On Sunday, September 9, 2007, we gathered in Philadelphia for Tim's 7th game and Jamie Moyer's 600th.

All of the Cooks were in attendance:

Ah, how young Tim used to love that pacifier.  It'll make a couple more appearances here on this blog in the future.

Along with us were our friends, the Grecos:

We sat in Section 235, Row 9:

.

This was our first time ever sitting in the 200-level at Citizens Bank Park.  I really liked these seats.  Row 9 is actually the last row in that section and directly behind the seats is a concrete wall so we were able to stand up as much as we wanted without blocking anyone's view behind us.  Plus, we were in the shade most (if not all) of the hot day.

Speaking of views, here was our view:

Check out how empty the stadium was on a Sunday afternoon game during  pennant race!  At this point, the Phils were still six games back.  Of course, they would go on to win the East with a record of 89-73 thanks to a historic choke by the New York Mets.

In 2009, after winning the 2008 World Series, Citizens Bank Park never looked this empty.  Not even close.  The place was constantly packed to the rafters with fans.

Anyway, back to the game.  I was excited because this was the first time Tim ever got to see Jamie Moyer pitch...

...and you know Moyer always dominates the Marlins.

Moyer cruised through the first five innings pitching shut out ball.  It was great, Tim was having a blast...

...and he was amazed when Phillies centerfielder Aaron Rowand made a leaping catch and smashed face first into the wall in deep LCF.

Meanwhile, the offense was clicking against a struggling Dontrelle Willis.  Pat Burrell went 2-4 with 3 RBI and his 215th career home run.  Carlos Ruiz went 3-4 with 2 RBI and his 9th career home run.  Jimmy Rollins, Tad Iguchi and Aaron Rowand all also had multi-hit games and scored 4 runs between them.

With the game seemingly in hand behind the Phils 8-0 lead, it was time to get some shots of the kids...

...goofing around in the seats...

...and these kids were some master goofers.  They loved Rhonda's oversized glasses.

And of course we had fun watching the Phillie Phanatic blast hot dogs into the stands with his big, high-powered hot dog gun...

...the sight of a foil-wrapped hot dog spinning around in the air as it descends into the crowd always cracks me up.  One of these days I have to glove one of those dogs.  That would certainly be memorable.

The wheels fell off for Moyer in the bottom of the sixth.  He gave up home runs to Hanley Ramirez, Jeremy Hermida, and Mike Jacobs, and that was all she wrote for Moyer on this day.  But it didn't matter.  He had all of the run support he needed to guide the Phils to the victory.

Tim's look of concern as the Marlins mounted their too-little-too-late come back...

...soon gave way to a big smile as he witnessed the Phillies bats power Moyer to his 229th career victory.

Yep.  It was a good day.

By the way, do you notice how I'm wearing a Phillies T-Shirt in the picture above to the left?  I planned to (and in fact did) meet up with the Phillies Senior V.P. of Marketing, Dave Buck, to talk about the Baseball Log during this game.  I work with Dave's brother and I figured I'd wear a Phils shirt for the occassion.  I still wore my Mariners hat, which Dave said he could respect.  (Side note:  the Marlins sixth inning rally took place when I was off meeting with Dave). 

Although nothing came of the meeting with respect to the Baseball Log, Dave hooked us up with extremely awesome tickets (for which I was quite grateful) to an upcoming game against the Rockies, which will be my next entry...coming soon.

On September 3, 2007, we headed up to NYC to take in a Mariners game in the Bronx.  We went with my friend Marc from college.  Marc is also from Seattle, but in 2007 he was working in the investment world in NYC.  This was the first time I'd seen him since college.  And, it was Tim's first trip to NYC and to "The House That Ruth Built" (and Griffey destroyed).

We came up to NYC for the weekend, and we stayed with another friend from college, Davlynn, who also lived in NYC in 2007.  The day before the game, Davlynn took us to the American Museum of Natural History...

...where Tim REALLY enjoyed seeing lots of dinorsaur bones.  Trust me.  He looks utterly bored in this picture, but he really loved the museum.  So, if you find yourself at 79th & Central Park West in Manhatten, check it out.

We also took Tim to Central Park to play a little baseball on a field that we miraculously found to be empty... 

There were thousands of people in the park and every other field was packed.

Soon, it was time to meet up with Marc and his wife, Angie, and take the 4-train up to the Bronx.

Now, I'm a good baseball fan.  So I'm dutifully teaching Tim a healthy disrespect for the pinstriped-team from the Bronx.  Upon entering the ballpark, he already had the heebeegeebees from the cramped confines of the ballpark and the overwhelming aroma of corporate greed that would soon bring wall street crashing to the ground: I assured Tim that there was nothing to worry about.  The Mariners would surely destroy the home team.  The Mariners would be throwing their young ace, King Felix Hernandez, while the home squad would be trotting out an old goat, a pre-Mitchell Report Roger Clemens.  I was ready for a historic Clemens loss, and I would not be dissappointed.

So, as the game began, Tim was cautiously optimistic and ready to see his Mariners put on a show to remember:

Still, he had questions for me...

"You mean, none of these people like the Mariners?  All of these people are Y******* fans?"  (sorry for the censoring, Tim isn't allowed to curse)

"Yes," I explained, "so mind your P's and Q's."

By the way, not everyone was a fan of the opposition, that is Marc shown behind Tim's outreached arm.  He's a good Mariners fan.

Now, I wouldn't lead Tim astray, it WAS a great and historic game.  In fact, despite the fact it didn't feature former-and-future Mariners great Ken Griffey, Jr., this is one of the best games I've ever witnessed.

The game started like so many Mariners games do:  Ichiro hit a line drive single to right field.  So things were already off to a good start.  Ichiro extended his hit streak to five games in the five games Tim had attended to date.  But that was all the M's managed in the top of the first. 

The bottom of the first was the only bad part of the game.  King Felix had some first inning jitters and fell behind by 1 run.

But don't worry, the M's came back in the top of the second.  Raul Ibanez started off the inning with a single to LCF.  Ben Broussard walked.  And then Clemens fired a wild pitch to the backstop sending Ibanez to 3B.  Finally, Jose Lopez got an infield hit to score Rauuuuuuuuul!  And just like that the Mariners had tied it up 1-1.

Tim was happy about this turn of events:

By the way, check out the old water-soaked wood on the bottom of the upper deck (behind/above us).  You don't see that in a modern stadium!  Well, really, I think you don't see that anywhere -- not in Boston or on the north side of Chicago, which were much older than this 1970's re-model job.

