If you, like many Seattle Mariners baseball fans, grew up listening to the ever-friendly tones that so fluidly and fluently poured from the diaphragm of one Dave Niehaus, you know exactly how I’m feeling when I say we’ve all been vindicated.

All those years – 18 of them, to be exact – that we stayed up long past our bedtime as schoolchildren to hear every last inning of what was many times another Mariners’ loss. The franchise, on the field and beyond the baselines, was awful from the start. They were often the laughing stock of the entire league.

From their inaugural season of 1977, the Mariners experienced but one winning season, in 1991. There weren’t but a few legitimate all-stars until 1984 when Alvin Davis and Mark Langston came along.

And there wasn’t a single superstar until 1989 when George Kenneth Griffey, Jr. began what would become a Hall-of-Fame career.

All those losses – three times over 100, seven times over 90 – and we still came back for more, despite few uniformed reasons to do so. And it wasn’t just because we loved baseball so much. Losing induces boredom, disinterest, frustration and anger.

But there were still those late nights in the 80s when many of us were supposed to be sleeping that we were instead tuning in our clock radios to KVI 570, and later 710 KIRO, to catch the call of the game by our friend, the voice.

That’s exactly the way I feel about Dave Niehaus – he’s my friend. I invited him into my life thousands of times, and he shows up with a VIP just about every time. He’s been there through thickest of times, and the best of them as well. Who will ever forget the call of Edgar’s double in 1995.

Listen to the Magic Right Here

“Swung on and lined down the left field line for a base hit…Here comes Joey… Here comesJunior to third base… THERE GONNA WAVE HIM IN!! THE THROW TO THE PLATE WILL BEEEEEEE LATE!! THE MARINERS ARE GOING TO PLAY FOR THE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSIP!! I DON’T BELIEVE IT! IT JUST CONTINUES! MY, OH MY!!”

Does it get any better than that?

In the early days, I was learning the game of baseball from Niehaus. No, he wasn’t teaching me how to hit or throw or even how to properly fill out a scorecard. But he certainly played a major role in my learning how to love this game.

Niehaus made Mariners ballgames fun to watch on television or listen to on the radio. Win or lose, Dave was on the air describing every pitch with a passion and exuberance that often made me feel like I was part of the game. He even brought humor to the broadcasts, sometimes in the most memorable ways.

I remember a series the Mariners played in Baltimore over the weekend in July of about 1986 or 1987.The game was a route, probably in the Orioles’ favor, and Dave kept going on and on about somewhere in the world at a certain time of day during a certain time of year that the sun appears to rise in the west and set in the east, but could not figure out why. This went on intermittently for several innings.

I laugh about that to this day. Then a few years later I remember Dave telling everyone on the July 8, 1990 broadcast, I believe somewhere on the east coast, that he had something “cool” to tell everyone at some point in the game that day.

So at some point in the middle of the game, Dave pointed out that it had just turned 12:34 PM local time, and that in 56 seconds the official time locally would be 12:34 and 56 seconds on July 8, 1990.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0.

I have no idea why that stuck out to me, unless it was because whoever his broadcast partner that day was asked immediately after “so what’s this cool thing you are going to tell all of us today?”

Without the special kindness in the way Dave treats his broadcasts and speaks to fans across the Pacific Northwest as if we are all his family, I’m not sure things would be the same in this town.

Frequently Griffey, Randy Johnson and manager Lou Piniella are given much of the credit for saving baseball in Seattle back in 1995. And while those accolades are certainly justified, there may not have been 60,000 M’s fans left anywhere to fill the Kingdome that season if it weren’t for Niehaus.

I’ve lost count now, but the number of times that I have read other fans’ declaring that Niehaus is the one person that drew them to the game of baseball and kept bringing them back time and time again has to have reached at least two or three dozen in the past two days alone.

I think all Mariners fans understand how important Dave Niehaus has always been to Seattle Mariners baseball, and to the city and fans of this team, but it’s about damned time that the rest of world is let in on this little secret up here in South Alaska.

Dave Niehaus is our voice.

Has there ever been a trigger mechanism that instantly and abruptly removed fear, anger or stress from your entire being? Something you’d see, smell, hear, sense or touch? The smell of a certain flower, the sight of your favorite toy as a child or even the sound of your father tossing his keys on the counter as he arrived home, inducing an all-out sprint from your bedroom to the kitchen to see him after a long day’s work.

That’s not far from what Niehaus brings to the table every summer for Mariners fans.

There will come a day when someone other than Niehaus is the senior play-by-play announcer for the M’s. It’s as inevitable as the Seattle rain is persistent. And we’ll welcome the new voice with open arms, treat him the way Dave would want us to treat him and enjoy Mariners baseball forever more.

But it just won’t be the same. Niehaus will always be our only voice.

To quote Mr. Niehaus himself, “I don’t plan to retire any time soon. Not this year, not next year, not any time I can foresee.”

To that I can only think of three words to describe how that makes me feel.

My, oh, My!