Last night the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros had a “Turn Back the Clock” Night in Seattle. I’ve always been a fan of these types of games as they pay homage to the rich history of baseball. Unfortunately the Mariners played like they did in 1979 (67-95 record) and lost to the worst team in the league. But hey, that’s baseball.
ANYHOW, the point of today’s post is to go a little old school with a positive Seattle twist!
30 years ago tonight, the Seattle Mariners played host to the 35-5 Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of a 3-game series. The mighty Mariners had lost the night before to the New York Yankees in front of an announced crowd of 9,600. Detroit came in with a 9-game winning streak that began with a 3-game sweep of the M’s at Tiger Stadium.
Repeat: The Tigers were 35-5 and had yet to lose a ROAD GAME. Seriously.
How did the series go? Surprisingly well for the Seattle Mariners!
The Detroit Tigers would go on to win the 1984 World Series after finishing the season with a 104-58 record. As the decades of baseball roll by, it can be tough to put into context offensive numbers, but few can argue that the Tigers had one of the best offenses in baseball over the last 30 years.
Memorial Day Weekend 1984 didn’t get in the way of the Tigers season success. They won 104 games and claimed their division title by 15 games over second place Toronto. However, this series is remembered as one of the more surprising/shocking series in not only Seattle Mariners history.
Records are meant to be broken, but will a team ever start a season again not only with a 35-5 record, but 0 road losses through 40 games? I think not. Time will tell.
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