Results tagged ‘ mariners ’
A Pair of Losses to the Twins (Aug. 14-15, 2007)
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.
As of this point in time, Tim had been to two Mariners games in his life and the Mariners were a perfect 2-0. Unfortunately, I knew that wouldn’t last forever. These two games would prove me right. We would come out of these games with a 2-2 Mariners record in Tim’s games. But, we had a lot of fun nonetheless.
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.
Tim’s MLB Debut (9/12/06)
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!
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:
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.
Mariners in Toronto – Part II of II (9-26-09)
This is our first two-part game entry. Do you recall in Part 1 a photo of Tim taking a picture? I mentioned that he was testing out his new hobby, and I promised more on it later. Well, now is later. So, I’ll hand the controls over to Tim –
This is my chair from the baseball game:
My chair was super, super, funny great.
Here is the baseball field…
…the Blue Jays are in the outfield to catch the balls when they fly over.
This is centerfield:
Here is the field again with the Mariners in the outfield:
That is Ichiro.
There are some players…
This is the railing at our seat:
Here is the wall:
This is up high:
Here is above my seat:
This is our feet and daddy’s seeds:
Daddy catched mommy’s head:
Here’s Tim:
There you go. Hope you enjoyed the game through Tim’s camera lens. Since the game, Tim has learned how to zoom in and out. So maybe he’ll contribute some more pictures in the future.
By the way, tomorrow we head to NYC for the first of two games over the final weekend of regular season baseball. Its been a great season and its sad to have it coming to a close.
“The Yankees Are Bossy” (9-19-09)
My mom, Colleen, Tim and I were in the car driving to Safeco Field to see the Mariners take on the Yankees when Tim turned to me and proclaimed:
“Dad, the Yankees are bossy.”
Indeed.
Well, actually…in the three games Tim has seen the Yankees play in his life, the Yankees haven’t been very bossy. We’ve seen the Mariners beat the Yankees twice and the Orioles just a couple weeks ago beat the Yanks too. So, really, the Yankees have been pretty accomodating in the games we’ve seen them play.
We were hoping they would be similarly accomodating at this game.
We had four excellent seats in section 151 (left field). But, I also had my best buddy Paul’s two tickets in section 123 (just a couple rows back from the Mariners’ dugout). Paul was at a family get-together and was hoping to meet up with us later in the game. He never made it.
We arrived just before game time. After watching the Yankees bat in the top of the first, Tim and I grabbed an ice cream helmet (mint chocoloate chip and chocolate fudge chip) and headed over to Paul’s seats in time to watch Ichiro lead off the bottom of the first…
…he would draw a walk.
Tim was very protective of his ice cream:
This is his, “I know you’re looking at my ice cream, don’t even think about, I’m not sharing” look. And, true to his look, he did not share.
Two more notes about that picture. First, I don’t like it when teams leave a big huge bar code on the side of the ice cream helmets. We haven’t received many bar-coded helmets. Mostly in Philadelphia. Before this week, we’d never received a bar-coded helmet at Safeco Field. And I hope we never do again.
Second, that guy in the white hat sitting behind Tim was pretty hilarious. He and this buddies were all decked out in Washington Husky gear. Just a couple hours prior, the Huskies had taken down my dad’s alma mater, the No. 3 ranked USC Trojans. (FYI, in college football, I root for my Temple Owls (GO OWLS!) and then the entire Pac-10. In conference play, I root for the UW, followed by WSU (my brother’s alma mater), followed by USC (dad), followed by whichever team is located closest to Seattle. But in the grand scheme of things, the Mariners are the only team I truly care about in any sport).
Anyway, as I was saying, that guy was pretty funny. He kept yelling at all of the Yankees (particularly C.C. Sabbathia) and saying he was going to buy them dinner at various fast food restaurants if they continued to strike out (Yankees batters) or give up hits (Sabbathia). He was going to take them to McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Time, Papa Murphy’s, Red Lobster, etc., etc.
Enough about that guy, here is the view from Paul’s amazingly awesome seats:
Paul’s family has split season tickets with another guy (Louie) who has had the tickets since 1977 (the M’s first season, and the year Paul was born). In the Kingdome, Paul’s seats were even closer (third row, I believe) but they crammed a few extra super-expensive rows in front of his seats at Safeco Field. The tickets are row 14, but I think they are only about 5-8 rows back from the dugout.
All of my action shots were coming out blurry at this game, but I got some good “batting stance” shots. Here is Jose Lopez:
I like Jose. He’s good.
And here is Adrian Beltre…
…he hit a double on this pitch, but my swinging shot and rounding first shot are both horribly blurry.
Hey, guess who stopped by our section? It was the Beer Poet:
I can’t recall any of his poems, but essentially he says a lot of stuff like this:
“An evening at the ballpark, such a special treat. Nothing makes it better than a cold beer while you sit in your seat.”
His actual poems are moderately better than that, but you got the gist of it.
Young gun Doug Fister was on the mound…
…but unforunately he was shooting blanks on this night.
In the second inning, someone or other bunted the ball off of Kenji Johjima…
…it was an odd play, and Kenji was down for a few minutes.
During the top of the third, we headed out to CF to the play area, and I took this panaramic view as we passed behind the RF foul pole:
Hey, check out who was out at the play area:
Tim only played a little bit before we headed back to section 151 to meet up with my mom. Here was my view from section 151, row 34, seat 1:
Row 34 is only about 5 rows back from the LF wall, directly down the line behind the hand-operated scoreboard.
We got two big batches of Jim’s garlic fries…
It was about time for Tim to act silly in the seats:
And then it was time for some more “spicy” garlic fries…
That is Tim’s official “garlic is too spicy” face. As for me, I’m a huge fan of garlic. And these fries we ridiculously (in a good way) garlicy. This wasn’t garlic powder or garlic flavoring. This was full on mashed up and diced garlic bits. I think each of our orders of fries had about 5 entire garlic bulbs on ‘em. When all of the fries were gone, there was still an entire hand full of diced up garlic bits in each little cardboard tray. I tried to eat all of the garlic in one of the trays, but I failed. It would have made my head explode. Too spicy.
