The Mariners are celebrating their 25th anniversary this season, which must puzzle most local fans who cannot not remember them playing a game prior to 1995.

Or more specifically, prior to the fall of 1995.

No postseason series ever meant more to a franchise than the five-game division set between the Mariners and Yankees in 1995 did to Seattle. Imagining what the Mariners would be like today had they not played that series is like imagining coffee prices had Starbuck's not expanded.

	Ken Griffey Jr. hit 398 homers in his 11 seasons (1989-99) with the Mariners.

The Mariners led the majors in attendance last year while tying the major-league record for victories, are winning at the same stunning pace this year, fill the most expensive stadium in history to overflowing most every night and are the second-richest team in baseball. Yet, it wasn't always like this. Especially not in August 1995, when the Mariners trailed the first-place Angels by 13 games, Ken Griffey Jr. was on the disabled list and a stadium referendum was drawing meager support.

Mariners president Chuck Armstrong carries around a pad of paper with the team's financial figures from 1995, just to remind him what things were like prior to 1995. Pick up laundry. Buy quart of milk and loaf of bread. And remember that we lost $20 million in 1995.

"You wonder whether we would even be here," Armstrong said when asked what the franchise would be like had the Mariners not played -- and won -- that series.

Given that no team has moved since 1972, that may be a bit of an overstatement. But when the commissioner is trying to murder every team possible, who is to say? The Mariners probably would be on the commissioner's short list for elimination had they not gotten a new stadium and they probably would not have gotten that stadium had they not beat the Yankees.

Just before the regular season ended, after all, the public voted down a stadium proposal. Following the euphoria generated by the postseason, however, then-Gov. Mike Lowry called a special legislation session and the state approved construction of the current stadium.

More than gaining the Mariners the stadium, the series gained fans, winning over a region that had never before been exposed to such exciting, dramatic baseball. Then again, who had seen such a series?

In his first postseason series, Griffey homered five times, including twice in Game 1 though the Mariners lost the opener to the Yanks. Jim Leyritz won Game 2 with a two-run homer in the 15th inning at Yankee Stadium. With the Mariners trailing 2-0 in the series, Randy Johnson won Game 3 in Seattle, then went to the bullpen. Edgar Martinez drove in six runs in Game 4 when the Mariners rallied from a 5-0 deficit to win. And in Game 5, David Cone pitched until his arm smoked, the Mariners rallied from three deficits, Johnson pitched in relief and Martinez doubled home Griffey in the 11th to -- whew! -- give the Mariners the win, the series and so much more.

	Looking Back
	How the Mariners have done in each season since advancing to the ALCS in 1995:
	Year	Record	Place	Playoffs
	1996	85-76	2nd	none
	1997	90-72	1st	lost Div. Ser.
	1998	76-85	3rd	none
	1999	79-83	3rd	none
	2000	91-71	2nd	lost ALCS
	2001	116-46	1st	lost ALCS

After suffering through 18 mostly losing seasons of bad baseball, funny nose and glasses night and the Moose, Seattle received a postseason for the ages, one that secured the team's future for years to come.

"I think the series had more of an effect on our franchise than the Yankees," Mariners manager Lou Piniella said. "It made it fairly obvious that if you put a quality product on the field and played an entertaining game, the people in Seattle would support you very well. It got the stadium built for us and the rest of it has been a pretty good success story."

"It impacted people here like nothing else," Armstrong said. "People who never were Mariners fans became huge fans."

After the series, local fans became as addicted to the Mariners as they are to Starbucks' Yukon Blend. From that point on, fans followed the Mariners so religiously they checked the morning boxscore before Microsoft's stock price. Seattle averaged 15,414 fans per game prior to 1995. The Mariners have averaged 35,148 fans per game since, drawing three million fans three times. They probably will lead the majors in attendance again this season despite the second-highest average ticket prices in baseball.

Prior to the 1995 season, the Mariners had never played in the postseason. Since then, they've reached it four times. Before 1995, their fan base barely reached across the street from the Kingdome, now it stretches from Idaho to Tokyo.

But if you want to know what that Yankees series meant, consider the woman who came up to Armstrong during the Husky-USC football game that same fall and hugged him.

	“	It impacted people here like nothing else. People who never were Mariners fans became huge fans. ”
		— Chuck Armstrong, former Mariners president, on the 1995 Division Series victory over the Yankees

"She said, 'The Mariners saved my father's life,' " Armstrong recalled. "She said, 'He had a stroke in August and he was in very bad shape in the hospital. He didn't have anything else he could do but listen to the Mariners games. He lived on those games.'

"Fans started that 'Refuse to Lose' slogan then and she said her father told her, 'Okay, I refuse to die. Besides, I want to find out how this turns out.' And he got better and better and eventually left the hospital. That's what baseball can do."

For years fans would talk to Piniella, Armstrong and others about the 1995 series and how much it meant to them. Thanks to the success made possible by 1995, that has changed recently. Now fans talk to Piniella about the 116 games Seattle won last year.

And they also talk about finally reaching the World Series.

The Yankees prevented Seattle from doing so the past two years, beating them in the ALCS each time. The Mariners know that all roads in October go through the Bronx and they know that beating the Yankees in another postseason series could finally bring them their one remaining, ultimate goal -- the World Series. Seattle fans are looking at this weekend's series against New York as a mere preview for October.

"The team you've got to beat is the Yankees," Piniella said. "You've got to go through New York every year. That doesn't change."

Reaching the World Series would take the Mariners to the next and final level, a level unimaginable before they beat the Yankees in 1995.

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.