A genious of a brainstormed idea flashed in the PI blogs last night
(since the PI blog hasn't figured out how to work properly, I can't link to this specific comment, so I'll post it here):

    Why don't they invite as many ex-m's from '95 to a large opening ceremony for this season?

    Then they can make the first Mariner number retired (besides Jackie's #) NUMBER 95.

    Any reason they SHOULDN'T do that??
    Posted by: Idaho Invader at January 31, 2005 11:51 PM

Idaho Invader -- that's a GREAT!!!! idea. If only FanFest were NEXT weekend instead of just completed, imagine if we could've slammed their marketing department's booth with that idea. So, there's some work cut out for us in the M's blogosphere. We've got to help inspire them to make this happen. I mean, it'd be like the Seahawks and the 12th man thing, only less corny. We could do it once, at the beginning of the season, and have it really be effective.

By retiring #95 first, the M's would be recognizing a specific team as a whole instead of a specific person, which is really cool in principle. The debate will continue for years who was the best Mariner of even that team, let alone that era. The best way to solve the debate, then, would be to recognize that team first. Certainly individuals from that team will have their numbers inevitably retired. But I second the nomination for the M's to retire #95 as the ultimate gesture to that team.

I echo Idaho -- Any reason why they shouldn't???