Cascade View (Snoqualmie) Elementary School teacher Tim Rooney didn’t think many people would notice when he tweeted a video Friday of his fifth-grade class watching the Mariners’ 4-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in the first game of their AL Wild Card Series.
He expected a few likes and maybe some retweets as he showed his students jumping for joy, clapping their hands, and chanting “Big Dumper! Big Dumper!” after catcher Cal Raleigh’s first-inning home run. But Rooney’s video has caught the attention of the baseball world.
Rooney’s post as of Saturday afternoon had more than 3,000 likes, more than 400 retweets and more than a hundred replies, including one from Stephanie Raleigh, Cal’s mother.
“It’s just unreal,” Rooney said. “I just wanted to record it as, ‘Hey guys, we’re watching the game, let’s take this in, and if something good happens, great.’ And then something great did happen, and it was just kind of a perfect storm. Everything worked out together, and then it’s blown up. I did not expect this at all.”
The video was also mentioned by Mariners manager Scott Servais in his pregame news conference Saturday.
“One of the coolest things I saw, my wife showed me last night, she goes, ‘Look at this,’ and it was a group of grade-school kids in Seattle jumping up and down and chanting, ‘Big Dumper, Big Dumper.’ I was like, ‘Wow, can you imagine it’s come to this?’ ” Servais said. “That’s what happens at this time of year.”
Rooney told his students they could watch the Mariners game at the end of the school day if they got their work done in time. With an approximate start time of 1 p.m., it worked out for them to tune in for the first inning before school let out at 1:36 p.m.
As a longtime Mariners fan, Rooney has helped some of his students get on board the team bandwagon, but many of the kids already were Seattle sports fans. The class of 10- and 11-year-olds does a weekly “Guess the Score” contest for the Seahawks and Huskies football games and were excited to see the Mariners reach the playoffs for the first time in their lives.
Along with “Big Dumper” and Julio Rodriguez, players such as J.P. Crawford and Luis Castillo are popular in Rooney’s class.
Rooney has fond memories of his high-school teacher letting him and his classmates watch the Mariners in class during the 1995 playoff run, and he knew he could help create some lifelong memories if he returned the favor.
“It brought me back to ‘95 and that great time,” Rooney said. “So I was like, ‘You know what? The teacher did that for us when I was in high school.’ So I just thought, ‘What a great experience for the kids, too,’ if they can enjoy it a little bit. We run with it, because there’s lots of lessons they can learn for stuff that’s outside the classroom.”
This year’s Mariners team, Rooney says, has taught his students valuable lessons about the value of persistence and teamwork.
“They just kept going this year, made the playoffs, and it’s like, ‘OK, see what happens?’ ” Rooney said. “ You know, ‘You guys work hard at something, stick with it, work together and rely on your teammates, and then look at what can happen.’ And here we are, and wow it’s just unreal.”
Rooney has been in touch with several of the students’ parents since uploading the video, so a number of the kids are aware of the reaction it has received.
There is no school Monday, but there will be plenty for Rooney and the students to discuss Tuesday morning, especially if the Mariners manage to win two games against Toronto and clinch a spot in the American League Division Series against Houston.
Should that happen, Rooney knows there will be plenty of excitement in the hallways at Cascade View.
“They were chanting, ‘Let’s Go Mariners’ as they walked out to be picked up at the end of the day,” Rooney said. “It’s pretty neat to see.”