Major League Baseball

Dollars rain down on Mariners crowd

Published Jul. 28, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

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In the news media biz, if it happens twice, we’ll call it a trend. So we’re ready to declare it a trend: Money falls out of the sky in Seattle.

Dollar bills came raining down during the seventh-inning stretch at Safeco Field on Sunday, during the Seattle Mariners-Minnesota Twins game.

As the photo with local weather guy Seth Wayne’s tweet shows, the money apparently was a promotion for a running event being hosted by 5ktailgate.com, which will coincide with the Seattle Seahawks’ home opener and include splashing the participants with various colors. However many dollar bills the organization dropped — the Associated Press reported they were released by a fan in the third deck — it was probably cheaper than buying an ad somewhere and has gotten 5ktailgate mentioned all over, including at respected outlets like FOXSports.com.

Now, here’s the trend part. On July 4, 2012, activists dropped $5,000 in singles from a tall building in downtown Seattle to protest the influence of money in politics. The bills contained the message "money as speech silences us all,” a reference to court decisions that have ruled political contributions from businesses are protected as a form of free speech.

And, actually, the trend goes still deeper. As the Seattle Times reported, the same activist group threw 500 dollar bills from the top of a parking garage on Valentine’s Day in 2012.

The lesson? Go to Seattle if you want to experience what it’s like when somebody makes it rain — without having to be a stripper.

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