Back to the game. As I mentioned, Fister wasn’t on top of his game. So, Don Wakamatsu pulled him before too long:
See the red outline in that picture? Those are Paul’s seats as some non-ticketed dude prepares to take advantage of Paul’s absence.
Speaking of Paul, I bet you’re wondering what he looks like, right? Well, you could look back at my entries from May when we went to a couple games together. But it would be a whole lot easier if I just posted this:
That’s Paul in the middle, to the right is Paul’s brother Kevin, and to the left? Well, that’s none other than future Hall of Famer, Ken Griffey, Jr.
Once again, back to the game. It was a cool but pleasant night at the ball park. But late in the game, a few rain drops started to fall. The powers that be decided it was time for some indoor baseball. The following photos are very dark but they show the roof starting to creep across the field toward the 3B line:
And the next set of pictures show the roof approaching and passing the LF foul pole:
Mark Teixeira was having good night at the plate, and the Mariners bats and pitchers weren’t doing too much. So Tim had to get creative in the seats. He decided to do some fake fishing. Here he is walking up from row 33 to row 35 holding a fake fishing pole (note that for some reason he is bare footed…he likes to feel right at home at the park):
He would stand on the stairs in row 35 and cast his fake fishing line down toward the OF wall.
Late in the game we ran around in the OF concourse a bit. And that is where we were when the Yankees recorded the 27th out in the bottom of the ninth. Aye, aye, aye…I was hoping Tim would never have to see the Yankees win a game in his life. Oh, well, I need to come to grips with the fact that I can’t protect him for every bad thing that might happen in life.
We have one more Mariners game this season. And with a win, the Mariners will finish the season with a winning record at games attended by me and Tim. Let’s do it M’s!!!
One more comment on the Yankees. This is the first time I’ve seen the Yankees play a game outside of Yankee Stadium since August 24, 1995. I attended that game with Paul. That game is widely recognized as the turning point in the Mariners season, after which they made a hard charge past the California Angels of Anaheim. The Mariners were 11.5 games back at the time. And in the 8th inning, the Mariners were losing 7-5. In the 8th, Edgar Martinez hit a home run off of David Cone to make it 7-6 Yankees.
But the Mariners had been perenial losers. The first two batters made quick outs in the bottom of the ninth. Paul and I started to give up on the game. In fact, we decided to leave and try to beat traffic. But as we were walking out, Vince Coleman drew a walk from John Wetteland (now Mariners bullpen coach). Paul and I started thinking about things. Junior could get another at-bat! We sprinted back to Paul’s seats (you know, the one’s I mentioned above, the ones 3 rows behind the 1B dugout). As Joey Cora, battled Wetteland, Coleman stole 2B and 3B. Cora then lined a single to LF to score Coleman and tie the game.
Up to the the plate sauntered Ken Griffey, Jr. He would see only one pitch. And we would see that pitch land in the upper deck in RF. MARINERS WIN!!!
Twenty-five days later, the Mariners had erased the Angels’ 11.5 game lead. Ultimately, the Mariners would beat the Angels in a one game playoff to claim their first ever A.L. West title.
So you ask what is the point of that long story? Well, back in 1995, we watched the Mariners beat the Yankees in Seattle free of the presence of hordes of Yankees fans. You see, the Yankees hadn’t been very good for a while. They had not made the post-season since 1981. And they didn’t have the massive traveling fan base that now accompanies them everywhere they go (and the hordes of bandwagon *fans*). At least they didn’t have them in Seattle.
It was a much more pleasant way to watch a home Mariners game. I live on the east coast and I see the Mariners on the road more than I see them at home. So, I like my Mariners home games to feel like Mariners home games. All this is to say that, this is likely my last Yankees game in Seattle.
By the way, don’t fear, the next day the Mariners would crush the Yankees to take the series 2-1. Griffey would hit a bomb.
Anyway, on our walk to the car, I took a shot of the Seahawk’s stadium, Qwest Field:
Qwest Field sits on hallowed grounds — the site of the Kingdome. I really wish Safeco Field could have been placed on the Kingdome’s site. But it couldn’t happen. The Mariners needed to play in the Kingdome until Safeco Field was ready to open in July 1999. The Seahawks on the other hand, got an upgrade, they played at Husky Stadium while Qwest Field was being built. Husky Stadium is probably better than Qwest Field.
One final note, the day after this game, we flew back into Philadelphia. As we were driving out of the Philadelphia airport, Tim again told me that the Yankees are “bossy,” and he added that they “cheat.” I told him that was not very nice of the Yankees. But then, he told me that the Yankees called him on the telephone and apologized. So, I guess that was considerate of the Yankees.
Season Fan Stats:
30 Games (plus one 5+ hour rain out with no game)
1 Ken Griffey, Jr. Homerun (Career Homerun No. 624, August 23, 2009 in Cleveland)
12 Stadiums (Safeco Field, Camden Yards, Citizens Bank Park, Citi Field, Nationals Park, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, HHH Metrodome, Miller Park, U.S. Cellular, and “Jacobs” Field)
24 Teams (Mariners, A’s, Rangers, Rays, Orioles, Tigers, Twins, Indians, Red Sox, Yankees, Royals, White Sox, Phillies, Mets, Nationals, Cubs, Braves, Padres, Dodgers, Cardinals, Marlins, Pirates, Astros, and Brewers — and sort of the Giants)
25 Ice Cream Helmets (Mariners (5), Phillies (5), Mets, Nationals (3), Red Sox (3), Yankees (2), Twins, Cubs, Brewers, White Sox, and Indians (and 1 Brewers Cheese Fries Helmet))
28 Baseballs (16 Mariners, 2 Rangers, 1 Phillies, 1 Red Sox, 1 Umpire, 1 Nationals, 1 Pirates, 1 Twins, 1 Astros, 1 Royals, 1 Indians, Yankees/Orioles 1)
MLB Closed Out (NL Closed out on 8/16/09, AL Closed out on 8/17/09)
5 Autographs (King Felix Hernandez, Jason Phillips, Ronny Cedeno, Jeremy Guthrie, Ryan Perry)
4 Player/G.M. Photographs (King Felix Hernandez, Jason Phillips, Jack Zduriencik, Ryan Perry)
10 Mascot Pictures (Mariners Moose, Orioles Bird, Slider (Indians), 3 Presidents (Nats), Screech (Nats), 4 Running Sausages (Brewers) – Honorable Mention: The Green Monster statue bench)
Extra Innings in Seattle (9-17-2009)
On Thursday September 17th, we found ourselves in Seattle. It wasn’t a planned trip. We’d just be in town for a couple days. But we found some time for our Mariners.
