SEATTLE — Pete Macdonald and Richard Turner were the first ones here.

They arrived at a pink stanchion on Edgar Martinez Drive at 10:40 a.m. Wednesday, more than three hours before the Mariners’ postseason scrimmage at T-Mobile Park. Turner drove through traffic for two hours from Olympia to meet Macdonald, his father-in-law, and form a line that soon extended past Martinez’s statue and the right field gate.

“I always do that,” Macdonald says, when asked why he waited for hours on the street behind home plate. “When ‘Apocalypse Now’ came out I was first in line. It’s kind of fun to just hang out and wait.”

In that case, he found the right fan base.

Mariners fans have been waiting for a while — through 48 seasons without a whiff of the World Series; through a 21-year postseason drought; through teams that took off like a Cal Raleigh rocket, only to meet the marine layer and die at the warning track.

They’ve done more waiting than winning.

Until now, maybe.

On Saturday the Mariners will host the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the American League Division Series at T-Mobile Park. After winning the AL West for the first time since 2001, they appear primed for an unprecedented postseason run.

“The year the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, I went to the NFC championship game and took out student loans basically to buy the tickets,” says Turner, wearing a Mitch Haniger jersey and a Mariners hat. “We were in the nosebleeds. But it’s the same kind of deal. That was how many years ago, and I still remember the guy behind me hugging my head after the game. It’s those memories. You’re never going to forget it.

“My wife likes to joke, ‘So, the best days of your life go NFC championship game, then our wedding, then birth of our kid.’ Yeah, that’s pretty close. I can’t imagine it being any different if the Mariners go to the World Series.”

That’s the hope that brought them here, on a Wednesday afternoon, for a six-inning scrimmage. It’s what filled the lower bowl behind home plate with roughly 5,000 fans, each with a seat and an indelible Mariners story.

Section 138, Row 20, Seats 8-9

Emme Greenlaw is not as jaded as most Mariners fans.

Probably because she’s “six and three quarters,” she proudly proclaims, while holding a tiny trident and wearing a T-shirt with three words — “POWERED BY WITCHCRAFT” — printed on the front. Emme latched onto the Mariners during their positively magical September sprint.

“She thinks they never lose now,” her father, Eli Greenlaw, says.

Eli, naturally, knows better. The 44-year-old fell in love with the Mariners in 1995 and has since had the team’s logo tattooed on the inside of his left arm. When he met his wife, Meg, he knew she was special because “she actually knew who [former Mariners infielder] Doug Strange was.”

The Mariners, for many, are a family affair.

Which is why Eli and Emme drove from Port Orchard and took the Bainbridge Island ferry to Seattle on Wednesday. Emme’s first Mariners game is a technically meaningless six-inning scrimmage.

Eli Greenlaw prefers it that way.

“To be frank, I’m such a big baseball fan that it would stress me out to be here [for the actual playoff games]. I would rather control my environment,” Eli says. “But to be able to here, be present, be a dad and not be worried about the outcome of the game, that’s part of what’s cool about this.”

Section 138, Row 19, Seat 1

Bob Bailey III is waiting for a ball to be hit his way.

One row in front of the Greenlaws, the 74-year-old’s glove sits atop his head like a funny leather hat. He also wears an Ichiro jersey, a pair of thick-rimmed glasses, binoculars and a white mustache.

But the Ballard resident’s glove is not for fashion.

“I’m one of the original Mariner ballhawks,” he says. “I used to go to batting practice and stand out in left field and get balls, and nobody was there. We’d get tons of balls.”

Nobody is there now, either. Fans are restricted to the sections between the baselines. But come Saturday, more than 47,000 fans will fill T-Mobile Park.

Just not the same ones who paid $10 to see their team Wednesday.

“I look around, and I see all these fans. These are some folks that normally couldn’t get in for the playoff games,” Bailey says with a prideful smile. “But we’re going to get to see these guys today.”

They see home runs from Raleigh and Eugenio Suárez. They see right fielder Victor Robles crash the Mariners’ mid-inning “Salmon Run.” They see prized prospect Colt Emerson play shortstop. They see, they hope, a World Series winner.

And Bailey? Every year, the ballhawk makes a $10 bet on the Mariners to win the World Series. He has a stack of losing tickets — and an enduring belief the next one will win.

“This is the first time in a while that winning ticket is still in play.”

Section 121, Row 16, Seats 5-6

Ella Buono has Bailey’s headgear beat.

The 23-year-old University of Washington alum sits next to her mother, Cindy, behind the home dugout and sports a pointy black hat she bought as a nod to the Etsy witch who might have saved the Mariners’ season.

“I got it from Michaels a few weeks ago. It was $3. I’m very proud of it,” Buono says. “My only concern is that it might blow away.”

Even so, this is not the section’s most colorful costume. That belongs to Steven Foster, who is dressed identically to Santa Claus — beard included. If you wondered why Saint Nick might support the Mariners, Foster holds up a sign that says: “Seattle is the closest MLB team to the North Pole.”

As for Foster, he says: “I moved to Seattle in February of 1977, and the Seattle Mariners started playing in April. So I’ve been a Mariners fan since Day 1.”

Though that doesn’t explain why he’d wear a red and white suit and matching hat to a weekday scrimmage.

“I thought maybe it would attract some of the players to come over and talk to me,” he answers honestly.

Section 121, Row 28, Seats 9-10

Sam Ton is focused on one player in particular.

“Oddly enough, I wasn’t feeling well this morning,” he says. “Then I saw Ichiro was on the roster, so I had to make my way out here.”

In the third inning Wednesday, the 51-year-old right fielder and Hall of Famer ranges right to rob a hit from Mariners catcher Mitch Garver. In the aftermath, Ichiro throws up an “X” with both arms to mimic center fielder Julio Rodríguez’s “No Fly Zone.”

It’s the kind of play that made Ton a Mariners fan.

“Being an Asian-American in Seattle,” he says, “having that representation was really big.”

Today, Ton’s 1-year-old daughter — Emiko — lays on his lap, wearing a tiny Ichiro T-shirt jersey.

The Mariners’ past, present and future are in attendance at T-Mobile Park.

All parties hope the wait is almost over.

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