The top of the second was just the Mariners warm-up act.  They were about to lower the boom on their hosts.

Ichiro led off the top of the third inning with a homerun blast to LCF.  Not only did the hit give the Mariners the lead (for good), but it was Ichiro's 200th hit of the season for the SEVENTH season in a row!  Hooray for Ichiro!!!  And hooray for us for being there to witness this piece of history.

Meanwhile, King Felix kept mowing down opposing batters.

In the top of the fourth, the Mariners scored three more runs on a single by Adrian Beltre, hit-by-pitch for Jose Lopez, a double by Yuniesky Betancourt, and another single by Ichiro.

By this point, Tim and I were having a great time watching our Mariners dominate:

At some piont in the 4th inning, Roger Clemens hurt his leg falling off the mound awkwardly.  In an unprecedented move, Joe Torre brought former Orioles great Mike Mussina into the game in relief.  A quick review of Moose's bio will reveal that this was the ONLY relief appearance of his probably-Hall of Fame career -- 537 games, 536 games started.

Here's the second piece of history involved in the game, this must be one of the most combined career wins that one team has ever had on the mound in one game.  I've tried to get someone from ESPN.com to research and determine if there has ever been more combined wins by a team in one game, but I haven't been able to get the answer.  After Mussina gave up two more runs, he was replaced by Chris Britton, who ultimately gave way to Kyle "New York's Finest" Farnsworth.  (By the way, I once saw a shirt for sale outside this ballpark that said, "Anybody But Farnsworth."  That gave me a chuckle.)

Anyway, as of September 3, 2007, Roger Clemens had 354 wins (and he would NEVER win again), Mike Mussina had 247 wins, Britton had zero career wins (he is still stuck on zero), and Farnsworth had 27 career wins.  All totaled, the Mariners faced off against SIX HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT (628) career wins.  What do you think, is that a record?  I've certainly never heard of a team throwing more career wins in one game.

But all of those career wins were no match for King Felix Hernandez and his (then) 27 career wins.  Tim was all like...

"Dude, our Mariners are seriously awesome!"

The scoreboard showed the happy totals:

After the game, we tired to get a nice family picture, but Tim wasn't into posing at the time (possibly because we'd just sat in ridiculously hot weather for 3+ hours).  But combining the two pictures, you can get a semi-panaramic view of the field:

Thanks to the Mitchell Report and the amazing falling from grace of Mike Piazza's favorite opposing pitcher, this game proved to be the final loss of Roger Clemens's former-future-Hall of Fame career.  But more importantly:

MARINERS WIN!!!!

Last year, I got an awesome email from the Mariners announcing the return of the greatest Mariner of all-time, Ken Griffey, Jr.

Today, I was equally as excited to receive the following email from the M's:

To read the rest of the article linked to the email, click here.

YES!!!!!

Thanks, Griff!  And welcome back, once more.  I can't wait!

PS - while we're on the subject to Griffey, I heard throughout the season that he made several sets of white silk ties for his teammates season.  But I never saw them on TV.  Well, I just found pictures of them on the printing company's blog.  Check them out:

http://gorillaprintshop.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/ties_1.jpg

http://gorillaprintshop.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/mariners.jpg

I like 'em!  Way to go, Griff.  Bring that sense of humor back our way in the spring.

Five days after Tim's first Mariners road game, we were back in Seattle visiting my parents and taking in Tim's second and third home Mariners games... ...I slacked off on the photos, particularly for the second game, so I am doing this as a two-game entry.

At the first game, we sat in my parents' seats...

...they have had either full or partial season tickets for about 15 years now.  Back in 2007, their seats were behind home plate slightly toward the third base side, and about 30 rows up.  They were nice seats.

Both of these games were against the Twins.  For the first game, it was me and Tim, plus my parents and Colleen.  Tim was under 2 years old so he didn't need his own ticket or seat.

My folks had a great time passing Tim back and forth during the game, and he had fun sitting on their laps and watching the game:

He especially liked eating Grandpa's french fries.

I used to also take his portable booster seat to games and he spent a little time in it at this game (still eating french fries)...

...and he spent some time sitting with me too...

Unfortuantely, this game got outta hand quick.  It was a match up of Horacio Ramirez and Matt Garza.  You may recall that just five days ago, Tim and I had seen Ramirez earn his first road victory of the season.  Well, this game would be his first home loss of the season.  Its unfortunate we had to see this outcome.  Just a week later, Ramirez would face off against Garza at the Metrodome and would beat him.

With our M's trailing in the middle innings, I took Tim to see the Mariners Hall of Fame display in the concourse behind 3B at Safeco Field.

First, we acted like we were picking off a home run:

Then, Tim checked out some lumber used by Mariners greats including the great, Ken Griffey, Jr...

...I should note, I'm not sure if these bats are game-used or just the models these guys used.  I'm guessing the latter because it would seem like a poor decision to display a Griffey game-used bat in this manner (where it could get damaged by a fan).  Either way, its cool to see these guys' bats.

By the seventh inning, the Mariners were trailing 7-1.  A lot of the damage was care of Twins center fielder Torii Hunter who was 3-4 with 4 runs scored.  It was getting ugly.  So, we decided to go track down one of the Mariners best fans of all-time, my best buddy, Paul:

Paulie was sitting in the LF bleachers with some friends from work.  We stopped by the LF bleachers so Paul could say "hi" to Tim and Colleen.

Paulie and I had gone to the game the night before and saw the Mariners beat the Twins.  It was one of the few games I've been to without Tim since his first game back in September 2006.  Unfortunately, it would be the only home Mariners win either of us would witness in 2007, and Tim missed it.  But on a positive note, Paul and I enjoyed it a lot!

Anyway, back to this game, the Mariners tried to mount a come back in the 8th, but it was too little too late.  And then the Twins piled on 3 more in the top of the 9th to put the dagger in the M's.  The bright spot on the night is that Ichiro was 1-4 to continue his hit streak in the games Tim had attended - 3 whole games, and counting...

August 15, 2007

Tim, my dad and I were right back at it the next day.  I got us tickets in the "Hit It Here" Cafe as a late-Father's Day gift for my dad.  Although my dad had ate a meal in the Cafe before, none of us had ever watched a game from the Cafe.

