Having stayed the night in Bellevue, we got up early and decided to try and see if we could find the hotel where the Red Sox were staying and see if we could catch a glimpse of them as they got on their bus heading for Safeco and get some good pictures. As it turned out, the hotels we checked, none were theirs! We found out later where they were staying and it wasn’t on my list of places to check, so that stunk.
With some time to kill before heading to the ball park to watch batting practice, we took our time enjoying Seattle. It was an amazing day to be in Seattle. The sun was shining, hardly a cloud in the sky. People were happy, or seemed to be, and why not… it wasn’t raining! We drove down by the waterfront and got to see a cruise ship as it was unloading. Man those things are HUGE! There was this SUV parked on the dock next to it and it looked like a ‘Hot Wheels’ car! I knew they were big, but didn’t realize they were THAT big! We looked for parking by ‘Pikes Place Market’ but couldn’t find any, so my wife let me out and I went to a little pastry/cookie shop there while she circled the block. I can’t recall the name, but they have the best cookies. My wife loves the ones called “Mounds” that are a coconut cookie dipped in chocolate. I like their “Ohs”, it’s a peanut butter cookie with a peanut butter cup in the middle… incredible!! I got back to where I was to meet my wife and I stood there waiting for her for about 20 minutes or so. Gave me plenty of time to do some people watching and there were a lot of Red Sox fan out and about at the market.
Once Yvonne picked me up, we headed for Safeco. We parked in the lot straight across from the home plate gate ($25) and got in line. Today we wanted to go down by the dugout and watch batting practice from there. As we stood in line we met some people that had seen the Red Sox at their hotel and got autographs from a few of them. One of these ladies had a Red Sox Monopoly board that she has been working on getting signed for a couple years by everyone on it and already had Theo, Coco, Youkilis, Francona, Dave Roberts, Jerry Remi and others. Was pretty cool to see.
As the gates opened promptly at 11:10am, we made our way in and I followed my wife and she got us a spot just past the Red Sox dugout, down the 3rd baseline. There was already a bunch of people there, so we were in the 2nd row of people, which was ok, cause with my camera, I could take pictures between people. I even helped make room for a couple little kids to get in front of me, I wasn’t worried. As it turned out, only the pitchers took BP today (see the video page for a clip of this). I did get the chance to meet some really nice Red Sox fans and 1 gal that told me, “I just officially became a Red Sox fan this past Friday.” I welcomed her to the family and of course, The Nation! 🙂
There wasn’t much action by the dugout today, sadly, but before I called it a day and rejoined my wife, who already went up top to get off her feet and into the shade, I was able to get a few decent shots of Jonathon Papelbon, Josh Beckett, Jason Varitek, Hideki Okajima and a few others. As I got up all those steps and joined my wife I realized she has hawked us a couple seats in section 141, all the way up top on the concourse… I was digging it!! I told her I agreed, let’s stay until they kick us out… and they never did!
The game was fun, then again when aren’t they. I think this one was better cause the crowd really got into it. It was like dueling banjos between the Red Sox fans and the Mariner’s fans (“Let’s Go Red Sox” “Let’s Go Mariners” “Let’s Go RED SOX” “LET’S GO MARINERS”). I will say this though, I was shocked at how rude some Mariner fans are… especially when they have ZERO reason to be. This one fan(atic) sitting in front of us was really jawing with a Sox fan about things. He called the Red Sox players everything except “Sir” and “World Champions”. I had to speak up cause I didn’t feel he was doing himself justice, or being a good example for his kids, so when he dogged one of the Sox players and called him “A nobody” I was quick to point out “He’s a nobody that has 2 rings!” That shut him up!! The trash talk wasn’t even that good, one M’s fan said, when asked why he was leaving (as the Sox were winning), “I’m going to Anaheim to join the 12 people that David Ortiz left on base this past Thursday in that game down in California…” and then said something none of us could make out. I started laughing and said outloud, which brought a good laugh from those around me, “Trash talk is best if it’s a short sentence, not a paragraph!”
The only real highlights of the game was a home run by Branyan and a triple by Cedeno in the 2nd, which gave the M’s a 2-1 lead. In the 4th, JD Drew hit a bullet to right to tie it at 2. That’s where it stayed until the bottom of the 9th, where after the 2nd error on Red Sox short stop Green on a weak grounder by Cedeno, Franklin Gutierrez shot a grounder by the diving Mike Lowell at 3rd, bringing Cedeno in to score the winning run and getting himself mobbed at 2nd base. My wife even commented, “You would think they just won the World Series”. Maybe not, but they did just take 2 outta 3 from the Boston Red Sox!!
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