Park #10

August 17, 2005: Seattle, Washington
Seattle is so awesome, I think I’ll make up a new word just to describe how great it is. So, I’m gonna say that Seattle is Scrumtalescent! So, on a Wednesday, the Seattle game began at 1:35, which was great, I love weekday afternoon games. I get to the park hella early, at like 11am, and begin walking around the park. Now, the outside of the stadium is not very impressive, there are only two signs that this place was a baseball park. First, the signs that say SafeCo field, and second that there are some posters around the stadium of the Mariners players. But these posters are only about six feet tall, and are nothing special. So, I walk around the entire park, and I’m not too impressed. But at 11:30, right as the doors are about to open, I’m looking around the crowd and I see a guy who I just graduated law school with. How weird is this: I’m 3000 miles from home, at a Mariners game, and I see another Case law grad from my class, talk about spooky.
Anywhoo, so the gates open, and I go inside the park, and man does this place whoop a horses ass with a belt from behind. I was all pumped up because about two minutes before the gates opened it began to drizzle, which meant one fantastic thing: the dome would be closed. Now, I have never been in a dome before, and let me tell you, it rules in every way.
Now while the dome was closed, you could still see the a decent chunk of the outside world through centerfield. Even though the dome covers the field, you aren’t completely inside. Since I got there so early, I got to watch both teams’ batting practice. And I got a great spot for it, on the third base side, about 50 feet in from left field foul pole. The stadium itself was great, they have two sections of bleachers in both the left and center field area which are really right on top of the action, my seats were in the left field bleachers and were a pretty good view for $13. Being in a dome for the first time had a really weird feeling, kind of like indoor track; you really didn’t feel like you were getting the whole experience. However, as I walked around to the area behind home plate, as you looked out into center field, you see the sunlight coming through and I started to feel more at home.
About 20 minutes before gametime, they opened the dome. This was an amazing sight. To watch this HUGE dome retract and slowly let the sunlight come onto the field was absolutely amazing. I felt like one of the Israelites when Moses was parting the Red Sea……uhh, that might have been the worst analogy in the history of time, but oh well. Anyway, it was very impressive to watch this, and when the dome was completely retracted, it felt as though I was at a completely different stadium. Something about natural sunlight on the field made the park just seem bigger and more vibrant.
Onto food: okay, I wanted to be daring and outgoing with food, but sushi at the ballpark is where I draw the line. Ordering sushi from the stadium reminded me of that Simpsons episode where Homer got sick from buying peel-and-eat shrimp from out of some guy’s car, so I decided to pass. However, they did have this “Dixie BBQ” stand, which had pulled pork and pulled chicken sandwiches with a tangy BBQ sauce, it was fantastic. I had not known Seattle to be a BBQ place, but it was quite good. They also had Jalepeno Garlic fries, which looked really good, but after the BBQ, I don’t think the ozone layer could have withstood the bi-products of me eating those fries; I think someone would’ve went to court to declare me a public nuisance (okay, let the jokes fly on that one). I did manage to step up and buy a hot dog. The hot dogs there are all grilled in front of you, which I like a lot (see previous posts), and the dogs are footlongs. However, this dog was not very good. I lacked flavor, and while it was grilled, I don’t think it was grilled enough to really have that grilled flavor. Eh, nothing special. Seattle did impress me with its beer selection, they had a number of beers on tap at the stadium, including India Pale Ale, which Ross and I both got. This was a great thing; after going to so many games and getting Bud Light and Miller Lite, which are decent, getting an India Pale Ale was great, so much flavor.
As for the game, as soon as I saw that Jamie Moyer was pitching, I knew it was gonna be a good game. Let me take a second to say how good this guy is. I think he is either 41 or 42 right now, and he pitches better than most major leaguers half his age. This guy started with the Cubs in 1986 I think, and he was nothing special. For like 12 years, he was a mediocre lefty with not much heat. Then, in the mid-90s this guy came to Seattle and really developed one of the best change up in the majors. Everyone is so scared of this guy’s 72 MPH change-up, that it improves his fastball. Now, his 88 mph fastball works like it were 93 or 94 mph; it’s just so effective. Needless to say, Moyer is a great pitcher. He pitched 7 strong innings, giving up only 1 run and 6 hits. His performance really got overlooked since the Mariners score 11 runs in the first 6 innings.
Now, the opponent was the Kansas City Royals, who, going into the game had lost 17 straight. These guys are awful, they looked like a minor league team, and it was sad. In the first inning, the pitcher, Carasco, got Ichiro out, but then managed to instantly load the bases. Then, with Adrien Beltre up, he threw a meatball that has yet to land. A first inning grand slam. Well, that was really all she wrote. The Mariners managed to score in 5 of the first 7 innings, and it was just a bloodbath. Going into the 9th, the score was 11-1. The Mariners brought in some bum named Matt Thornton to pitch, who walked the bases loaded (I think, it may have been 2 walks and a hit), and then gave a grand slam to some guy who had never hit a home run before. I could not believe it, a grand salami in both the 1st and 9th innings, it was pretty cool. After that, they finally got the last guy out.
After the game, I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around downtown Seattle, and let me tell you, this place is great. I have lots of stories about the cool stuff that goes on in this city, but I’ll have to leave that for another day (because it doesn’t fit with the theme of the blog, and it doesn’t fall into the rare exceptions like the dildo model story).
Overall, I really like SafeCo field. The dome experience was much appreciated and it was a hell of a game. The food was up and down, but I ate it anyway. I’m gonna give SafeCo a B+.
10 down, 10 to go, next stop Oakland.
Laz