We headed to Safeco Field in the early afternoon. It was a 3:40 start and Tim was fast asleep when we arrived at the Field:
We were there plenty early, but BP ended early. So we watched the grounds crew ready the field:
After a few minutes, M’s catching prospect, Adam Moore, popped out of the dugout. I called out, “Hey, Adam!” He turned around and said hello. I asked him, “Will we see you out there today”? “Yep,” he responded as he headed out toward the M’s bullpen.
I’ve had my eye on Moore for a couple years because he is the first ballplayer Tim ever met — back at spring training in 2008. This would be his major league debut. We followed him out to the OF to watch him prepare for the game. He did a lot of stretching and running:
I took some photos of the batters eye (below to left) and the M’s bullpen (below to right):
Then we watched M’s fireballer, Brandon Morrow, warm up for the game:
As Morrow and Moore warmed up, I tracked down Jason Phillips and had a brief chat with him. Jason Phillips and I have run into each other a lot this season. And he has always been very cool. Extremely cool, in fact. For proof, just see here, here, here, here and here.
Hey, did I ever mention that I realized I saw Jason Phillips hit a home run against the Mariners once? I did. It was back in 2003. It was the Mariners first game ever at Shea Stadium. I’d never heard of Phillips at the time. He wore some crazy sports glasses (see picture). Back in those days, he played catcher and first base. He ended up hitting a home run off of Ryan Franklin. I vividly recall thinking, “Who is this guy with these crazy glasses hitting a homerun against my Mariners?” Now, I know. It was Jason Phillips. And, although he helped the Mets best my M’s back on June 6, 2003, I’m happy he’s one of us now. And, unless he decides to make another go of it as a player and catches on somewhere, I hope he’ll stick around with the M’s. He’s proven to be “good people.” (By the way, on June 7, 2003, the Mariners-Mets game was rained out. So I got a two-for-one double-header on Sunday, and the M’s swept the double-dip behind a couple gems by Freddie Garcia and Jamie Moyer – between the two games, the score was Mariners 20, Mets 1).
Later in the game, I asked Phillips what happened to the glasses. “I had surgery,” he replied.
As Morrow was warming up in the pen, the rest of the M’s bullpen marched out to the pen…backwards:
After Moore and Morrow started walking toward the dugout for the beginning of the game, I asked Tim if he was ready for some ice cream. He was. We went to the ice cream stand tucked back in a corner by the Mariners Hall of Fame. And check out what I found hanging right by the ice cream stand:
Nice job, Mariners. I like it. Respect for Moyer. That’s what he deserves (psst…take note Philadelphia).
We made it back out to the concourse behind home plate in time to watch Adam Moore make his debut behind the plate. This is his second batter:
This was our view:
And this was Tim’s ice cream face:
Colleen took a shot of Ichiro out in RF:
And I took a shot of Ichiro at the plate (he walked on the next pitch):
I was hoping he’d steal second…
…but he stayed put.
A usher came to check out tickets. I told him we were in a different section and asked if we could stay while Tim ate his ice cream. The usher said no problem.
I told Tim to eat reeeeeeaaallllly slowly. I wanted to stay until Adam Moore’s first big league at bat. First, I got my first peak at another September call-up, Matt Tuiasosopo.
Just before Adam Moore came to the plate, the usher came back and asked, “Is he done with his ice cream?” I was already trying to focus my camera on Adam Moore. I confirmed that Tim was finished with his ice cream but asked if we could stay for Moore’s first career at bat. Again, he said ”no problem.”
Here are two shots from Moore’s first at bat, I believe it was a ground out:
Immediately after his at bat, we packed up my bag and headed out of section 149. Tim was on my shoulders and was fidgeting with my glove with his foot as we walked up the stairs to the concourse. When we reached the top, Colleen took what might be my favorite picture of the season so far:
Next, Tim and Colleen headed to the play area and I stood in the concourse behind the field level seats in LF (section 151). After a while, Tim and Colleen came and met up with me and we sat down in section 152.
These also were not our seats. An usher spotted us. But instead of checking our tickets and booting us out, he gave Tim these…
…baseball cards of Jack McDowell and Barry Larkin. Tim held them up to show me and said, “Look, its Blueberry (McDowell) and Marshmellow (Larkin).” He thought his nicknames were quite clever and he repeated them over and over.
Another usher randomly came up to us and asked if we wanted her to take our picture:
The ushers seem to be more relaxed in section 152 than they are in section 149.
Colleen got into the picture taking action several times. She took this nice shot of Morrow on the mound:
I took another picture of Adam Moore not getting his first base hit of his career (with Ichiro on deck behind him):
Our seats in section 152 were right next to a fence that looked down into the White Sox bullpen…
…hey, make yourselves right at home, guys!
There is a fence behind the bullpens with standing room from which you can watch the game. We headed down to stand behind the White Sox pen for a little bit. After a few minutes, a guy came walking through a little fence that separates the M’s bullpen from the visitors’ pen. He was a Mariners employee, not a ballplayer. I’m not sure what his job is, but he was in the pen all night. He walked up to Tim at the fence and handed him a piece of gum in a wrapper. Then he pulled out a baseball and squeezed it through a gap in the fence. Here is Tim with the ball:
You can’t tell in that picture, but it was a HHH Metrodome commemorative ball. We were pretty excited to get it. My guess is that the White Sox brought it with them… but who knows?
After Tim posed with the ball, we relocated by 60 feet and stood behind the M’s bullpen:
By this point, it was the 7th inning and we were trailing 3-0. I think we only had 1 or 2 hits. But then Adrian Beltre stepped to the plate and hit a home run that handed in the bullpen and rolled directly to our feet…
In the screen shots above, Tim and I are standing directly beneath the “49″ in the Mets-Braves score. In the top picture, the homerun ball is a white blur directly between me and Tim. In the second picture, I’m bending down acting like I’m going to field the homerun ball as a grounder as it rolled to a rest just below us on the other side of the fence.
