American League/Seattle Mariners

    How does one really construct an awesome tattoo like this? A lot... a lot of research. It may not really seem like it, but I put in about 20 or more hours of work in finding the perfect photos and stories behind each team. Granted, some were a lot easier to track down than others. The American League side turned out to be a lot easier than the National League side; mostly because almost every mascot used on the AL are still being used by their current teams. The only exceptions of this were the Orioles, Brewers and Angels. But, enough of my jibber-jabber, here are your American League representatives!!!

Seattle Mariners Moose

    When I was getting photos taken of each team I forgot to look back through the roll and double check to make sure I had an individual shot of each team. My bad! Anyway, the Mariners Moose was introduced to me when I was about 11-years-old in 1994. Now, the Moose was actually introduced in 1990 after the Mariners held a contest for kids 14 and under to submit what they wanted as their mascot. Out of 2500 submissions the moose was selected. Due to the fact that I was living in Bakersfield, California at the time I was not privy to the Moose as I posted above. I was in both the Dodgers and Angels market, and mostly because the Angels were not exactly the caliber team that they are today, I never got a chance to see the Mariners play a home game on TV until around 1994. That's not to say that NBC or ESPN weren't playing games or showing highlights at the time either, but as an avid Oakland A's fan I couldn't care less what the Mariners were doing unless they were a threat to Oakland winning the AL West. Nonetheless, when the Mariners started playing some solid ball as a team, as opposed to just Ken Griffey, Jr. knocking the guts out of the ball, they got more exposure. Thus, I was introduced to the Moose. Plus, who could forget the line of Nike commercials starring Griffey, Jr. for President, which also featured the Moose as his running mate? Money!

   The one thing I made sure to do was put him in the teal jersey which most baseball fans outside of the Mariners base have always found iconic. Especially considering they only did it for one year before bringing them back for the 2011 season. A very wise decision on management's part I might add. The one other thing I really wanted done was to put a cast on the right leg of the Moose as a tribute to when he bit the dust at the Kingdome in 1995 during the ALDS against the Yankees whilst being pulled by an ATV and wearing roller blades. Both of which were genius decisions by management as well. What's even better is that the team continued the ATV/roller blade stunt until 1999 as they were kind of forced to stop after opening Safeco Field which has natural grass. However, due to the location of the Moose in the stencil I decided to scrap it. But hey! At least I was thinking about it. And look at him waving to the kids. The Moose is still a winner in my book.