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Opening Day for Major League Baseball has arrived, and thousands of Seattle Mariners fans are expected to pack T-Mobile Park for Thursday’s home opener against the Athletics, formerly known as the Oakland Athletics. I wanted to know what it is about Opening Day that gets fans so excited, so yesterday, I headed down to the SODO district to get fan reactions.

I first bumped into Jennifer who walked from downtown, past Lumen Field, as she anxiously searched for the Mariner’s ticket office. I asked her if she’d ever attended Opening Day and she told me, “I have not, but I heard it’s pretty wild and crazy, a lot of hype and fun. I might have to try it out.”

She says she always wanted to attend Opening Day and since she had time between work events, she thought she’d buy a ticket to see what the buzz was all about. What part of the experience was she most looking forward to? “The crowds and the cheering and the excitement of opening day and the start of the season,” she said.

Fans are pumped for the Mariners’ home opener

On this year’s Opening Day, 28 of the 30 teams will be in the action after the Tampa Bay Rays and Colorado Rockies rescheduled their game for Friday to give crews more time to prepare George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fl. ready for the rest of the season. And, technically, the regular season officially got underway in Tokyo last week. The defending World Series champions, L.A. Dodgers swept the Chicago Cubs in a two-game series, which gave the Dodgers a two-game lead over every other team in the league.

Back to M’s fans, Shari, a recent California transplant told me he can’t wait to take his wife and kids to ballpark. “It’s really amazing watching games with family and we’ve been waiting for it for some time,” Shari told me. “It’s awesome.”

Laura, who is originally from South Chicago and also routes for the White Sox, said she watches most Mariner’s games with her 96-year-old Dad. She described attending Opening Day as “… a community thing, it’s exciting, and a great team.” She hoped to score a couple of tickets in time for the first pitch.

High expectations for Mariners

However, the one thing I found every M’s fan I chatted with had in common was they believe this year’s team has what it takes to win it all – the World Series. “It’s just the anticipation and thought of just maybe it could happen,” Ron, a super fan told me. “There are teams out there that have had horrible years, and they went straight to the World Series and the Super Bowl… it could happen.”

Thursday’s game kicks-off a four-game series against the A’s, a divisional rival that finished 19 and half games back and took 5th place in the American League West last season. The Mariners finished 2nd – three and a half games behind the Houston Astros.

But this year things could be different. Armed with, arguably, the best pitching line-up in the MLB, Logan Gilbert was announced as the Opening Day starter. And Platinum Glove catcher, Cal “The Big Dumper” Raleigh just signed a new six-year deal worth $105 M.

So, in the words of another Seattle sports great, former Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, “why not us?” I mean, so far, we’re tied for first in the Division.