Mariners bringing a little boom back to Safeco after explosive road trip

The Mariners returned to Safeco Field Thursday night for the start of a long homestand. After their explosive 6-3 road trip, fans are hoping for plenty of fireworks throughout.

But regardless of whether the team can deliver the big boom on the field against the Cleveland Indians, fans are guaranteed to get plenty of pyrotechnics Friday night and throughout the season.

Thursday afternoon, a handful of workers huddled in a line atop the roof track overlooking left field above the Safeco Field sign. They stuffed small packets of fireworks explosives into what looked like racks of toilet paper and paper towel rolls, preparing for the first Mariners fireworks show of the season.

It’s an old hat for the crew from Sacramento-based Pyro Spectaculars. They’ve been doing shows for the Mariners since the days of the Kingdome.

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Special Projects Manager Jon Berson has overseen most of them, and on this sun-drenched Seattle afternoon he keeps a close eye as the team of 10 strings their charges across the Safeco Field light ring, roof track and CenturyLink Field parking garage.

It’s a process that started months ago, and begins with the soundtrack to the show. The team began preparing for the show in February, Berson said.

It’s up to Berson to come up with the biggest and best bangs. He’s much like an artist with a blank canvas, although in this case his canvas is Safeco Field &#8212 his favorite among the many stadiums he’s lit up over the years.

“What’s nice about it is it makes it a very personal experience for each stadium,” he said. “They each get their own style of show. As you do more shows, you try to build some signatures in those shows that are sort of unique to that venue. I think with the Mariners we’ve done that fairly successfully so far.”

It’s not always easy. Berson is somewhat constrained by the stadium and the city around him. He can’t just launch the kind of bombardment he’d unleash in one of those big July 4 shows like on Lake Union.

“We really have restrictions on how big we can get, how big the devices can be. We’re kind of limited to a two-inch device, which is kind of small in terms of an aerial shell,” he said.

But despite the restrictions, he manages to make each show spectacular and unique.

This year’s first show was choreographed to some top hits from the 90’s. Michael Ferguson, the Mariners manager of game entertainment and special events, says the goal is to create a one-of-a-kind experience for fans.

“That’s something we strive for every time, from themes to last year we experimented with a sing-along where fans got to sing-along with the pyro show,” Ferguson said.

Next month, the force will even be with them in a Star Wars-themed show.

“That’s going to be really fun for us because we can really theme that out with music and graphics and imagery,” Ferguson said. “But we’re always trying to think of what’s next. We want to engage the audience, we want to make them part of the show, give them that wow factor.”

That “wow factor” is more than just fireworks. One of the things that makes Safeco Field shows special is the super-sized MarinersVision screen, which becomes part of the presentation. And this year they’ll work in the new LED lighting for the first time, coordinating it with the rest of the show.

For Berson it’s just another piece to the pyro puzzle.

“What we hope we’re doing for the audience is putting together a seamless presentation,” he said.

Only one thing could stop that from happening &#8212 a heavy rain. So far, somehow that hasn’t happened since the Safeco Fireworks started.

“Knock on wood … We have not been rained out yet,” Ferguson said. “We’ve been close. If it rains, we’ll scale down. If it’s a downpour, we’ll cancel it.”

Thankfully, Mother nature seems to shine a light on Safeco Field whenever the pyrotechnics comes to town. And we can only hope she continues to throughout the summer. The Mariners have three more fireworks shows scheduled, including Star Wars (June 19), another sing-along (June 24) and the song of the summer (Aug. 21).