 They had not returned to the postseason since the 1986 loss.Seattle, on the other hand, had only had two winning seasons since the franchise began play in 1977 (1991 and 1993), and had never been close to the postseason.The team had gone through three ownership changes in its first 15 years, its most recent coming in 1992 when a consortium led by Hiroshi Yamauchi, which owns the Mariners to the present day, bought the team from Jeff Smulyan, who had threatened to relocate the team as a consequence of its losing ways.