April 6, 1977: Seattle's Baseball Restoration

April 6, 1977: Opening Day of a new baseball season -- the 1st one that I can actually remember.

There are 2 new expansion teams in the American League. The Toronto Blue Jays will debut tomorrow. The Seattle Mariners debut today, with Major League Baseball returning to the Pacific Northwest after the disastrous one-year experiment of the 1969 Seattle Pilots.

A crowd of 57,762 fills the new King County Domed Stadium, a.k.a. the Kingdome. Among the part-owners was the great entertainer Danny Kaye. The manager is Darrell Johnson, who led the Boston Red Sox to the AL Pennant just 2 years earlier. And, as fate would have it, the Mariners' 1st opponents are also the 1st team the Pilots ever faced in a regular-season game, and the team to which Seattle's pre-Pilots minor-league team was a farm team: The California Angels.

Diego Seguí starts for the M's: He turned out to be the only player to play for both the Pilots and the Mariners, and was easily nicknamed the Ancient Mariner. It doesn't go so well for the home team: Seguí doesn't get out of the 4th inning. Joe Rudi hits the dome's 1st home run, Frank Tanana pitches a shutout, and the Angels win, 7-0. Or, from the Seattle perspective, 0-7 -- which would also be Seguí's record for the year.

With Ruppert Jones, Danny Meyer, Leroy Stanton, Bill Stein, Glenn Abbott and Enrique Romo, the team went 64-98 -- not in last place in the AL Western Division, half a game ahead of the collapsed dynasty of the Oakland Athletics, and 9 1/2 games ahead of their expansion brethren in Toronto.

Ruppert Jones, the Mariners' 1st All-Star

Bruce Bochte went 2-for-3 with 2 walks for the Angels in that opener. The next year, he would join the Mariners, and become one of their best hitters in their early years, but they lost 104 games. It would take until 1995, and the addition of another round, for the team to make the Playoffs. As of Opening Day 2022, they're still looking for Seattle's 1st Pennant since the 1966 Pacific Coast League title.

UPDATE: The Mariners have a team Hall of Fame. Through the 2025 season, the inductees are:

* From the 1980s: 1st baseman Alvin Davis.

* From their 1995-2001 glory period: Manager Lou Piniella, pitchers Randy Johnson and Jamie Moyer, center fielder Ken Griffey Jr., designated hitter Edgar Martinez, right fielders Jay Buhner and Ichiro Suzuki, and catcher Dan Wilson.

* From since 2001: Pitcher Félix Hernández.

* And their 1977 to 2010 broadcaster, Dave Niehaus.

Davis, Griffey, Martinez and Niehaus have been elected to the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame. So have 1990s 3rd baseman turned 2000s onward broadcaster Mike Blowers, a University of Washington graduate; 2000s 1st baseman John Olerud, a Washington State University graduate; and 1983-onward broadcaster Rick Rizzs.

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April 6, 1977 was a Wednesday. Only 1 other game was played. At the time, the tradition was for the Cincinnati Reds to host the 1st game in the National League, due to Cincinnati having had the 1st openly professional team, in 1869. This time, the Reds beat the San Diego Padres, 5-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. César Gerónimo hit a home run. Johnny Bench did not play.

Football was out of season. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Houston Rockets beat the Boston Celtics, 104-93 at the Boston Garden.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Chicago Bulls, 97-96 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Buffalo Braves beat the New Orleans Jazz, 107-102 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Pete Maravich scored 30 points in defeat for the Jazz.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 131-109 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. Larry Kenon scored 31 for the Spurs.

* And the Denver Nuggets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 110-95 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway, but this was a travel day in every series. The World Hockey Association was wrapping up its regular season, and 4 games were played:

* The Quebec Nordiques and the Cincinnati Stingers played to a tie, 2-2 at the Riverfront Coliseum (now the Heritage Bank Center) in Cincinnati.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Birmingham Bullets, 6-4 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Phoenix Roadrunners beat the Indianapolis Racers, 7-3 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* And the Houston Aeros beat the San Diego Mariners, 5-3 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena). This would be the last season for the San Diego Mariners, who were named before the Seattle baseball team was established. Despite making the Playoffs 3 straight seasons, they couldn't afford to stay in business.