I have a soft spot in my heart for the Mariners and part of me will always love the trident hat. There is something so simple and perfect about it.
The trident brings about the image of the sea and they didn't take the obvious route of putting an S on the hat. It is totally a 1970s look without being 1970s outrageous.
It was such a cool hat and one that could have survived the test of time, but they ruined it after the 1979 All Star Game.
After hosting the 1979 All Star Game, the Mariners put the stupid star around the trident and changed the angle. Now it didn't even look like a trident anymore. Just a weird ass M with points on it.No more simplicity.
No more coolness.
This didn't even scream single A Florida State League.
This looked like the official logo of a Continental Basketball League team.
And let's face it... they looked stupid on the uniform.This batting practice jersey worn by "Mr. Mariner" Alvin Davis looks like he has a makeshift Sheriff's badge on.
There's nothing cool about this look. And the Mariners stunk year in and year out.
When Davis wore these duds in 1986, if someone asked "Why is there a sat around the trident M?" the correct answer would be "because 7 years ago they hosted an All Star Game.
That's kind of sort of sad.
Now to be fair, the "star trident" hat is not the worst hat in Seattle major league history. That honor would belong to the grotesquely busy Seattle Pilots hat. In their lone year of big league existence, the Pilots had the block "S", the strange yellow line underneath it and the piece de ugly resistance: The yellow leaves on the brim of the cap.Jim Bouton went from wearing the proud Yankee pinstripes to this laughably ugly cap. It was worth it to have Ball Four.
But back to the Mariners and the awful "Star Trident" hat.
I remember going into Twins Enterprises in Boston around 1982. I used to love wandering around Twins Enterprises because they had replicas of all the jerseys and old time hats everywhere. Today you could simply browse on line and see all of that merchandise, but in the early 80s you needed to go in person. And it was just an awesome place.
But I remember some poor schmuck working there whose job it was to take a giant stack of Mariners hats with the simple awesome trident on it, rip off the trident and replace it with the star trident.
Even then, I knew it was wrong. They were taking something cool and making it lame.
Eventually the star trident needed to be replaced and the Golden S.
It was a step up from the "star trident" but they should have gone back to the original awesome trident.
And worse yet was the attempt to call the the "M's."
Just because it is written on the practice jersey doesn't mean anyone will actually use the nickname of the nickname.
A great opportunity was lost to keep the trident.
Eventually the team adopted a different color scheme and the winning began with an S hat, no more bright yellow, and no more "M's" on the uniform.
The Mariners have found their look and they are sticking to it.
It's a good look.
I'm not saying they should change back.
I just think it is sad that we never got to see the Mariners in the playoffs ONCE with the trident hat.