This was a great game until the very end.  But it was also the worst photographed game of Tim's life.  In fact, there is not a single picture of Tim and me together at this game, the only game of his life for which that can be said.  I think it was because we were in the Cafe, which is much more like being in a restaurant (because you are) than being at a ballpark (probably because it is so quiet in there).

But I did get some great grandfather-grandson shots, like these:

As you can see to the left, Tim is checking out the menu.  The tickets in the "Hit It Here" Cafe come with something like a $18 food credit.  So, we had some eating to do!

We started out with some delicious nachos...

...the carnage of which is shown behind Tim in the picture above.

That last picture gives you somewhat of a feel for the Cafe, but I didn't get a good picture of what the place really looks like.  Here's the deal:

There are three rows of counter-space seats.  We were in the first row where there are two seats for each window.  The seats are wooden chairs, not ballpark-style stadium seats.  Behind our seats was a row of restaurant-style tables.  They are tall tables/seats so the people sitting behind us had a clear line of sight over us.  Just above/behind those tables was another counter with another row of tables just behind it, and then one more counter with one last row of tall tables/seats behind it.  There is a big vertical rise in the Cafe.  In that last picture above, I am standing behind the top counter looking down.  You can see the bottom and middle counters, but you can't see the tables because they are below and hidden by the middle counter.

After the nachos, we took on one mighty piece of chocolate cake with strawberry topping...

...this thing was huge and ridiculously good.

Grandpa helped Tim check out the action in the stadium with Grandpa's binoculars...

...here is what our view looked like:

And here is Adrian Beltre taking a hack:

And, sadly, that is all of the "decent" photos that I took at this game.

As for the actual game, as I said, it was a good one.  Jarrod Washburn pitched and gave up only 1 earned run in 7 innings (and 2 runs total).  It was 1-1 going into the top of the 8th inning.  And it was 2-1 Twins in the top of the 9th when, once again, Torii Hunter did some major damage.  He hit a grand slam against Sean Green with two outs in the top of the 9th inning.

Once again, on the positive side, Ichiro was 2-4 with 2 stolen bases, and Raul Ibanez was 2-4 with a home run.

Despite the 6-1 final score, it was a well-played and exciting game until the very end, and it was a fun late-Father's Day celebration for the Cook & Son Bats crew.

On August 9, 2007, Tim and I headed down to Baltimore for Tim's first Mariners road game.  As best I can recall, I didn't see the Mariners play in a road game until I was 23, also in Baltimore.  Tim bested me by about 20 years on that front.

This was Tim's third game of his life and it was being played in his third MLB stadium of his life.  Not bad.

This would be a cool and memorable game too because (as strange as it sounds) it was Tim's first game NOT in a luxury suite or, put another way, his first game in the seats.

And here he is checking out his first stadium seat of his life...

...well, actually we'll see later that this isn't Tim's actual seat, but its in the same row.  He was checking out how these seat thingys work.

Not only was this Tim's first game in the seats, it was our first game as a father-son team.  At his first game, we had 27 other family members and friends with us in the suite.  At his second game, we had 10-15 of my co-workers and their "significant others" with us in the suite.  At this game, it would be just me and Tim, and we would prove to be stellar MLB game partners.

This season (2009) is the first time I felt like Tim was old enough and had enough endurance to go to batting practice before a game.  Back in 2007 and 2008, we regularly arrived just before game time.  While we arrived at this game after BP ended, we did have some time to check out the stadium before the game started.

After checking out our seats in CF, we headed behind the 3B dugout to get a classic Camden Yards picture with the field and warehouse in the background:

Look at how happy that boy is to be at the ballpark with his dad and his Mariners.  This is Cook & Son / Mariners baseball!

By the way, do you see that glove Tim is holding?  It is a Rawlings RBG36B (circa 1992).  I didn't take that glove to a single game in 2009.  It is nothing fancy.  But it is my favorite glove.  It is the glove I used in the outfield in high school.  I formed it perfectly for my hand.  It fits my glovehand like an extra layer of skin.

Anyway, back to Camden Yards.

After walking around a bit, we found ourselves in my second favorite spot to get a posed picture at Camden Yards -- down the 1B line right where the concourse takes a turn toward RF.

We got a picture with home plate behind us...

..and then pivoted 45 degrees and got one with the warehouse behind us:

It was game time.  We headed out to section 90 (straight away CF) and took our seats behind Ichiro (and whoever played CF for the O's in 2007).  Here is Tim in his first ticketed seat (with a little booster seat helping him out):

After a while, Tim had enough of the seats and wanted to walk a bit.  We made our way to the standing room flag pavillion in RF.  I had never really spent time in the flag pavillion before this game.  But starting with this game and continuing until today, the flag pavillion has proven to be Tim's favorite spot at Camden Yards.

At this game, he was all about puddle stomping in the flag pavillion:

Of course, Tim was only a year and a half old at this point, so he couldn't run around the whole game.  So from time-to-time, he'd take a break in his stroller...

...and as you can see above to the right, he was into the game and cheering for his Mariners.

The Mariners were leading the game early when Tim and I got some nice person to take our picture out on Eutaw Street:

The seats and the Mariners road game weren't the only firsts of the day.  It was also Tim's first rain delay!

After the rain stopped, we headed back out to CF.  This is what the view looked like from out there:

I think the rain delay was in the fifth inning with the score tied 5-5.  Four of the O's runs came on a grand slam by Miguel Tejada.  The grand slam was Tejada's 250th home run of his career.

After the rain delay, the Mariners piled on some runs and took a 10-5 lead.  Tim was excited to walk down every row in the CF seats and touch all of the dripping wet seats:

In the picture above, the red circle shows where we were standing when Brandon Morrow tossed us the baseball during the rain delay.

Right at the end of the game, Tim got really tired.  The Mariners were up 11-8 and we trusted them to get the job done in our absence, so we called it a night a bit early.

Tim was cuddling up with his baseball in the car when we found the game on the radio...

...as we made our way through the city to the freeway entrance, the Mariners scored two insurance runs.  That was plenty for future Orioles closer, George Sherrill to close the win out for the Mariners.

As the box score shows, it was a great game.  Ichiro was 3-6 to bring his average to .350 on the season.  He also had 3 RBI and 2 runs scored.  Raul Ibanez was 2-4 with 2 RBI.  Jose Guillen, then the Mariners right fielder, was 1-3 with a HR and 2 runs scored.

