Another year another Mariner’s FanFest for my family. We converged onto Seattle Friday night for the Mariners last caravan event. Once again it was held at Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood. This year Charlie Furbush and new M’s closer Steve Cishek attended the event.
I love FanFest and plan attending every year regardless of the lineup of players that attend. Even though I say that I know a lot of people that normally go, that didn’t this year because the lineup was lacking. Kyle Seager was the main attraction and it was the first time he appeared at a FanFest since 2013. New Mariners outfielder Leonys Martin was supposed to be there but couldn’t attend due to family matters and I totally understand that. In fact that was only the second time in the 14 FanFests my family has attended that a player they announced would be there wasn’t able to make it. Vouchers were bumped back up from 225 to 300 which I think is the perfect amount. The one issue I have is with the metal detectors, it takes way too long to get out of the stadium and get back in line for vouchers for other autograph sessions. On Sunday they opened the gates 20 minutes earlier and that worked out perfectly. We didn’t feel as rushed.
FanFest is a good place for new Mariners to make a good impression on M’s fans. Steve Cishek, Chris Iannetta and Steve Clevenger made good on the opportunity. Like I said before Seager was the big name there with some of the other more popular M’s making an appearance, James Paxton, Taijuan Walker and Charlie Furbush. The prospects that attended this year were Drew Jackson, Tyler O’Neill, Braden Bishop and Boog Powell. I love that Buhner and Wilson attend almost every year but the M’s have so many other greats in their history and I would love it if they could get a few other players to attend from time to time. Harold Reynolds, Alvin Davis or Mike Cameron just to name a few.
A lot of the same attractions were there. My daughters did the zip line for the first time in a couple years. They did have one new attraction that I noticed. You were able to go into the batter’s box with helmet and bat. I saw some families do some really creative stuff. Next year I plan on doing that with my family for sure. The Dugout Dialogues were very entertaining this year. Taijuan Walker did “The Carlton Dance” and Charlie Furbush had a Hawt Corner reunion concert without Tom Wilhelmson of course who was traded in the offseason.
Here are the pictures I took.
http://9inningknowitall.com/mariners-fanfest-2016-with-kelly/
ATTENDANCE
The attendance dropped but not as much as I thought it would. It was still the second highest attendance in FanFest history with 21,771 people attending.
25,209 in 2015
21,019 in 2014
17,952 in 2013
9,774 in 2012
AUTOGRAPH BREAKDOWN
39 total autographs
33 on cards
4 on 8×10 photos
1 on a Gold Glove ball
1 on Mariners All-Star Plate