Seattle Mariners Will Travel More Than Any Team

Mandatory Credit: Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports

It should come as no surprise that the Seattle Mariners will travel further than any other team in Major League Baseball in the 2014 season. Seeing that Seattle sits more than 700 miles away from the next closest MLB city, the Mariners will rack up some hefty frequent-flyer miles.

As the table below shows, it’s really not even close. The Athletics are over 4,000 miles behind, or in other words, more than another trip from coast to coast. In fact, the Mariners are the only team to travel the distance equal to circling the Earth……twice! With enough left over to fly to the Ballpark at Arlington again.

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In fact, the Mariners fly twice as far as six clubs. Is it a dis-advantage? The Athletics travel the 2nd-most amount of miles and they finished first in the AL West each of the past two seasons.

The Mariners even travel further than the Dodgers and Diamondbacks and they went to Australia and back to start the season!

In the NFL, people complain about west coast teams having to travel to the east coast for 1 PM games (which is 10 AM back home). For the NFL, where they play one game a week, travel the day before (sometimes two but rarely) and fly back that night or the following day, it can be a difference maker.

But regardless of how many miles the team is traveling, every MLB team goes on the road for the same number of games. They are away from home, in hotel rooms, in airplanes, on team buses for 81 games. And, they are in that town for multiple games. Plenty of time to adjust to the time change. I know jet lag can affect people, but I’m note sure it has a lasting effect.

But no matter how you look at it, the Mariners are the world travelers of Major League Baseball, twice over. And they start the season on the road with some of those miles already under their belt.