Mariners History: Five Popular things the last time they made the playoffs

It’s time to go back. All the way to 2001. It’s the last time the Mariners made the playoffs. Something we have been going through at my work lately is realizing how many things that don’t seem that old are actually pushing 20+years. So, I wanted to merge those things and look at five things that were popular or famous the last time the Mariners made the playoffs. Let’s jump in and look at five (or maybe more) important/popular/fun things to compare from 2001 to the present.

Mariners 2001: Notable songs and musical achievements…

This is the one that people always think about right away. What songs were popular. Well, get ready to repeatedly say “There is no way that song is that old.”

It wasn’t me – Shaggy
Love don’t cost a thing – Jennifer Lopez
Fallin’ – Alicia Keys
Again – Lenny Kravitz
All for You – Janet Jackson
How you Remind Me – Nickelback
Lover Boy – Mariah Carey
U Remind Me – Usher
Hanging by a moment – Lifehouse
Drops of Jupiter – Train
Ms. Jackson – Outkast
Kryptonite – 3 Doors Down
The Hybrid Theory Album – Linkin Park
ITUNES CAME OUT IN JANUARY OF 2001!
Napster shut down
Aaliyah’s plane crashed
XM satellite radio Launched
The First Kidz Bop is released
The First iPod is released
Billie Eilish was born!

Definitely said to myself multiple times “there’s no way”. There are some great songs on there, and some of the events that happened are just crazy to think about.

Mariners 2001: Some fun comparisons…

Inflation: A dollar then would be worth $1.56 now. That means that some of the contracts back then, although they seem like good deals now, were actually pretty fair. Aaron Sele would be $10.9 million, Olerud would be $10.45, Moyer would be $10.1, Kaz Sasaki was $7.27, and Arthur Rhodes would be $5.07. The team was 11th that year in spending at $74.72 million, which would be about $116.56 this season. You can also see how much more money is spent now, as that would’ve ranked them 18th.

Gas: The average has gone from $1.47 to $3.05. We all know it’s worse in Washington though, with gas all the way up to $3.87.

Movie Ticket: $5.66 compared to $9.16. I dunno about you, but I’d be happy to find a movie ticket for only $9. It’s pretty in line with inflation, but it still seems like a lot.

Cell Phones: People had the old brick Nokias back then. They were indestructible. Also, all you could play on the was Snake. Now… well, most people spend the majority of their day with their nose in their phone. Shoot, more people are going to read this on their phone than they are on their computer.

Housing Market: $179,900 vs. $74 million. Okay, that’s just what it seems like. The average price of a house in Washington is actually $519,552. I feel bad for everyone who is trying to buy their first house (or one in general) at all right now. That’s an incredible rate of inflation (288%). Based on actual inflation, it should only be $279,240.

Pokemon: Back in 2001, there were only two generations of Pokemon. That’s only 251 pokemon. Wanna take a wild guess at how many there are now?

901! That’s crazy.

Mariners 2001: The Top Movies of the year were…

Oh wow. This list is wild. Here are some of the top box office movies from that year.

Shrek
Hannibal
The Mummy Returns
The Fast and the Furious
Monsters, Inc
Training Day
Rush Hour 2
Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
Ocean’s Eleven
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Each and every one of those movies is awesome. There were some other good ones as well, but I left it to those 10.

Mariners 2001: These players retired in 2001…

There are some incredible all-time greats who played their final MLB season in 2001.

Harold Baines
Cal Ripken Jr
Tony Gwynn
Jose Canseco
Eric Davis
Stan Javier
Paul O’Neill
Bobby Bonilla
Mark McGwire
Jay Buhner
Deion Sanders (darn right I’m including primetime)
Brent Saberhagen
Norm Charlton (The Sheriff)

It just doesn’t seem like it has been 20 years since Jay Buhner played. Shoot, Deion Sanders could probably still steal some bases. The fact that Gwynn and Ripken have been retired for 20 years (and retired together) is mind-boggling.

Mariners 2001: The youngsters in the system

Milkar Perez and Noelvi Marte were both born on October 16th of 2001. Jonatan Clase was born in 2002. Kristian Cardozo was born in 2002 as well. Starlin Aguilar was born in 2004!

Those are a bunch of really good to incredible prospects on the Mariners, who were born either after the playoffs ended, or in the case of Marte and Perez, on the same day as Game One against the Yankees in the ALCS. Goodness.

Mariners 2001: The Championship teams from different sports

Here are the teams that won the Championships that year, and some of the top players from each team. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going with the year it was played in. Football gets confusing, and basketball does a bit too, so I’ll do it that way.

MLB – Diamondbacks over the Yankees. This was the Luis Gonzales off of Rivera series. Randy Johnson. Curt Schilling. Byung-hyun Kim. The Big Unit going 3-0. It’s one of the greatest World Series of all time! Mark Grace, Mike Mussina, and Luis Sojo all played in the series as well.
NBA – Lakers over the 76ers. This is the Allen Iverson over Tyronn Lue game! Young Kobe. Rick Fox. Ron Harper. Horace Grant. Eric Snow. Kevin Ollie. Dikembe Mutombo. Even though the Lakers won, we will all remember Iverson for this series.
NFL – Ravens over the Giants. WOOOOOOOOO! GREATEST DEFENSE EVER! Tony Siragusa. Ray Lewis. Peter Boulware. Jamal Lewis. Chris McAllister. Matt Stover. Duane Starks. Trent Dilfer. Kerry Collins and Tiki Barber. Ron Dixon. If only you could hear me screaming in excitement through the computer. (Big time Ravens fan, so that should make more sense now. Also, the Legion of Boom is overrated.)
NCAAB – Duke over Arizona. Shane Battier and Mike Dunleavy Jr. Jason Williams before he rode motorcycles. Lute Olson was coaching Richard Jefferson, Gilbert Arenas, and Luke Walton. Battier had an incredible game, going 18-11-6.
NCAAF – Oklahoma beat Florida St… 13-2. It was an ugly game, slightly making more sense when you realize it was Chris Weinke vs Josh Heupel. The lone score for Florida St. happened on a bad snap on an Oklahoma punt, when the punter just ran out of the endzone to avoid further scoring by Florida State so late in the game.

If I wanted to cheat, I could’ve included the 2002 NCAAF title game instead, and it would have made for an insane grouping of title games. Alas, this one gets to be there instead. It was on January 3rd, so at least the worst one was the first one.

One Last Thing…

The MLB All-Star game was in Seattle in 2001. That was 20 years ago? Can you believe it? It’s insane. Ripken hitting the homer definitely doesn’t seem that long ago.

Feel old yet? Or, are you too young to even know who and what some of those things are? It’s still a fun exercise to go back to. Hopefully, the Mariners can prevent us from wanting to do things like this by making the playoffs soon!