But for that fence, we could have just leaned over and scooped up Beltre’s blast. Here is the opposite view (courtesy of Colleen, who can also be seen lurking in the shadows in the screen shots above):
The ball is directly in front of me just below the cement on which Tim is standing.
John Wetteland came and grabbed the ball. I asked him if he could toss it over to us. But he explained that they always save home run balls for the batter. He grabbed it and gave it to someone who put it in their bag for Beltre.
The Beltre home run brought the score to 3-1 White Sox.
Next, we headed up to the left field bleachers where we sat in the first row of section 186 from around the 7th to the 11th innings. Our seats for this game were actually in section 183, but we opted for 186 because it is above the Mariners bullpen. 183 is above the visitors’ bullpen.
This was our view from section 186:
This is a look to our left where you can see Ichiro on the big screen and the side of the roof tucked behind the scoreboard:
Here is my little family:
This is the view looking down from section 186 toward the left. It is the standing room area in CF…
…its very popular with the singles. Lots of drinks being consumed down there. Lots of flirting taking place. Hopefully some of them are also watching the game.
I’m always trying to snap photos of fielders catching balls. But its hard because you have to be pretty quick with a slow reacting digital camera. Here were my best efforts on the night:
I nailed that Gutierrez catch on the right. On the left is Ichiro, but I missed getting the ball in the shot. I just happened to be taking a picture of Ichiro getting ready for the pitch when the batter lofted a short fly to him. Even with my camera already locked on Ichiro, I couldn’t get the ball in frame.
Here is a shot Colleen got of me and Tim watching our squad:
Colleen took a great action shot too:
I posted a picture almost exactly like this next one back in May, but I think it looks great so here it is again:
Our time in section 186 was extremely exciting because the Mariners mounted a ninth inning comeback. We were still down 3-1 going into the bottom of the ninth. The ChiSox brought in local product Bobby Jenks. He’s pretty good. But not good enough on this night. Jose Lopez hit a solo bomb into the White Sox bullpen to bring the score to 3-2. Then, with 2 down, Bill Hall hit a solo bomb of his own, also into the White Sox bullpen.
Bring on some extra innings!!!
As I mentioned, Section 186 is just above the Mariners bullpen. To be more precise, it is above the home plates in the Mariners bullpen (on the CF side of the bullpen). The Mariners used 8 pitchers in this game so Jason Phillips was constantly warming up someone throughout the late innings. Here he is in action:
See the pink backpack in that picture? Well, Phillips’s catchers equipment bag is the blue bag two over to the right. At the bottom of the bag (as pictured), you can see a sliver of white. That was a baseball sitting on his bag. At one point, Jason walked out to start warming up another pitcher. I shouted, “Hey, Jason” down to him and pointed at the ball sitting on his bag. He pointed at the pitcher he was about to help warm up. But the way he did it, I could tell he was going to toss a ball up our way, just not quite yet.
In the eleventh inning, Jason was just standing there by home plate. He was about to start warming up another pitcher. And all of us sudden you could see a thought pop into his head. He darted a look up me (Tim and Colleen had just left to visit the play area). We made eye contact and he immediately turned and walked over to his bag and pulled a ball out of it. The LF bleachers are about 25-30 feet above the bullpen. He tossed the ball to me but it didn’t make it all the way up. It clanked off of the steel beam supporting the bleachers and fell back into the bullpen. Phillips let out a little sigh, and he walked back to his bag for another ball. The second time was the charm. He fired a strike into my glove.
For the seventh time and in the fifth stadium of the year, “THANK YOU, JASON PHILLIPS!!!”
Here is an illustration of the throw:
The first ball hit that big beam next to the Dodge advertisement and fell staight down passed all of the people standing above the out-of-town scoreboard.
After securing the much-appreciated ball from Jason Phillips, I headed down to the play area to meet up with my people. It was getting late, and a lot of people had left already. Tim was the only kid in the play area. I split time between watching the game on the flat screens in the play area and watching live from the main concourse in CF. This was the view from CF:
And this was my view of Colleen in the play area from CF:
While in the playarea, Tim and I played fake home run derby. He hit a home run on every pitch:
Here is a veritcal panarama showing a view from the roof above the play area down to the floor:
While in the CF concourse, I took the opportunity to document the two balls we’d collected at this game (including the somewhat warn HHH Metrodome logo on the ball Tim got from the guy in the bullpen):
Speaking of the guy in the bullpen, here is a picture of him as he walked by Jason Phillips and Sean Kelley:
This was our sixth game of the season at Safeco Field, and our fifth of the season without Griffey in the starting line-up. So, I was thrilled when he came to bat as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 12th:
Unfortunately, Griff stuck out. But it was still great just to see him.
Adam Moore came to the plate once again searching for his first big league hit. I thought he was going to get it on this swing, but it didn’t qutie happen:
But the Mariners would not be denied on this night. In the bottom of the 14th, Ryan Langerhans got on with a single. Kenji Johjima followed with a hit-by-pitch (pinch hitting for Moore). And Ichiro followed with a game winning single scoring Langerhans from second.
MARINERS WIN!!!
The team chased Ichiro all the way into CF to beat on him in celebration of his game winning hit. He made his best effort at avoiding the celebratory whooping, but the team tracked him down in the end.
On our way out of the stadium, we stopped to watch the street drummer do his thing. Tim danced up a storm as this guy put on a five gallon drum clinic. After a few minutes, the guy handed Tim a pair of drunk sticks and said, “You dance pretty good, little man. Let’s see how you drum!” Here are Tim and the drummer doing their thing together:
Colleen took a video clip of Tim and the drummer that can be viewed by clicking here.
After thanking the drummer for the memories and rewarding him with a tip, we called it a night.