Horacio Ramirez got the win for the Mariners to take his record to 7-3.  Interestingly, before this game Ramirez was 6-0 at home and 0-3 on the road.  So we saw his first road victory of the season.  We also saw one inning by Mariners rookie Ryan Rowland-Smith who is the first player in MLB history with a hyphenated last name, and a darn nice guy.

So it was June 2007 by the time Tim's second MLB game rolled around.  Tim was about a year and a half old by this point and he was running around on his own and ready to have some fun at the game.

Unfortunately, Tim's second game wouldn't feature the Mariners.  Instead, I introduced Tim to the National League and two teams competing for the N.L. East crown, the Phillies and the Mets.  Tim's second game would take place at his second MLB stadium, Citizens Bank Park.

At about 70 miles, Citizens Bank Park is the closest MLB stadium to our home in Berks County, Pennsyvlania.  Philadelphia is the closest "big city" to our home.  But in a year and a half of life, Tim had not yet visited the city where his parents met back in 1999.  So, I decided to take him down early to see a tiny bit of the city before the game.

I had bigger plans, but time was running short before the game.  So all we did was visit Rittenhouse Square:

I lived about 5 blocks from Rittenhouse Square when my wife and I met, and I'd walk through the Park everyday on my way here or there.  Tim loved running around the Park for a short while.  And then we were off to South Philadelphia.

We attended this game with a group of people from my office.  Tim was a lucky little guy.  His second game was also his second game in a suite!  We arrived as the game was beginning, said our hellos, and started doing what you do in suites -- we started eating tasty food:

That table behind us had 3-4 tasty hot dishes in which we over-indulged...well, at least I did.

Here is a look at the suite:

To the left, that's a look from the entry way through the suite.  To my left as I took that picture is a kitchenette area featuring various drinks, chips, crackers, dips, cheese trays, etc.  And against the wall to the left (off camera) is a large flat screen for those who want to watch the game on TV rather than turning 90 degrees to their right and watching it live.

In the picture to the left, do you see the blue sky and clouds painted on the ceiling?    The middle section of the ceiling looks like a nice sunny day and it has a picture of the Philly Phanatic skydiving into the suite.  The middle picture is Tim pointing up at the Phanatic.  He thought it was really cool.

Above to the right is a view of the field from the suite.  When I took that picture, I was still standing in the main "suite" part of the suite.  In front of me is a standing counter (actually, it also has tall chairs) and on the other side of the counter are three rows of stadium seating for the folks in the suite.

Here is a panaramic view of the field from the bottom of our three rows of stadium seating (featuring Tim in the bottom right corner):

FYI, I made that panaramic view from screen shots of a video clip I took of the field, so its not normal photo quality.  But I think it does the job.

Tim ran around the suite like crazy and provided comic relief for my colleagues.  But after a while, he wanted to explore outside the suite.  The main level of suites at Citizens Bank Park has its own concourse (just above the main concourse).  Its just a big elevated walkway with access to all of the suites, but no concession stands, etc.

Tim and I exited our suite and he started running down the walkway toward home plate and then around toward LF.  I took a video of him running and took the following screen shots from the video clip:

To the left is a view of the suite level concourse.  This picture is just foul of third base.  The suites and the field are to our right.  The banners hanging to the left are hanging above the main concourse and are just inside what I consider to be the stadium's main entrance (between home and 3B).

Above to the right is a view of the main entrance taken right around that hanging Jimmy Rollins banner shown in the picture to the left.  Just to the left of the main entrance is McFadden's Restaurant & Saloon.  Across the street to the right of the picture you can see the Spectrum, which Pearl Jam is closing down this weekend.  Click here for a peak inside the Spectrum and see how Pearl Jam tied the World Series and Seattle-connection, Raul Ibanez, into their recent concert.

Back to the game.  We reached the end of the suite level concourse and I found someone to take our picture with All-Time Mariners Career Wins Leader, Jamie Moyer:

In 2006, I'd been hoping all season that Moyer would pitch for the Mariners during Tim's first game, but sadly he was traded before the trade deadline...and before Tim's big day at the park.  If he had to be traded I was happy he went to Philadelphia where Tim and I would still be able to see him pitch.

After a little roaming around, we returned to the suite and it was time for an important "first" -- Tim's first ice cream at the ballpark (in fact, I think this was also his first ice cream of his life):

As you can see, it wasn't Tim's first ice cream helmet (not quite yet).  But it started a grand tradition -- ice cream at the ballpark -- it is a tradition that would just be made better with the introduction of the ice cream helmet on a later date.

Of course, soon after the last picture, I captured another (related) "first"...

...Tim's first ballpark "ice cream face."

And then there was nothing left to do but get our picture with the field...

...and watch some National League baseball.

The game didn't go so well for the Phils.  They lost 8-3.  The star of the game was Mets centerfielder Carlos Beltran who went 4-5 with 2 HR, 3 RBI and 3 runs scored.  Paul LoDuca and David Wright also hit homeruns for the Mets.

Not much good happened on the Phils' side of the box score.  Ryan Howard was 2-4 with a homerun and 2 runs scored.  Carlos Ruiz was also 2-4.  But J.A. Happ earned the loss in his major league debut, and his only major league action in 2007.

Welcome to my first "turn-back-the-clock" game entry.  When I took Tim to his first game back in 2006, I didn't even know MLBlogs existed.  Tim and I went to about 20 games or so between 2006-2008 and I plan to tell those stories this off-season.  This is the first.

When I found out toward the end of the 2005 baseball season that our first (and so far only) child due to be born in early 2006 was going to be a boy, I got really excited about the idea of having a little baseball partner.   I was looking forward to playing catch in the yard and teaching my son how to hit.  And I was really excited to have a little partner with whom to go to MLB games and, hopefully, to love the Mariners as much as I do.

Tim was born in January 2006.  I decided I wanted his first game to be a Mariners home game and I wanted it to be late in the season so he would be at least six months old...so he could at least somewhat "experience" the experience, not just "be there."  I picked Tuesday, September 12, 2006 as the big day.  The opponent would be the Blue Jays.

Now, I'm a guy who likes to make an event out of things.  I'm not against creating my own holidays.  And I didn't want this day to be just any other day...because it wasn't.  September 12th would be Tim's FIRST BASEBALL GAME and, better yet, his FIRST MARINERS GAME!  This was big.  So I fully intended to do it right.  And with help from some important people, most notably my awesome parents, it was done right!

