It was an historic baseball game - Seattle Mariners vs. New York Yankees in a must-win game 5 playoff to take the American League Division. In the bottom of the 11th inning, the M’s trailed 5-4. Edgar Martinez was the batter and he delivered a hit that became known as “The Double,” scoring both Joey Cora and Ken Griffey, Jr. to win the game 6-5.

On the field was a young photographer named Robin Layton; she had been in Seattle only 4 months, working for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She was the only woman on the newspaper’s photography staff at that time. She had been taking good pictures throughout the game but realized as Edgar was taking his warm-up swings at the plate that she needed to be ready for anything to happen. She asked herself, “What have I learned, what should I be doing right now?” Looking at her camera, on frame 25 of a 36-exposure roll, she realized she was nearly out of film! So she quickly reloaded and was ready for what we might now describe as “The Picture.” Martinez got a solid hit and as runners came around to score, Layton “just sprayed photos” until she ran through that roll of film.

Back at the PI photo lab, she processed the film and began scanning the pictures to edit them. On the monitor appeared the image of Ken Griffey Jr. with that happy smile at the bottom of the pile of his Mariners teammates at home plate. One of her colleagues, Paul Joseph Brown, saw the picture and shouted out, “That’s page one, get it downstairs right now!” And yes, it was published Monday morning, front page, above the fold under a banner headline that said “M’s Do It!”

Years later Robin Layton says, “I really can't believe just how lucky I was.” Luck may have been a factor, but practiced skill definitely played a big part."