Season Fan Stats:
29 Games (plus one 5+ hour rain out with no game)
1 Ken Griffey, Jr. Homerun (Career Homerun No. 624, August 23, 2009 in Cleveland)
12 Stadiums (Safeco Field, Camden Yards, Citizens Bank Park, Citi Field, Nationals Park, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, HHH Metrodome, Miller Park, U.S. Cellular, and “Jacobs” Field)
24 Teams (Mariners, A’s, Rangers, Rays, Orioles, Tigers, Twins, Indians, Red Sox, Yankees, Royals, White Sox, Phillies, Mets, Nationals, Cubs, Braves, Padres, Dodgers, Cardinals, Marlins, Pirates, Astros, and Brewers — and sort of the Giants)
24 Ice Cream Helmets (Mariners (5), Phillies (5), Mets, Nationals (3), Red Sox (3), Yankees (2), Twins, Cubs, Brewers, White Sox, and Indians (and 1 Brewers Cheese Fries Helmet))
28 Baseballs (16 Mariners, 2 Rangers, 1 Phillies, 1 Red Sox, 1 Umpire, 1 Nationals, 1 Pirates, 1 Twins, 1 Astros, 1 Royals, 1 Indians, Yankees/Orioles 1)
MLB Closed Out (NL Closed out on 8/16/09, AL Closed out on 8/17/09)
5 Autographs (King Felix Hernandez, Jason Phillips, Ronny Cedeno, Jeremy Guthrie, Ryan Perry)
4 Player/G.M. Photographs (King Felix Hernandez, Jason Phillips, Jack Zduriencik, Ryan Perry)
10 Mascot Pictures (Mariners Moose, Orioles Bird, Slider (Indians), 3 Presidents (Nats), Screech (Nats), 4 Running Sausages (Brewers) – Honorable Mention: The Green Monster statue bench)
This entry is dedicated to the memory of my father’s brother and my uncle:
Douglas S. Cook
A UW Social Work Professor and a dedicated advocate for people with developmental disabilities, Doug died on September 10th from Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. A more loving, gentle and principled human being could not be imagined. Doug was born in Yakima, WA on March 30, 1946. He earned a MSW at Rutgers, a Master of Divinity from Princeton and a PhD from UW. Before the onset of illness, he was the Director of Social Work at the UW CHDD where he researched, published and taught. The UW School of Social Work presented him with their Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1999. His students honored him with Best Practicum Instructor award. Doug also received awards in the disabilities field too numerous to list. He was a hiker, a dancer, a bowler and most of all a loyal friend. Doug was always generous with his smile and his kindness.
Mariners at The Jake (8-22-09)
After returning home from Boston back in July, it started to hit me that, if Griff decides to retire after this season (and I sincerely hope he DOES NOT), Tim and I would never see him play again. I didn’t like that idea. So I reviewed the rest of the M’s schedule to see if they would visit anywhere even remotely near southeastern Pennsylvania.
They had one more trip to Cleveland on the books. Cleveland is in northeastern Ohio, and Ohio borders Pennsyvlania to the West. I determined that fits within the definition of “anywhere even remotely near southeastern Pennsylvania.”
Therefore, just 4 days removed from the conclusion of a wonderful roadtrip with my dad, Tim, my wife Colleen and I piled into the car and headed across Pennsylvania on the PA Turnpike.
After camping out a night in Washington, PA, we headed north up the Ohio turnpike to Cleveland and after taking 80N-to-480W-to-77N-to71 we cruised into town on 9th Street and this was our view:
Ah, Jacobs Field…the Jake. (I think that is a typo on the sign, that’s not how you spell ’Jacobs’). It was good to be back to the first field where Tim ran the bases. And it was great to be in the same city as the Mariners.
We came into the city early to see what we could see in the Land of Cleve. Unfortunately, we knew nothing about the city…except that its on a BIG lake. We ended up driving through downtown and spotting the Rock’n'Roll Hall of Fame and the Cleveland Browns Statium. So we turned left down a street heading toward the water. Next, we turned right down a long road that ran by some water and an airport before finally reaching a marina. Here are some pictures of what we saw:
Check out that lake! Tim was asleep when we pulled up to the marina. We woke him up and pointed out the huge lake. He responded, “No, Daddy. That’s not a lake. That’s an ocean!” Its big. In that top right picture, that’s the R’n'R Hall of Fame. Below, is a Blue Angels jet resting on a stand in front of a Navy facility by the airport. Pretty cool stuff.
And, that was the extent of our city touring. We had a game to go to!
After parking in a garage a few blocks away, we walked up to a misty Jacobs Field. The clouds were just spitting a little bit. No need for an umbrella or a hood. And I figured it would be no problem for BP.
I was wrong.
Colleen and I had made a deal. We would come early to this game so I could watch some BP. But we wouldn’t come early the next day (which was a day game and might not have BP anyway). But as a approached the gates, I could see the in field was covered. No BP.
There was a sign that said the stadium was open at Gate C. So walked over to Gate C in RCF:
We’d never entered through Gate C before (we’d only been here once before). Below to the far left, that is what it looks like…
In front of the Gate C entrance, there is a statue of Bob Feller (middle) with which Tim posed. I didn’t think it was a very good statue, at least compared to the extremely life-like statues at U.S. Cellular Field. [NOTE TO THE MARINERS: When Griff does eventually retire, use whomever made the statues at U.S. Cellular for his statue. Also, use a classic Griff pose, not the pose with both arms over his head after hitting a home run.]
As we entered Gate C, there were two display cases just inside the gate with lists of the two teams’ starting line ups. Oh, no…no Griff!
Despite my disappointment (which I was prepared for because I knew a lefty was pitching for the Indians), I thought it was a cool feature to have the line-ups posted like that.
Below is a view of the RF concourse…
…we quickly learned that we were trapped in the RF seats and/or concourse until 6:00 p.m. — a full a hour away…and most of the food stands were not yet open (and as I mentioned, no BP). What ever would we do to kill the time?
We walked down into the field level seats as close to the RF foul pole as we could get (the Mariners bullpen is between the seats and the foul pole. Here was our view:
As shown above, there were a couple Mariners on the field. David Aardsma ran out to the bullpen (shown above) to grab some baseballs for playing some catch with his colleagues in the M’s bullpen.
The big draw on the field was Ichiro. He played catch (with his interpreter, I believe)…
…and then he did some running.
Then a couple Mariners relief pitchers played catch by the tarp over the in field. Because we were stuck in RF, we couldn’t get very close. I couldn’t recognize anyone from out there except David Aarsdma.
