Mariner Mania

Yesterday, I went to the Mariners game. For a birthday present to myself, I had purchased tickets to the game a couple weeks ago. Well, I never reimbursed my dad, so I guess he bought them. At the time I purchased these tickets, the idea was if I couldn't go for some reason I would be able to sell the tickets for more than I payed for them because the Mariners would be in the playoff race. Let's just say, it didn't quite work out that way.

The tickets I bought were in centerfield on the lower level, pretty cool right. It gets better, they were in the second row! Let me explain, basically it was me, a row of people, and then Ichiro. He was less than 20 feet away the whole game, and sometime closer. It was a Saturday night game, 7:05 start, against the Texas Rangers.

Oh yeah, I wasn't the only person who went. I had only purchased two tickets, because that was the only way to get them so close to the field, so incredibly close. My dad and I were going to go, but we also wanted my sister to be able to come with us. So, my dad purchased a ticket at the stadium for himself so my sister and I could sit next to each other. His seat was even better than mine. It was in right field lower level, row 3.

I really wanted to get to the game early for batting practice, I was trying to make up for my last experience at Dodgers stadium (click here). I got to the game, and they were still having batting practice. I was so excited. I joined the hundreds of people out in the outfield hoping to get a ball. I even had my mitt. After waiting for a while, it happened. The ball was flying right to me. I got it, I got it. I reached my glove out in the row in front of me. I was finally going to have a baseball from a game after years of trying. Just as quickly as the ball had flown right to me, it was gone. It went a couple inches under my outreached glove, and was snatched by a man in front of me. I had lost my one chance to get a ball, I was devastated. Anyways, the guy who ended up with the ball gave it to a little kid, which was nice. So I guess it worked out. If I got the ball, I am sorry, but there is no way I was going to give it to that little kid.

Soon after, batting practice was over. Now, it was time to find some food. After circling around the entire stadium, and looking at all the shops, we finally decided where we were going to get food, Papa John's. In honor of my day at Dodgers stadium, my sister and I ordered a helmet souvenir ice cream. It came in a little helmet, and was piled high with ice cream. My sister and I also each ordered a personal pepperoni pizza.

We headed to our seats, and started eating the ice cream. This took around 15 minutes straight of eating to finish all of it. Oh, and did I mention it was really cold that night. Even the guy sitting by us, a very nice by the way, commented about eating ice cream on such a cold night. By the end, we were shivering, more like shaking uncontrollably, while shoveling the ice cream in our mouths as fast as we could. We just wanted the souvenir hat! Finally, it was time for the pizza. You know, Papa John's "better ingredients, better pizza". Let me tell you, it was the nastiest pizza I have ever eaten. It wasn't even hot, or warm for that matter, it didn't warm us up after all the ice cream we had just finished consuming. The "pizza sauce" was cheap tasting ketchup in color and taste, the cheese was in half melted chunks, and the whole thing seemed undercooked. It was nasty. My sister took one bite, and was done with it. That would have been the smart thing, but there was no way I was going to throw away a pizza that cost me 6 bucks. I choked it all down, and got a stomach ache later.

Anyways, it was time for the game to start. Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention the lady sitting next to me. How could I ever forget? I wish I could. It was more like sitting on top of me. She was very large, and the seats very small. Let me put it this way, I had my cellphone on vibrate, and my sister sitting next to me would tell me when it was ringing. Okay, that is my sister. Now imaging a 300+ pound lady on the other side. Our legs/thighs were pushing into each other. We were like siamese twins, every time her leg moved, my leg moved. It was rather awkward, but as wrong as it may sound, I eventually got used to it.

It was a really good game, the Mariners were pitching, hitting, and fielding well. Unfortunately, Ichiro didn't make any plays up near the wall, which would have quite literally been five feet away from us. Back to Ichiro, man did the fans love him. Especially the Japanese fans. The entire game I could hear them, both male and female, yelling/screaming trying to get his attention. The couple in front of us probably took 100 pictures of him in roughly the same pose every time, stretching. After a while, we decided to leave our seats. We met up with our dad, and were walking around the stadium for a while. Then it happened. When I saw it, I almost didn't believe it.

Raul Ibanez was up to bat. He launched a ball into deep right field. It was a home run. Those happen all the time, well not all the time, but this was different. It appeared it was right at my dads unoccupied seat. I couldn't believe it. It had been chance number two that night of getting a ball. My dad found out later a person a few rows back had ended up with the ball. Would it have been different if my old man was there? We will never know. What I do know, is even if he didn't catch it, he would have been on TV.

After that, my sister and I decided to hurry back to our seats. We would have practically died if a ball went to our seats while we were gone like our father. Then, it happened. Ichiro had a ball, and was going to throw it into the stands. It all seemed so familiar (click here). He throw a high lob, would I finally get a ball? Is the third time really the charm? It landed in our row, eight seat away in an empty seat after it bounced off a person's hand. What was stopping me from getting it? Well, the before mentioned very large lady and her slightly less large friend. That was it. Two people. If only I could have rolled over their seated bodies somehow. I mean, Ichiro had actually held that ball, in his hand! Alas, that would be our last chance at getting a ball.

Another hit at the game was the wave. It took a group of students I saw by third base four tries to get it started. They would try starting the wave to the right, then the left, then it started both ways and somehow worked. It circled the stadium on all levels seven times. In the leftfield upperlevel bleachers, there were only a handful of people to keep the wave alive. It was quite funny to watch around 10 people keep the wave alive. The wave eventually ended, and so did the game. The Mariners had won. The game had been exciting, view spectacular, ice cream cold, pizza disgusting, and playoff implication a joke. I had a ball, even though I didn't get one. Maybe next time, please next time. I don't know if I could handle biffing three chances again.