In perhaps his final game with the Mariners, Seattle gave Kyle Seager a moment he will ‘never forget’
Kyle Seager was standing in his familiar spot on the infield dirt — where he has made his home the past 11 seasons — when the cheer broke out in the ninth inning.
On what turned out to be the final day of this thrilling baseball season in Seattle, more than 44,000 in the sold out crowd at T-Mobile Park chanted the name of their beloved third baseman.
It started with a few voices, and soon spread across the ballpark, until it echoed from every corner of the field on this blustery October afternoon, which may well have been Seager’s last in a Mariners uniform.
“It kind of hit me a little bit that this may be the end of it, and it may be coming to a close,” he said later, reflecting on the moment and the end of the memorable ride this season has been.
“I heard a couple chants — and I did — I started getting emotional. I tried to kind of wave and show my appreciation, and that kind of made it worse to be honest with you, because then I just started getting more emotional. And they kept getting louder on me. It was really special.”
Louder still was the ovation that followed moments later. The chants broke out before the Red Sox closed out their comeback win over the Nationals. But then that score went final, and paired with the Yankees’ victory over the Rays, officially eliminated the Mariners from postseason contention while their regular season finale against the Angels was still five outs from over. Manager Scott Servais walked onto the field to give the club’s longest tenured player a fitting tribute.
Before Seager returned to the dugout, he and his teammates tearfully gathered behind the mound, and he embraced each of them as fans rose to their feet.
“That was a real moment,” he said. “Obviously you know this moment’s going to happen. You think about it. You think about how you’re going to feel. But, you can’t prepare for that.
“That was really special, and that was something obviously I’ll never forget. I’m just unbelievably grateful to the people, and the fans, and the Mariners.”
Seager returned to the dugout, and the crowd remained standing as the cheers continued to crescendo. A groundskeeper pulled up and replaced the base at third and gifted it to Seager, walked back up the steps from the dugout for a curtain call, and held it above his head with a smile.
“There’s things that you’ll remember for a long, long time,” Servais said. “And you never forget them. We might not ever remember the score of today’s game, but you’ll certainly remember some of the moments.”
This was one of them.
“When I heard them cheering his name, and I looked at the scoreboard and saw that both teams had won, it kind of just set in that this was going to be our last game, and the most emotional part about the whole thing is that all of those fans out there were here when Kyle first came in,” Mariners rookie center fielder Jarred Kelenic said. “And they’ve cheered him on. They welcomed him to Seattle. And if this is his last game here, they’re saying goodbye and thank you for everything that he’s done.”
Which is so much over the past 11 seasons — and the entirety of his 1,480 game big league career.
Seager, who was drafted by the Mariners in the third round out of North Carolina in 2009, and has never left, is among the club’s career leaders in extra-base hits (third, 565), hits (fourth, 1,395), home runs (fourth, 242), RBI (fourth, 807) and games played (fourth).
“He’s brought consistency, and the ability to write his name in the lineup every day,” Servais said. “I think a lot of our players learn that from him. I know J.P. Crawford has. Mitch Haniger is going to play (157) games. Ty France played almost every game this year except the 10 days he was out.
“So players seeing that and understanding the value of that, if you want to put up numbers in this game, you’ve got to play. You’ve got to play every day. And it’s hard to do that, physically and mentally, and that’s what Kyle has been able to do since he’s been a Mariner.”
Seager certainly did his part to produce for this Mariners team that few expected would play a meaningful Game No. 162 when the season began. He played in 159 games, posted a .212/.285/.438 slash line with 29 doubles, a career-best 35 home runs, and led Seattle in both RBI (career-best 101) and walks (59).
“It was a special run we went on,” Seager said. “It was a special group. We came up short obviously, but it wasn’t for a lack of caring, it wasn’t for lack of work. The guys in that clubhouse, the guys on this team, we really fed off each other.
“ … You had a group that just collectively played together, and they collectively tried to win every single night and you can go through it and look at all the different heroes that came out every single game. It was special. The whole dynamic of it, the whole makeup that was one of the tightest teams I’ve ever been a part of.”
When the game was over — the Mariners lost, 7-3, in their first 90-win season since 2003 — Seager was the first player to walk back up dugout steps and onto the field.
He raised his hands above his head and clapped as the “Kyle Seager!” chants began again, tossed T-shirts to fans, and greeted them as he walked along the track into left field. When he made his way back to the dugout, he was the last Mariner to head to the clubhouse, and tipped his cap as the thousands remaining in the stands cheered once more.
He returned to the field again a few minutes later, along with some teammates, soaking in the setting as the ballpark emptied. A few fans still stood in the aisles, some of them with signs that celebrated No. 15, and what he has meant to the Mariners and Seattle since he debuted in 2011.
If this was indeed his final game in Seattle — if the Mariners do not pick up their club option to bring him back next spring, he will become a free agent this offseason — what does Seager want his legacy to be as a Mariner? It’s a tough question to answer, he said, and thoughtfully paused.
“I want to be somebody that came to work every single day, absolutely did his best, competed, and not only tried to help myself, but help others and try to help everybody get better and make this team better off,” he said.
Which, as he has shown for more than a decade in this ballpark, he has.
This story was originally published October 3, 2021 at 8:06 PM with the headline "In perhaps his final game with the Mariners, Seattle gave Kyle Seager a moment he will ‘never forget’."