Ardsma and his buddy were the last two playing catch. His partner threw a ball passed him that rolled out and sat in the grass just off the tarp behind second base. Aardsma pulled another ball out of his pocket and finished playing catch.
When he was finished, he walked out to grab the ball behind second. We were now all alone in the seats in RCF. I called out, “Hey, D.A.!!!!!”
The D.A. immediately picked up the damp ball and threw it REALLY far and directly into my glove:
In this picture of Tim, that is Aardsma to the left of Tim’s head. D.A. threw the ball to us from about 2 feet behind the tarp right behind where Tim is holding up the ball. It was a great throw.
After throwing the ball to us, a bunch of people in RF yelled Aardsma’s name and he turned and threw his other baseball on a line all the way to the back of the RF seats. The throw was very impressive.
Here is a panaramic view from where we caught the ball from Aardsma:
And here is a look to our left. Check out how thick the OF wall is. I’m not sure, but this seems to be designed so people do not interfere with borderline homeruns:
By the way, Aardsma’s second throw landed at the top of that last section, just under the overhang.
Here is a view to our right:
The red arrow points to our seats in Section 184, Row B. They were excellent seats.
Next, we went to Heritage Park.
Heritage Park is the Indians’ outdoor Hall of Fame. Its pretty cool. As you can probably tell from the bottom picture, Tim and I played catch in Heritage Park. Colleen didn’t think it was appropriate to play catch in there. I told her they’d tell us to stop if they didn’t like it.
After a couple minutes, a stadium usher type standing behind the plaque in the bottom left corner of the picture above called me over. Uh, ho. I figured we were, indeed, getting shut down. I walked over to him.
Todd – “Yes?”
Usher – (pulling a baseball from his pocket and whispering while staying behind the column) “Throw this one back to him.”
So, how about that? Instead of getting told not to play catch in Heritage Park, we were rewarded with a ball. Not bad.
“Thanks, Usher-guy.”
Tim was happy to add another ball to his collection.
After playing some more catch, we walked down the stairs to the lower section of Heritage Park. While down there, Colleen found this:
This was literally the first and only plaque Colleen read. So, as a big-time migraine sufferer, she was mighty surprised to see she’d picked the plaque of a ball player whose “Career was curtailed after 1941 season by migraine headaches.” That is something you don’t hear every day.
Finally, they opened the rest of the stadium. We were eating some nachos by this time. We relocated to the seats just a little bit down the line from 1B. We were at the top of the section when two individuals popped out of the M’s dugout and started walking toward the bullpen. One of them was Jason Phillips, whom you might remember from our trip to New York and Boston in July. We had a couple interactions with Phillips in Boston and New York this season, and he’d already given us 5 baseballs so far this season.
I ran down to the first row and arrived there just as he passed:
Todd – “Hey, Jason!”
Phillips – (looks over and give me a big smile) “Hey, how you doing, buddy?”
Todd – “Good, man. Nice to see you. Any chance of you hooking us up with a warm up ball today?”
Phillips – (I couldn’t understand exactly what he said, but it was something like) “I’m sure we can make that work.”
Then he said something like, it would be a little bit because he had to do some stuff first.
I went up to talk to Colleen and Tim. And we relocated down to the bottom of the field section. Eventually, Jason and Felix Hernandez started playing catch, and we watched:
Then Felix and Jason walked back into the dugout. As Jason walked away, he looked over to me and held up a finger as if to say, “Hold on a minute.”
Tim and I hung out in the RF foul corner and scoped out the scenery…
…like this weird little “chalking” machine that really shoots white spray paint onto the ground…
It didn’t do a very good job. A chalk line looks about 10,000 times better than this painted line, even after the guy took two passes at it.
We scoped out the bullpen, which has a seating area in the front with the pitching mounds behind…
…just above the OF fence in foul territory, we noticed what looked like a wedding party.
In a little bit, Jason came back out and went into the bullpen again. Again, he looked over to us and gave us the “hold on a minute” finger. He put on some shin guards in the bullpen and grabbed his catchers mitt.
Then he walked out of the bullpen, came straight over to us and set a nice looking ball showing some warning track dirt marks into my glove.
Then we all posed for a picture:
“Thanks, Jason!” He has been mighty cool to us this season and I am hoping he sticks on with the Mariners as bullpen catcher and eventually as a coach (that is, unless he has an opportunity to make a comeback as a player).
Next, we headed out to our seats in the LF bleachers — Section 184.
I trudged up the stairs and into the upper CF corner in Section 185 and took this panaramic view:
I didn’t get much in the way of action shots at this game. But here is a classic Ichiro pose:
Here is Mike Saunders, who made an error in LF and got hounded for the rest of the game by a bunch of guys three rows behind us:
There is our OF corps for the night:
Of course, Tim wanted to play catch several times during the game. And he wanted to play in the tunnel from the LF concourse into the LF bleachers. I told Tim we’d certainly get kicked out of the tunnel and told to either stop or move elsewhere…
…I was wrong. Instead, we were encouraged by the Section 184 usher. In fact, you can see him watching us in the picture to the right. He thought it was great that we were playing catch in the tunnel, even as people passed in and out of the tunnel.
Here is another action shot: (i) to the right, Fister nailed someone in the head (he was okay) and everyone gathered around to check him out and (ii) Josh Wilson about to catch a pop up…
…see that bat boy running in from the right side in the Josh Wilson pop-up picture? There was a runner on 3B and that kid came sprinting in like he was Usain Bolt. The guy behind us got all excited and thought it was the runner trying to score. He was right to get excited. It was pretty strange to see that bat boy come sprinting in like that.
Midway through the game, the Indians mascot, Slider, came to our tunnel with a pizza and gave it to some guy in Section 185. Tim and I left our seats and I asked Slider’s chaperone if we could get a picture with slider — of course we could:
A great picture. But what exactly is slider supposed to be?
Soon it was time for ice cream. We had to walk to the Pierre’s booth behind home plate. On the way, I took this action shot of Mariners rookie pitcher, Doug Fister, through the foul pole:
The Jake has some interesting art hanging around the park. Here is one of Pronk.
Pierre’s had real ice cream and multiple desirable flavors at a reasonable price! I couldn’t decide if Tim would enjoy chocolate chip mint or moose tracks better. So we got both and shared them both:
Tim loved having two flavors.
