Game 30 at Safeco Field

July 25, 2015
We arrived home on July 15, 2015 and have been busy with many things that we have not had to do while we were gone.  It is great to see friends and family again!  We had to wait until the Seattle Mariners returned home from their road trip after the All Star break in order to visit our final and home stadium, Safeco Field.  We have been here many times in the past and enjoy the venue every time.  It is a beautiful park in a great city.  After playing in the Kingdome from their start as a franchise until the middle of the 1999 season, the fans and players finally got a beautiful park with a retractable roof.

3 1/2 months later, our 30th and final baseball park!

 The Mariners are hosting the Toronto Blue Jays.  Both of these teams started in the same year, 1977 as expansion teams in the American League.  JA Happ is the starting pitcher today for the Mariners.  This will be the 3rd time we have seen him on this trip and we really are hoping he will have a better performance today than the previous two.  Prior to the game we did an interview with King 5 News about our 30 kids in 30 parks trip outside the stadium.  It took about 20 minutes. Ted asked us many questions about Unbound and he seemed to have really done his homework, reading our blog and visiting the Unbound's website prior to the interview.   I have never had a camera so close to my face before!  It was a little unnerving.  Jack did much better than I.
Outside the Home Plate Gate is  Edgar Martinez Drive, named after the greatest DH of all time.  Edgar is beloved in Seattle and we are happy he is back as a hitting coach.  There are only six players in the history of the game of baseball who have demonstrated ability to be considered superior all around hitters, meaning they have more than 2000 hits, more than 500 doubles, more than 300 homeruns more than a thousand walks, a lifetime batting average above.300 and on-base percentage of .400 or higher.  These 6 men are Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams and Edgar Martinez.  from The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip.

As you walk into the Home Plate Gate you see a piece of artwork, hanging from the ceiling.  It is 1000 bats, representing a perfect batting average.  As you walk up the stairs and reach the main concourse, tiled into the floor is the Nautical Compass Rose, the Mariner emblem as well as the signature of each Mariner who played in the inaugural game at Safeco.

Nautical Compass Rose, the Mariner's emblem

 The statue of Dave Niehaus who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown brings back a lot of memories for those of us who have been fans for a number of years. I suspect no one can come close to replacing him.   The statue is the first the Mariners have commissioned.  He was the voice of the franchise for 33 years.  Besides his "Get out the rye bread and mustard, grandma' cause it's GRAND SALAMI time!" and "My-Oh-My" he is also credited with being the first person to call Ken Griffey, Jr "The Kid," and to call Alex Rodriguez "A-Rod."

We visited the Mariners Baseball Hall of Fame and got nostalgic.

Sweet Lou

It seemed like there were more Blue Jay fans than Mariner fans.  There was Toronto blue everywhere.

Blue Man

In our seats, we were completely surrounded!  The good news is that they are all really nice.  Maybe that is what happens when a whole country only has one MLB team.  We met lots of folks who had come down from Vancouver.  It is sad when the opposing team almost manages to start "the Wave" and that if you leave your seat or get distracted, you cannot tell which team just did something good by the cheering.

Toronto fans are everywhere!

 I am fairly certain the Toronto fans were louder than the Mariner fans. The Blue Jay fans had a lot more to cheer about.  .... back to JA Happ.    JA went 1 and 2/3 innings, gave up 1 hit, 3 runs and 4 walks.  We actually went into the second inning up 1-0 and then after Happ's fiasco, we were down 3-1.  He walked 2 guys in and hit a batter.  He gave up 1 hit and yet gave up 3 runs.  Ouch!  The Mariners worked there way back and took a 6-3 lead when Toronto cut it 6-4 in the 6th.  Then our favorite reliever, Fernando Rodney comes in in the 8th, walks the first batter and then gives up a homerun. Our friend from New York who is fortunate enough to have the Yankees to cheer for says Rodney has shot too many arrows toward heaven.  Ha!  In the ninth inning our closer, Carson Smith comes in, walks the first batter, next batter gets a double, next batter intentionally walked and then next guy gets a single and scores 2.  Mariners lose again, and more importantly RUIN our 12 game streak of seeing a home team victory.  Shame, shame.  I guess we should have gone last night or on Sunday.