Steve and the Tank! - A Visit to Safeco Field

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

I traveled to Safeco Field with Richard (from Canada) and Remi (from the Netherlands). It was Remi's first baseball game ever and my first time in Safeco field. The first thing that I noticed is that Safeco is right in the middle of town and has an open air aspect to it and has a retractable roof. This is needed in all baseball stadiums to prevent the early April rainouts that have plagued the league in recent years.

Richard goes to the box office and we are able to get some 6th row seats in the field boxes, not cheap, but we are happy that it is a day game in April and the seats are available. I start to explain the rules to Remi. It is also Jackie Robinson day so I explain the importance of Jackie to Remi and Richard.

It was a cold day, about 38 degrees when the Mariners took the field. We were very excited to see Ichiro Suzuki up close (and that is him running out in the photo below.) Kansas City took an early 1-0 lead and Remi was into it. In the bottom of the 1st Seattle tied it up. Both runs in the first inning came on sac flies, so we really had to get technical for Remi. (He is a fast learner, also his Dutchisms were cute, he called a Walk "Four Wide".) What was cool is that both teams were playing small ball so we were able to explain the awesome fundamentals of Baseball that make the game exciting and expose how strategic it is (fouling off bad pitches, stealing, pickoff moves, infield in, sac flies and bunts, etc).

Remi and I go to get some good old fashioned stadium hot dogs and an attempt for some Starbucks (since Seattle is the home of Starbucks and it was too cold for beer.) Striking out with the Strabucks we get to walk around the stadium and check it out. It is a very awesome stadium, I just hope that CitiField will be as nice.

Jose Lopez became the 12th player in major league history to hit three sacrifice flies in a game and Yuniesky Betancourt drove in three runs. As the game progresses, the Mariners go to put up 11 runs and KC 6. Just about all of the runs were small ball runs, sac flies, etc. Remi is getting aggressive, saying that the team should steal and tag up far more than even super-aggressive always run manager in training me. We even witness Richie Sexson getting caught in a rundown, as I said a perfect first game for the Dutchman!

The ticket taker gracefully took our photo, you can see I am already getting frozen. Richard and Remi sing "Take me out to the ballgame" for the 7th inning stretch and don't understand its importance. I said that will only come with time.

Alas we have to get back to Microsoft Campus (hopefully they did not realize we took a 3 hour afternoon break) for our meetings and we leave in the bottom of the 8th after the Mariners have it locked up. Remi says that it was far more exciting than he thought and wants to come to NY this summer and take his 9 year old son to at Mets game. He won't admit that baseball is better than soccer but he kept saying how "exciting" the game was. Maybe after he sees Jose Reyes this summer he will change his tune.

Posted by Steve at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington.

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Wednesday, April 16, 2008 8:23:20 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

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