I started out by simply emailing the closest people in my life sort of a "save the date" and open invitation.  I definitely wanted my parents and my best friend (and co-best Mariners fan) Paul to be there.  I was hoping also that Colleen's folks (from Virginia) and her sister's family (including my nephew, Gill, who (much to my dismay) I have still failed to get to a MLB game!) to join us.

Following my email, my mom had an amazing idea.  I have two cousins who both live in Western Washington and both have daughters 2 months older than Tim.  Plus, my parents have season tickets with their best friends, Lynn and Steve, and they have a grandson who is also two months older than Tim.  So my parents offered to get a suite so all four kids plus TWENTY-FIVE friends and family members could join together for this (personally) historic event.

YES!!!!!

Big, huge, enormous thanks to my folks!

So, we weren't messing around.  This was going to be seriously awesome.

I decided I couldn't go in there empty-handed.  In a possibly unprecedented move, I made a set of three custom baseball cards to commemorate Tim's first game, complete with fake 1-game 2006 seasons stats (fyi, Tim had some great stats).  Here is what they looked like: 

They were the size of regular baseball cards and I gave one to each person who attended the game with us -- except the grandparents got a full set of three cards.

Before we knew it, it was September and our trip to Seattle was upon us.  The big day started with a run around Green Lake with my father-in-law, Kevin, and then some painting in my folks' garage...

...more on the painting later.

It was a 7:05 start and the weather was gloriously sunny.  Beautiful.  Our suite was down the 1B line just foul of rightfield.  In the picture below to the left, the red arrow is pointing to our suite...

...and the picture to the right shows our view of home plate from the suite.

When we arrived at the stadium, I already had Tim's first game ticket encased in an inch-thick screw down jumbo baseball card holder -- where it will be locked down for all time.  The guy at the Suites entrance thought it was pretty unusual, but his scanner had no problem scanning the ticket through the glass.

Plus, it gave me the opportunity to explain to the ticket guy that four little kids would be celebrating their first game ever in suite number 5, which resulted in unexpected but much welcome extra-special treatment.

Shortly after arriving, we met up with my cousin, Janet, her husband, Destry (who runs ridiculously fast (i.e., sub-2.5 hour) marathons, and their daughter and Tim's co-guest of honor, Julie.  Here we are hanging out in the three rows of seats in our suite: 

...note the Ted Williams jersey on the wall behind us.  Each of the suites at Safeco Field is named after a Hall of Famer.  My guess is that the best suite will some day be called the "Ken Griffey, Jr. Suite."

After watching lots of Mariners games on TV with me throughout the season, Tim was excited to finally be making his MLB debut...

...Julie was just taking it all in -- while wearing her sweet Mariners cheerleader outfit!

We got a "BP Group" picture of the folks who were there early:

Left to Right:  (Totally cut off is my uncle Ray, Julie's grandpa), my dad Jim, Colleen, Me and Tim, Destry, Janet and Julie, and my aunt Carol (Julie's grandma).

After the group shot, it was time to hit field level.  This is literally the second picture ever taken of Tim in the field level of a MLB ballpark and the first with MLB ball players shown in the background...

...any guesses who wore number "47" for the Blue Jays in 2006?  Well, wouldn't you know, it is none other than current Mariners bullpen catcher and Chief-Cook-and-Son-Baseball-Giver, Jason Phillips.  If the first picture had to feature non-Mariners, I think its pretty darn cool that it was Phillips.

Once we were down on the field level, we took a peak back up at our suite, where Uncle Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy, was doing his best Tricky Dick Nixon above my painting project:

Yes, the "First Gamers Club!"  I spent a lot of time debating if the sign should say this or "The September Call-Ups"  I think both are great.  But in the end this seemed better for the paper I used for the sign, plus it is more easily understood by non-baseball people.  FYI, they showed our sign on the jumbo screen during the game!

By the way, Laura is my cousin's Daniel's daughter and Kasey is Lynn and Steve's grandson.  They weren't there for BP, but you'll see them soon.

After that picture above behind the 1B dugout, we spotted my dad down the 1B line.  He was seeing if he could catch a ball.  So, we went down and joined him.  Immediately upon meeting up with my dad (and about 1 minute after the picture behind the dugout), Colleen took this picture of three generations of Cook boys enjoying an evening at the ballpark: 

And, immediately after Colleen took that picture, the BP batter hit a ball to that guy pictured above with the big red arrow pointing at him.

Until recently, I had no clue who he was.  But as he fielded the ball, I yelled, "ITS MY SON'S FIRST GAME CAN WE GET THAT BALL!?!?!?"

Without pause, he immediately turned around, walked over to us, and set Tim's first MLB ball ever into my glove!

I didn't get my first baseball at a game until I was probably 12 or 13.  So I was SUPER-EXCITED to have a ball from Tim's first game ever.

After we got that ball and posed for a bunch of pictures with it, I decided we'd accomplished all we needed to during BP.  It was time to walk Tim around his new baseball home.  Time to get acquainted with Safeco Field.

We started by heading up to the field level concourse and walking out to centerfield.

Now, about this time, you might be wondering why there were two guys with red arrows pointing at them in at picture above.  Well, when we reached CF, I heard someone yelling from the field.  Still standing in the concourse, I looked down and I saw that guy in the picture above with the smaller red arrow pointing at him.  He had a baseball in his hand, and he fired it up to us (still in the OF concourse) for Tim's second ball of his life!  WOW!!!

A few minutes later, we met up with Janet and Julie in LF foul territory and we gave Tim's second baseball to Julie so she too would have a keepsake from her first MLB game:

What can I say.  The game hadn't even started yet.  And we were already have a great time:

After our brief tour around the field, we headed back up to the suite where we found that more of our suite-mates had arrived.

Colleen's mom and sister (and her family) couldn't make the trip, but Colleen's dad, Kevin, and his uncle Bob and aunt Ann did.  Here I am hanging out with Kevin and Bob before the game:

Kevin is a Yankees fan (he has an excuse, he grew up in Jersey City) and Bob is a Red Sox fan, but they like each other nonetheless.

The game had not started yet so Tim grabbed a bite to eat -- the old standard (bottle of milk) and a new treat (his first dog at the ballpark, he finished about 2-3 bites of the dog):

Soon all of the First Gamers Club kids had arrived and they were up for some playtime in the suite:

In the picture above to the left, that is Laura, Julie, Tim and Kasey (left-to-right, obviously).  To the right, Tim and Kasey had a push-ups contest.  I think Tim did about 200.