The game itself was a good one, but disappointing. The Mariners led most of the game on the strenth of an Indians error and a Russell Branyan HR in the first inning. But we wouldn’t score again and the Indians would tact on a run at a time in three different innings. The game headed to extras.
Griff didn’t play, but I could see him in the dugout…
…he started carrying around a bat while wearing his batting gloves. The M’s had pinch hit for DH Mike Sweeney late in the game (or maybe it was pinch ran for him) with Ryan Langerhans. I was sure Griff would pinch hit for Langerhans in the 10th or 11th inning. With his bat in hand, it looked certain. But then the Indians brought in another lefthanded reliever, and the M’s kept Langerhans in to bat. So, no Griff. Bummer
Late in the game, Colleen wore my new grey zip-up sweat shirt. And Tim wanted to share the hood:
Tim was happy to have “mommy” join us for this game.
In the bottom of the 11th, Luis Valbuena (a former Mariner) hit a walk off homerun. Double bummer.
To make up for dissappointing us by beating our M’s, the Indians put on a huge and extremely cool Rock’n'Roll Fireworks show. We had to relocate to the infield seats (you’ll see why below). On our way, we got a nice family picture (featuring Colleen’s nice new hairdo and fireworks being set up behind us).
Here’s why we had to move, we would’ve been blasted with fireworks:
The initial blast scared Tim. Then he started enjoying the fireworks…but finally the loud music put Tim to sleep…
…so we took off early to beat the traffic.
We would be back the following day and we’d be hoping with all our might that Griff would be in the line-up.
Season Fan Stats:
26 Games (plus one 5+ hour rain out with no game)
12 Stadiums (Safeco Field, Camden Yards, Citizens Bank Park, Citi Field, Nationals Park, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, HHH Metrodome, Miller Park, U.S. Cellular, and “Jacobs” Field)
24 Teams (Mariners, A’s, Rangers, Rays, Orioles, Tigers, Twins, Indians, Red Sox, Yankees, Royals, White Sox, Phillies, Mets, Nationals, Cubs, Braves, Padres, Dodgers, Cardinals, Marlins, Pirates, Astros, and Brewers — and sort of the Giants)
22 Ice Cream Helmets (Mariners (4), Phillies (5), Mets, Nationals (3), Red Sox (3), Yankees, Twins, Cubs, Brewers, White Sox, and Indians (and 1 Brewers Cheese Fries Helmet))
25 Baseballs (14 Mariners, 2 Rangers, 1 Phillies, 1 Red Sox, 1 Umpire, 1 Nationals, 1 Pirates, 1 Twins, 1 Astros, 1 Royals, 1 Indians)
MLB Closed Out (NL Closed out on 8/16/09, AL Closed out on 8/17/09)
4 Autographs (King Felix Hernandez, Jason Phillips, Ronny Cedeno, Ryan Perry)
4 Player/G.M. Photographs (King Felix Hernandez, Jason Phillips, Jack Zduriencik, Ryan Perry)
10 Mascot Pictures (Mariners Moose, Orioles Bird, Slider (Indians), 3 Presidents (Nats), Screech (Nats), 4 Running Sausages (Brewers) – Honorable Mention: The Green Monster statue bench)
Milestone Achieved (8-17-2009)
Today was a big day for Tim; a milestone day. Therefore, I have two entries for today. This one is the milestone entry. I’m still working on the entries for our games at the Metrodome, Miller Park and U.S. Cellular Field, but they will all be coming soon.
Before Tim was born, I hand made a hard back, leather bound book for him that I called the “Baseball Log.” I use the Baseball Log to track all of Tim’s baseball adventures. Therefore, coming into this season, I knew that there were only 11 teams that Tim had not yet seen play in person. I made it one of our goals for the season. Today, at age 3-and-a-half, Tim checked the final team, the Royals, off of the list.
Milestone Acheived.
On our 30 team quest, we attended 46 games and visited 17 major league stadiums. This entry gives a glimpse into Tim’s journey around the MLB circuit.
Division-by-Division
Division-by-division, we’ll start by reviewing the dates of Tim’s first game with each team:
A.L. West A.L. Central A.L. East
Mariners (9-12-06) Twins (8-14-07) Blue Jays (9-12-06)
Angles (8-17-08) Indians (7-19-08) Orioles (8-9-07)
Athletics (5-1-09) White Sox (8-27-08) Yankees (9-3-07)
Rangers (5-4-09) Tigers (5-31-09) Rays (4-12-09)
Royals (8-17-09) Red Sox (7-3-09)
N.L. West N.L. Central N.L. East
Rockies (9-12-07) Pirates (9-27-07) Phillies (6-30-07)
Giants (5-2-08) Cardinals (9-27-07) Mets (6-30-07)
Diamondbacks (9-12-08) Cubs (4-11-08) Marlins (9-9-07)
Padres (4-19-09) Reds (6-2-08) Nationals (8-19-08)
Dodgers (5-13-09) Brewers (8-16-09) Braves (5-8-09)
Astros (8-16-09)
As you can see, we closed out the A.L. West first, followed by the N.L. East. This makes a lot of sense since we are Mariners fans but we live an hour outside of Philadelphia. We then flip-flopped the leagues, and closed out the N.L. West followed by the A.L. East. Finally, on our current road trip, we closed out the N.L. Central on Monday, and the A.L. Central today.
Game Pictures
Let’s check out some pictures — all 46 of Tim’s games to date (plus one 5+ hour rain out with no game) in order:
Games Log
Let’s take a closer look at those games. In the following list of games, when a Team Name is in Bold/Italics it denotes the first game in which Tim saw that particular team play in person. When a Team Name is underlined it denotes that team won the game. I figured identifying the game winners is enough, so I didn’t include the scores. However, I am including some game notes — such as homeruns, batting results by our favorite players or all-stars, etc.
