and family were often drowned out by the sound of trains whistling as they passed by on the tracks behind the stadium. This was truly a unique baseball experience for those who grew up watching the game in the Kingdome.
The pregame ceremony featured players past and present on the field together as well as little leaguers joining the big leaguers at their positions. Joey Hutchinson, 5-year-old grandson of Fred Hutchinson, ran the bases.
The star of the pregame, however, was our own Dave Niehaus, who decked out in a black tuxedo read the “If you build it they will come” speech from Field of Dreams. When he walked back to his spot behind home plate to witness the first pitch, which was to be thrown by a person yet to be named, he was informed by then-team president Chuck Armstrong to turn around and head back to the mound. The honor was his. An emotional Niehaus took the mound and threw out the first pitch in Safeco Field history to former U.S. House Speaker Tom Foley.
It was time to play ball. The Mariners, boasting a team ERA of 6.02, were about to try out their new field for the first time.
LINEUPS!
Padres
Quilvio Veras, 2B
Eric Owens, LF
Reggie Sanders, RF
Phil Nevin, DH
Wally Joyner, 1B
Rueben Rivera, CF
George Arias, 3B
Ben Davis, C
Damian Jackson, SS
Andy Ashby, P
Mariners
David Bell, 2B
David Segui, 1B
Ken Griffey Jr., CF
Alex Rodriguez, SS
Edgar Martinez, DH
Jay Buhner, RF
Butch Huskey, LF
Russ Davis, 3B
Dan Wilson, C
Jamie Moyer, LHP
Let’s just say this game was a Jose Mesa special. Moyer handed Mesa a 2-1 lead after pitching eight innings of nine-strikeout ball, and Mesa came in and walked four in the ninth, recording just one out before Paul Abbott was summoned from a bullpen beyond the left-field wall, no longer in play on the third-base side.
From the Seattle PI game story:
“Lou stuck with Mesa and received the first booing in Safeco Field history. ‘He’s my closer, I thought he had a better chance of striking them out than (Abbott). What can I say. It’s a shame we lost it.'”
The Mariners managed just two runs in their first game at the much more pitcher-friendly Safeco Field. The park’s dimensions and ball flight was already in the minds of some after a handful of hitters took batting practice at the park while it was still under construction. We would hear the grumbles for years but that first half-season, some dramatic numbers.
On the yearly franchise pages of Baseball-Reference.com, above each roster you see a row of player pictures ranked in order by WAR. Before the three years prior to the 1999 season, the Mariners’ top three listed would be some combination of Griffey, A-Rod and Edgar. In 1999, that lineup was a little different. Jamie Moyer (6.6), Freddy Garcia (5.4) and John Halama (4.9) were the names and faces to all come before the power trio. A look at the before and after (first half/second half) Safeco Field numbers from that year.
Hitting slash lines (AVG, OBP, SLG)
Griffey: .310/.404/.620 before, .255/.360/.522 after
Edgar: .313/.442/.546 before, .360/.453/.561 after
A-Rod: .316/.398/.647 before, .261/.325/.540 after
Pitching numbers (ERA, FIP, BB per 9, HR per 9)
Moyer: 5.05/4.39/2.22/1.11 before, 2.30/3.47/1.47/0.64 after
Freddy Garcia 5.15/4.66/4.52/0.89 before, 2.97/3.52/3.51/0.72 after
Halama 2.89/3.72/2.89/0.50 before, 5.58/5.23/2.74/1.52
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