And then the big moment arrived, and my dad was thoughtful enough to capture history for us -- Tim's first MLB pitch ever:

Gil Meche to Frank Catalanotto -- STRIKE 1!  Things would only get better from there.

Tim and Kasey spent some time enjoying the game from the front row of the suite:

We took about a billion pictures of everyone:

Top left, Tim and my dad.  Top right, Lynn, Tim and me.

Bottom left, my sister-in-law (brother's wife, not Colleen's sister), Alison with Tim and my dad.  Bottom right, my mom, Tim and me.

Remember how I said I originally did not know who gave us Tim's first baseball?  Well, I figured it out earlier this season (2009).  First, I noticed he was a left hander from the picture of him walking back out to his spot in the OF in the picture above.  So I looked up every lefty who played for the Blue Jays that season.  I then took the 3-4 possible mystery men and put them into Google Images.  I wasn't positive, but my front runner was a September call-up named Davis Romero (who has never made it back to the bigs and is still playing Triple-A ball for the Blue Jays).

Then one day I was combing through old game pictures and I found the following picture from Tim's first game:

Its an odd picture, don't you think?  But odd'ness aside, do you notice anything?

At the top right, there is a TV screen mounted on the ceiling of our suite where (if you click to enlarge the picture) you can see that Davis Romero is warming up in the Blue Jays' bullpen.  More importantly, its not too difficult to tell that Davis Romero, indeed, is the mystery man who gave us Tim's first ever MLB ball.

So, at long last, "THANK YOU, DAVIS ROMERO!"

Anyway, we kept snapping away at the pictures, here are Tim and Colleen in the suite:

Remember how I mentioned we got special treatment after I told the ticket taker about the First Gamers Club?  Here is part of it -- free Mariners lunch boxes!

That's a great lunch box.  Although he didn't give it a lot of thought at the time, Tim loves it now.

Here is a shot of my mom with two of her sisters Margaret (left) and Carol and, of course, Julie too:

Although he's a Yankees fan, "Poppy" got into Tim's big first game too...

...as did Bob and Ann (pictured to the right).

And as the Mariners led the Blue Jays, we just kept snapping away at the photos and having a grand old time in suite number 5:

Top left, me and Tim with Lynn and Kasey and Laura and her mom, Noelle (my cousin Daniel's wife).  Top right, me with my dad and brother, Jason.

Bottom left, Alison, my dad and Steve.  Bottom right, half of my dad with Tim, Destry, Julie, Kasey and Lynn.

But then, the tiredness kicked in.  Tim had a tiredness-inducing double whammy going here.  First, it was late at night for the boy (9'ish o'clock).  Second, we were on the West coast just two days removed from our home in Pennsylvania and he was still on east coast time -- so it was really three hours later for Tim.

So, Tim spent some time chilling out under a blanket strapped to either me or Colleen in a baby bjorn:

Soon, it was time for more special treatment -- the Mariner Moose showed up to greet us in the suite:

...as you can see, Uncle Ray really enjoyed the Moose's visit.

In between photo sessions, we actually watched the game:

...and look who was with us, my best buddy Paul!

It was great to have "Pauliewog" there for Tim's first game because I'm gonna rely on Paul a lot in life to re-enforce for Tim the finer points of Mariners-fandome and provide him a shining example of a positive Mariners attitude.

And before we knew it, the Mariners WON!  The first in-person Mariners win of Tim's life -- I couldn't have scripted it better:

After the game, Tim and I got one more picture with the field in the background before heading out:

I think this game was the start of something beautiful.  Welcome to a new era, the Tim-and-Todd-traveling-baseball-fans era.

By the way, Ichiro went 1-5, Raul Ibanez (1st inning) and Adrian Belte hit homeruns, and Gil Meche got the win.  You coudn't have scripted a better first game experience.

Tim and I have had all of our baseballs from 2009 laying around unorganized and our ice cream helmets in a similarly disheveled state.  So, I decided to get organized.

The four most important baseballs of the season are in Tim's room on his dresser with his 30-MLB team milestone trophy, his Mariners Mr. Potatohead, and his miniature Ken Griffey, Jr. glove:

Those baseballs include:

1. Willie Bloomquist/Royals ball (U.S. Cellular Field) - from Tim's 30th MLB team milestone game (8/17/09).
2. Felix Hernandez/Erik Bedard (Fenway Park) warm up ball signed by Felix Hernandez (7/4/09).
3. Jason Phillips autographed ball (Yankee Stadium) - trade for A-Rod photoball for M's pink backpack (7/2/09).
4. Ryan Rowland-Smith's autographed warm-up ball (Rogers Centre) -- Tim's first ball he caught himself (9/26/09).

NOTE:  Honorable Mention Most Important Baseballs Awards go to the HHH Metrodome ball that we caught at the Metrodome (8/15/09) and the ball Jason Phillips threw to us on top of the Green Monster at Fenway (7/5/09).

The rest of our 2009 baseballs are now all in baseball cubes displayed on a bookshelf on which they fit perfectly:

As you can see, on the bottom shelf we have our ice cream helmet collection.  Most piles are all the same team (e.g., the big Mariners and Phillies piles).  But a couple teams are hidden beneath other teams (e.g., the Pirates and the other New York team).  Eventually, I'll need to figure out a better way to display our helmets.

FYI, the balls on the helmet shelf are mostly from my youth.  I lost track of how many balls I caught growing up in the Kingdome.  Eventually, I ended up playing home run derby with most of them (something me and my friends played constantly during the summers) and lost them in the woods beyond the outfield fence at Madrona Elementary School (which is a great place to play home run derby).  Anyway, the end balls in the back row are from last season, the other nine are my only remaining Kingdome balls.  You can see on one of them I wrote "Julio Franco" in red in really poor, youthful handwriting.  It was back when he played for the Rangers, probably from 1989 or 1990.  The ball to the right of the Franco ball was from Kirby Puckett.

While I'm at it, I might as well share one more picture:

These are balls from 2006-08.  On the top shelf:

1.  Tim's first ball ever - from Davis Romero (Blue Jays) at his first game ever, and first game (obviously) at Safeco Field (9/12/06).

3.  Tim's third ball ever - from Brandon Morrow at his third game ever, second Mariners game, and first game at Camden Yards (8/9/07)

4.  Tim's fourth ball ever - from Glenallen Hill at Tim's 1st MLB Anniversary, our only ball ever at Citizens Bank Park (9/12/07)

FYI, we gave Tim's second baseball to my cousin's daughter who shared her first game ever with Tim (as we will see in a forthcoming entry - ETA next week).

