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Seattle Mariners
In 2001, despite the loss of superstar shortstop Alex Rodriguez (He would be greeted at his return to Safeco with Monopoly money by fans, no doubt to protest his selling out of the Seattle fans), the addition of Japanese sensation Ichiro Suzuki and a career season by second baseman Bret Boone helped the Mariners to the most successful regular season on record in the modern era. The 2001 Mariners led the major leagues in winning percentage from start to finish: easily winning the American League West championship, setting a new Major League Baseball record for most wins in a single season with an unprecedented 116, and matching the previous record for single season wins set by the Chicago Cubs in 1906. They pulled off a come-from-behind 3-2 series win over the Cleveland Indians in the ALDS to advance to the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees, but succumbed to the Yankees for the second year in a row in the ALCS, 4 games to 1, in a hard-fought series: a sad end to such a historic year.
At the end of the 2002 season, manager Lou Piniella left the Mariners to manage the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, reportedly due to his anger with the management policy of non-aggressive hiring. The Mariners signed Bob Melvin to be their new manager. Despite an excellent start to the 2003 season, the Mariners failed to make the playoffs.
The Mariners stayed competitive in 7 of the 9 seasons from 1995 to 2003. The 2004 season, however, saw the demise of the Mariners' dominance of their division. Although many of their players were aging, the Mariners continued an apparent practice of "content to contend," starting the 2004 season having not made a major deal in three years. The team lost their first five games and went into the All-Star Break with a 9-game losing streak, a 32-54 season record (.372), and a 17-game deficit compared to the first-place Texas Rangers.
After the All-Star break, unable to ignore the dreadful state of their team, the Mariners gave the team a complete overhaul, moving aging and unproven players away from center stage and inserting over a dozen call-ups into the 25-man roster. The season's end was enlivened by Ichiro breaking George Sisler's single season record of 257 hits (finishing with 262) and by events honoring the retirement of Mariner stalwart Edgar Martinez. Just days after the end of the season, the Mariners fired Bob Melvin. On October 20, 2004, the Mariners announced the signing of their new manager, Mike Hargrove. Hargrove was the manager who led the Cleveland Indians past the Mariners in the 1995 ALCS.
Despite many changes and large player signings touted by the Mariners ownership after the 2004 season, the team stayed at the bottom of the divisional standings throughout the 2005 season.