Mariners Opening Day records: Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, and more legends

Your favorite national holiday is finally here. All around the nation, fans will celebrate the first of 162 regular season baseball games and the Seattle Mariners will host the Athletics for a four-game set to kick off what will hopefully be a successful season.

As we come upon the 49th Opening Day in franchise history, let's take a look back at some of the best season-starting performances the organization has ever seen.

Most Strikeouts on Opening Day: Randy Johnson (14)

It makes sense that the Mariners' all-time leader in strikeouts per nine innings also holds the record for the most strikeouts in an Opening Day game. Because Randy Johnson is also one of the greatest power pitchers of all time, it also makes sense that he punched out 14 hitters on Opening Day twice: once in 1993 and once in 1996.

On April 3, 1993, "The Big Unit" tossed 120 pitches in eight innings against the Toronto Blue Jays, giving up just one earned run and helping Seattle cruise to an 8-1 victory. On March 31, 1996, he put up a similar line, throwing 129 pitches in seven innings against the White Sox. Frank Thomas took Johnson deep with a two-run shot in the first inning before the lefty dialed it in and shut down Chicago for the remainder of the game.

Most Opening Day Wins: Félix Hernández (7)

While Johnson had the highest peak of dominance, King Félix had the most consistent success, compiling seven wins on Opening Day to Johnson's two. He also has an ERA of 1.53 across his 11 starts on the first day of the season — second all time to Walter Johnson's 1.45 ERA on Opening Day — compared to Johnson's 2.90 ERA over six starts.

Johnson also went on to have an outstanding tenure with the Arizona Diamondbacks, but Hernández would only ever don a Mariners uniform while toeing the slab at the big league level. He could also follow Johnson's footsteps if he is inducted into the Hall of Fame. This year was his first on the ballot and, while he earned more than enough support to stay on, was far from the required 75 percent threshold for selection.

Most Opening Day Hits: Ichiro Suzuki (17)

In yet another unsurprising record, Ichiro averaged .340 across his 50 Opening Day at-bats. What makes this even neater is the fact that all 17 hits were singles and he never once had an extra-base hit on the first day of the season.

Modern statisticians may note that this limits his cumulative OPS on Opening Day to just .740, but his infield ground ball singles were a trademark of his scrappy style of play and a big contributor to why he ended up a Hall of Famer.

His best Opening Day was in 2002, where he collected three hits in a 6-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

Most Opening Day Home Runs: Ken Griffey Jr. (8)

Junior is the franchise leader in home runs by a comfortable margin, totaling 417 long balls as a Mariner. Eight of these came on the first day of the season — five more than the next guy, Richie Sexson. The last one he hit was in 2009 against Twins starter Francisco Liriano.

The '09 campaign would also be the last full season of Griffey's career, giving fans a final glimpse of his greatness before finally hanging up the cleats in 2010.

Most RBI on Opening Day: Jim Presley (6)

Despite playing for Seattle for six seasons, Jim Presley isn't exactly a household name. He manned the hot corner during the team's infancy from 1984 to 1989 and was just about OK, posting a 93 OPS+ over 3,175 plate appearances.

The 1986 season was Presley's best, earning him his only All-Star selection and resulting in 107 RBI. The first six of these came on the first day of the season when he went 3-for-4 with a solo homer and a grand slam. To put the cherry on top, the grand slam walked off the California Angels in the tenth inning, capping off a dramatic comeback started in the ninth inning.

Interestingly, this would be one of two walk-off grand slams he would hit this year, the second coming against the Red Sox in July which also happened in the 11th inning.