The rest of the baseballs are spring training balls from 2008.  The top left ball is autographed by Adam Moore and the top right ball is autographed by Jose Vidro - both during spring training 2008.

Interstingly, this post now shows every baseball Tim and I have ever caught together except one, which we got during our first baseball roadtrip in 2008 and got autographed by some Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers.  What the heck, lets show it too:

This ball is autographed by T.J. Beam, Tyler Yates, and Sean Burnett of the 2008 Pirates.

So, there you go, our entire Major League baseball collection and Major League ice cream helmet collections in one blog entry.

Although he has never seen him on TV, in movies or books, Tim was all set to be Spiderman for Halloween:

As you can see, he was pretty excited about it.

But this afternoon, Colleen went out to run a few errands while Tim and I stayed home and played sports in the garage due to a rain storm outside.  When Colleen arrived home, she came bearing gifts.  Target was having a sale on baseball stuff.  For about 2 bucks, she's picked Tim up some grey youth extra-small baseball pants and some baseball socks (with old fashioned stirrups printed on them).  Instantly, Spidey was scrapped.

Tim would be a Mariner for Halloween.

We headed back to target to get a 1-dollar clearance baseball belt (Colleen hadn't realized that baseball players wear belts so she didn't get him one).  Tim was already suited up in his baseball gear:

That's one of Colleen's belts that he's wearing in that picture.

Next, it was off to the Rawlings store to look at some batting gloves and run the bases painted on the floor in the back of the store:

Finally, we headed home.  It was still raining (and it was dark).  So, we headed back to the garage.  Tim hadn't batted in a couple weeks because we've been all over the place on the weekends and it has been getting dark so early (i.e., by the time I get home from work at night).  But Tim was crushing the ball in the garage, and looking like a legit Mariner in the process:

Simply put, 2009 was outstanding.  Tim and I had more fun than than should be allowed.  We saw a lot of amazing baseball (33 games) including:

• Tim's first time seeing Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a homerun (and as a Mariner!)
• Ichiro getting lots of hits en route to a record breaking 9th season with 200+ hits
• Felix Hernandez dominating the AL
• Jamie Moyer being Jamie Moyer
• A walk-off homerun by Raul Ibanez
• A walk-off single by Ichiro in the bottom of the 14th inning
• Two games with walk-off singles by Jose Lopez
• baseball in 13 stadiums including, most notably in my book, our first game at the Metrodome (also, Safeco Field, Camden Yards, Citi Field, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, U.S. Cellular Field, Miller Park, Nationals Park, Citizens Bank Park, Rogers Centre and Progressive Field)
• Seeing a the Cubs score 10 runs in one inning
• Tim finishing off seeing all 30 MLB teams play live.
• A winning season by the Mariners!  (85-77)

We also made great memories interacting with some ball players including:

• Tim asking Mariners reliever Chris Jakabauskas in the lobby of our hotel if he wants to come "see our room."
• Meeting Mariners G.M. Jack Z. on the streets of Boston.
• Getting a picture with Felix Hernandez.
• Getting a picture with Ryan Rowland-Smith and having him throw a baseball to Tim:
• Giving Jason Phillips an A-Rod baseball to put in the Mariners bullpen's pink backpack and then confirming the next day (in the hotel lobby) with Jakabaukas that the ball was indeed in the backpack.
• Getting 8 baseballs from Jason Phillips, including a pre-autographed ball, and baseballs at 6 stadiums.

The season -- my first on MLBlogs -- has provided so many great moments that I've recorded in game entries.  Some of my favorite entires have included:

• Meeting the Metrodome -- we took an awesome self-guided walking tour around this fun and unique (now-former) baseball park.
• Ice Cream Helmets, Anyone? - featuring our collection of ice cream helmets.
• Fenway Park Part 3 of 3 (A Moment To Remember) - featuring the first time Tim ever saw Griffey get a hit (a line drive off of the Green Monster).
• Griffey & Sensation: Two Kids Combine to Make Sweet Music - a story of my time having a partial season ticket plan in high school sitting next to Griffey's friend and local rap legend Kid Sensation, and the songs inspired by their friendship.

Finally, we took tons of great pictures to document our adventures this season. 

Here are some of my favorites (at least one from each game):

We started the season off on a chilly day in Baltimore -- the world was our oyster, we had our whole season before us:

In week 2, we cheered on as former Mariner Raul Ibanez hit this pitch for a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the ninth inning:

In week 3, Tim raced down the foul territory warning track on his way to his first Kids Run the Bases of the season following our first game ever at Citi Field.

In week 4, Tim couldn't adjust to the West Coast time change and was a little out-of-sorts when Jarrod Washburn threw us our first ball of the season from the Mariners dugout during the 9th inning of an exciting Mariners win:

With this pitch on May 2, 2009, Tim had finally officially seen Ken Griffey, Jr. play for the Mariners (YES!!!):

On May 3, 2009, we took in an excellent Mariners game with some of my high school friends and their kids.  Awesome times.  And the Mariners won in 15 innings:

On May 4, 2009, Tim and I got our picture with Red a/k/a "Beltre Guy" -- who is fast becoming a Safeco Field Legend due to his passionate following of Adrian Beltre.  Will Red be back in 2010?  We will see: 

On May 5, 2009, we snagged a bag of hot roasted peanuts from a long-time Mariners legend, Rick "The Peanutman" Kaminski:

Back in Philadelphia later that same week, Tim put the smack down on this ice cream helmet -- this boy really knows how to put an ice cream helmet in its place:

In mid-May, we went to Philadelphia to see the Dodgers, but the best part of the night was seeing my favorite pitcher, Jamie Moyer.  With Colleen's new camera and a little computer magic, I was able to create one of my favorite pictures of the season:

The very next week, we took in our first game ever at Nationals Park, Tim ran the bases (twice) following the game, and we got a sweet picture with Theordore "Teddy" Roosevelt:

Next up, we were back in Baltimore to see the Tigers with a couple Tigers-fan-friends.  And Tim and his buddy, Brady, put on a dance show in the shady upper deck:

On June 3, 2009, Tim and I returned to Nationals Park hoping to witness Randy Johnson's 300th career win.  Instead, we watched hours of rain turn the field into a lake (we also met Zack Hample for the first time and spent several hours chatting with him while watching the rain fall):

