Kingdome - Baseball

Baseball

Shortly after the Pilots' departure for Milwaukee, the city of Seattle, King County, and the state of Washington sued the American League claiming a breach of contract. The league agreed to grant Seattle another franchise in exchange for dropping the lawsuit, and the team that would later be known as the Seattle Mariners was born. The Mariners held their first game at the Kingdome on April 6, 1977, against the California Angels.

The Kingdome was somewhat problematic as a baseball venue. Foul territory was quite large, and seating areas were set back far from the playing field, with seats in the upper deck as far as 617 feet (188 m) from home plate. Part of the problem was that the Kingdome was not a multipurpose stadium in the truest sense. Instead, it was built as a football stadium that could convert into a baseball stadium. For instance, most fans in the 300 level were unable to see parts of right and center field; these areas were not part of the football playing field.

For most of the Mariners' first 18 years, their poor play (they did not have a winning season until 1991) combined with the Kingdome's design, led to poor attendance and led some writers and fans to call it "the Tomb" and "Puget Puke." After their inaugural home opener, the Mariners didn't have another regular-season sellout until 1990. At one point the Mariners covered seats in the upper decks in right and right-center with a tarp in order to make the stadium feel "less empty". Additionally, the Kingdome's acoustics created problems for stadium announcers, who had to deal with significant echo issues. However, when the team's fortunes began to change in the mid–1990s and they began drawing large crowds, especially in the post-season, the noise created an electric atmosphere and gave the home team a distinct advantage similar to the effect on football games.

Despite its cavernous interior, the Kingdome's field dimensions were relatively small. It had a reputation as a hitter's park, especially in the 1990s when Ken Griffey, Jr., Edgar Martínez, Jay Buhner, Alex Rodriguez and other sluggers played there.

The large number of in-play objects—speakers, roof support wires and streamers—contributed to an "arena baseball" feel. The Kingdome was somewhat improved in 1982 with the addition of a 23-foot (7.0 m) wall in right field nicknamed the "Walla Walla" (after Walla Walla, Washington), " featuring a new out of town scoreboard. In 1990, new owner Jeff Smulyan added some asymmetrical outfield dimensions.

The most noteworthy baseball game in the Kingdome's history took place on October 8, 1995, when the Seattle Mariners defeated the New York Yankees 6–5 in 11 innings in the rubber game of the American League Division Series in front of 57,411 raucous fans.

One game between the Mariners and the Cleveland Indians in the Kingdome was suspended in the home half of the seventh inning because of a minor earthquake, on May 2, 1996. The earthquake occurred during a pitching change as Indians' pitcher Orel Hershiser was walking off the mound following a home run by Edgar Martínez. After an inspection by engineers, the game was continued the next evening, resulting in a win for the Indians.