On June 10, 2009, Tim got to see Griffey bat play for the first time ever in a Mariners uniform (he wore a Seattle Rainiers uniform on May 2nd, and was sick the rest of that week):

After the game, Mariners trainer Rick Griffin gave us a close up look at Griff's bat -- sweet:

On June 28, 2009, we stopped by Camden Yards on our way home from an OBX vacation and witnessed a monster Adam Dunn bomb and Tim ran the bases at our favorite park outside of Seattle, Washington:

Tim and I had tons of fun watching the guys in the M's bullpen this season.  In this July 2, 2009 picture, Chris Jakabauskas is shown sitting in the bullpen at new Yankee Stadium with one of three big metal warrior helmets the Mariners bullpen displayed during games until Bug Selig put the kybosh on the M's fun:

The next day, my mom, dad, Tim and I were in Boston to watch our Mariners (and Jakabauskas) beat the Red Sox:

We started out watching the July 3, 2009 game from these seats with a young Red Sox fan named Tyler who told us to stay sitting there until people with tickets showed up.  The fans in Boston were awesome all weekend:

The next day, Eric Bedard gave us his and Felix Hernandez dirty warm-up ball, a few minutes later, we got our picture with Felix and he signed the ball:

Tim and I spent a good portion of the Independence Day game standing (or crouching) in this walkway SRO area -- where the local fans continued to be extremely nice to us:

Later in the game, my mom taught Tim how to do the wave:

During our third and final game at Fenway, Tim and I stumbled across the 2004 and 2007 world series trophies -- although I wasn't able to get a picture of it, this game was extra special because Tim saw Griff get a hit (a single off of the Green Monster) for the first time ever):

In mid-July, Tim and I headed back to Nationals Park for our rain-out make-up game and Tim tried unsuccessfully to get someone to hit him a homerun:

In late July, we were back in Philadelphia to see the Cardinals, during one of many rain delays we sat through this season, Tim begged and pleaded for an ice cream helmet:

During the rain delay, Tim and I toured around Citizens Bank Park trying to find a place where Tim could eat his ice cream in peace -- it took us to three different locations:

In early August, we were back in Philadelphia to see Moyer pitch against the Marlins:

Hopefully this won't be the last time we ever see Moyer pitch -- but, sadly, it could be:

On August 5, 2009, Tim and I headed out to a sold-out FirstEnergy Stadium to watch future Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez pitch for our local Reading Phillies:

A week or so later, Tim and I meet up with my dad in Chicago for The Great (Second Annual) Cook Grandfather-Father-Son Baseball Road Trip of 2009 where we witnessed the Cubs hang a 10-spot on the Pirates in the second inning:

Before the game, my dad toted Tim around as we toured Wrigley Field:

Tim and I had a blast touring around the upper deck at the Metrodome -- as the title of this picture indicates (we loved the Metrodome!):

This is one of my favorite pictures from our trip to the Metrodome (other favorites include looking behind the canvas curtains in RF-CF):

On the third day of the baseball road trip, we visited the House that Happy Built -- and we got this picture with Nick "The Happy Youngster" who we had first met on June 10th in Baltimore):

Tim wore his pajama pants to Miller Park (his choice, not mine), and he also ran the bases following the game (and I ran them with him!) after which we got a picture with my dad:

The next day, we finished off the baseball road trip and Tim finished off seeing all 30 MLB teams when we saw the Kansas City Royals play for the first time (and we got a ball from Willie "Ballgame" Bloomquist):

After the game, I presented Tim with a trophy memorializing his 30-team accomplishmen (thanks to Curious George, Tim loves trophies) -- after the game, the nice folks did a cool little article about Tim's milestone:

I took this picture for Tim's 30-Team milestone entry -- I like it:

Jason Phillips, shown here with me and Tim in Cleveland in late-August, was by far the coolest guy we ran into this season.  Jason gave us 8 baseballs this season including at least 1 baseball at each stadium at which we saw the Mariners play this season (Camden Yards, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Progressive Field, Safeco Field, and Rogers Centre) -- plus, we took time out to chat (and be photographed) with us several times throughout the season:

During that same game, Tim got his picture with Slider:

The following day, Tim and I achieved our No. 1 goal of the season -- we saw Griffey hit a homerun as a Mariner -- No. 624 of his career:

When we arrived home late that night, I watched the highlight and realized that Tim and I (the blue and white blur) could be seen in the highlight of Griff's homerun:

On Tim's third MLB anniversary (Sept. 12, 2009), we went to see the Orioles beat the Yankees in the Bronx and we had a blast.

During the fun-filled day, Tim played catch with an usher in the LF bleachers concourse:

...and the usher temporarily lost Tim's baseball when it rolled through a hole in the stadium's wall -- the usher retrieved the ball, but also rewarded us with an Orioles BP homerun ball:

Tim also caused a scene in CF going all medieval on a pile of Moe's Billy Barou Nachos -- a mere 1,410 calories:

Back in Seattle the following week, we saw Adam Moore make his MLB debut and Tim showed us a new way of wearing a baseball glove:

At our final game of the season at Safeco Field, Colleen and I minute to pose for a picture while Tim played in the kids' play area:

The next weekend, we attended our first game in Toronto and got a picture with and a ball and autograph from Ryan Rowland-Smith:

The ball from Rowland-Smith was the first ball Tim has ever caught thrown by a major leaguer -- which is featured in another mygameballs.com article:

On the final Saturday of the regular season, we were back at Citi Field where we spent time with new friends and MLBloggers Alex K. and Joe F who were supercool to Tim:

We closed out the season on the final Sunday back at Camden Yards -- where it all began just six months earlier.  This time, Tim enjoyed the only ice cream helmet (a Mariners helmet) served at Camden Yards in 2009:

Although my wife can, I officially "can't wait" for the 2010 baseball season to begin.  I'm already planning it out and we have some exciting baseball trips in the future.

I've certainly enjoyed sharing our stories from the ballpark this season.  The reason I created this blog was the record our baseball adventures so Tim could look back on them later in life.  This season has been thoroughly documented and I'm quite happy with the results.  Now, entering the off-season, I'm thinking about the games we went to before this season.  I have them all recorded in Tim's Baseball Log.  But I'm thinking that I might find time during the off-season to put them in story form here on my blog.  Therefore, if you're interested in hearing about and seeing some pictures from the games Tim went to between 2006-2008 (about 22 games total), check back from time-to-time during the offseason.  Otherwise, see you in 2010.