1. Blue Jays at Mariners (9-12-06) – Ichiro 1-5, HR (Beltre, Ibanez, Wells), 2 Balls
2. Mets at Phillies (6-30-07) – HR – Howard, Beltran (2)
3. Mariners at Orioles (8-9-07) – Ichiro 3-6; HR – Miguel Tejada, Jose Guillen
4. Twins at Mariners (8-14-07) – Ichiro 1-4
5. Twins at Mariners (8-15-07) – Ichiro 2-4, 2SB; HR – Ibanez, Torii Hunter
6. Mariners at Yankees (9-3-07) – Ichiro 3-5, HR; W – Felix; L – Clemens (final loss)
7. Marlins at Phillies (9-9-07) – Burrell 2-4, HR; Carlos Ruiz 3-4, HR; Rollins 2-5
8. Rockies at Phillies (9-12-07) – Dobbs-Utley 3-Play; HR – M. Holliday; Helton 3-4
9. Cardinals at Pirates (9-27-07) – Pujols 3-5, 2B; Rick Ankiel 3-4, HR, 3RBI
10. Mariners at Orioles (4-6-08) – Ichiro 1-4; Ibanez 3-4, HR
11. Cubs at Phillies (4-11-08) – Pat Burrell 2-4, HR; Alfonso Soriano 1-4, HR
12. Giants at Phillies (5-2-08) – Chase Utley 2-3; Pat Burrell – walk off HR
13. Reds at Phillies (6-2-08) – Chase Utley 3-4, HR, 2RBI; Jay Bruce 2-4, HR
14. Indians at Mariners (7-19-08) – Ichiro 2-4, HR, 2RBI with outfield assist
15. Cardinals at Reds (8-15-08) – Pujols 3-5; Ankiel HR; Chris Dickerson 1st HR
16. Angles at Indians (8-17-08) – F. Gutierrez 3-3, 2RBI; Texiera 2-4; Sizemore 2-5
17. Mets at Pirates (8-18-08) – Adam LaRoche 2-3, HR, 2RBI
18. Nationals at Phillies (8-19-08) – HR – Jayson Werth, Willie Harris; R. Belliard 4-4
19. White Sox at Orioles (8-27-08) – Griffey 0-1, 3BB; HR: Dye, Millar, Huff, Konerko
20. Phillies at Mets (9-7-08) – W – Moyer (243); L – Pedro Martinez; HR – G. Dobbs
21. Reds at Diamondbacks (9-12-08) – Webb – 20th Win, 8IP, 5H, O ER, 2K
22. Rays at Orioles (4-12-09) – HR – Longoria, C. Pena, J. Bartlett, B. Zobrist
23. Padres at Phillies (4-19-09) – Ibanez – 2-4, HR; HR – Rollins, Utley, A. Gonzalez
24. Nationals at Mets (4-25-09) – C. Beltran 3-5, SB; R. Zimmerman 2-5
25. Athletics at Mariners (5-1-09) – Ichiro 1-5; HR – Gutierrez, Branyan, Holliday
26. Athletics at Mariners (5-2-09) – Ichiro 2-5; HR – Branyan; Giambi 2-4, 2RBI
27. Athletics at Mariners (5-3-09) – Ichiro 2-7; HR – Johjima, M. Sweeney (200)
28. Rangers at Mariners (5-4-09) – Ichiro 1-5; HR – Gutierrez, Branyan, Young, Davis
29. Rangers at Mariners (5-5-09) – Ichiro 0-2, 2BB; HR – Saltalamacchia, Nelson Cruz
30. Braves at Phillies (5-8-09) – HR – Coste, Werth, Utley; W – Hamels
31. Dodgers at Phillies (5-13-09) – HR – Ibanez, Rollins, Casey Blake, James Loney
32. Phillies at Nationals (5-17-09) – Sergio Escalona – 1st Career Win; Rollins 2-4;
33. Tigers at Orioles (5-31-09) – Curtis Granderson HR; W – Edwin Jackson 8 IP, 2H
34a. Giants at Nationals (6-3-09) – Rainout – R. Johnson sch’d to pitch for 300th Win.
34. Mariners at Orioles (6-10-09) – Ichiro 1-3; Jose Lopez 2HR; W – F. Hernandez
35. Nationals at Orioles (6-28-09) – HR – Dunn (Eutaw St.); Willie Harris 3-4, HR
36. Mariners at Yankees (7-2-09) – Ichiro 2-4; HR – Branyan, Gutierrez; L – Sabbathia
37. Mariners at Red Sox (7-3-09) – Ichiro 1-5; HR – R. Cedeno, Drew, Kottaras (1st)
38. Mariners at Red Sox (7-4-09) – Ichiro 1-5; HR – Jason Varitek; S – Aardsma
39. Mariners at Red Sox (7-5-09) – Griffey 1-1; Ichiro 1-5; HR- Ortiz, Pedroia, Ellsbury
40. Cubs at Nationals (7-19-09) – HR – Alfonso Soriano, Adam Dunn, Jake Fox
41. Cardinals at Phillies (7-24-09) – W – Joel Piniero, M. Holliday 4-5; HR – J. Lugo
42. Marlins at Phillies (8-9-09) – Moyer – 2ER, but loss. Victorino ejected from CF.
43. Pirates at Cubs (8-14-09) – Cubs score 10 runs in 2nd inning. HR – Fukudome.
44. Indians at Twins (8-15-09) – HR – Sizemore, Mauer, Choo
45. Astros at Brewers (8-16-09) - HR – Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder.
46. Royals at White Sox (8-17-09) - HR – Yuni Betancourt, Jacobs, Pierzynski, Nix.
Ice Cream Helmets & Baseballs
Tim and I have collected a lot of memories as we’ve made the rounds of the MLB. But memories aren’t all we have collected. We’ve also amassed a few MLB baseballs and a bunch of ice cream helmets. Click here for a little article about our baseball collecting. Pictured below are our baseballs and ice cream helmets:
It has been a great trip around the MLB so far. Now, we’ll have to start working on the next milestone — maybe every MLB stadium.
Thanks for joining us for this ride this season. Don’t forget to check out all of our reports from The (Second Annual) Great Cook Father-Son-Grandson Road Trip of 2009, three of which are still to come in the next couple days:
-
Pirates at Cubs (8-14-09) - Indians at Twins (8-15-09) – coming soon.
- Astros at Brewers (8-16-09) - coming soon.
- Royals at White Sox (8-17-09) - coming soon.
1st Baseball Roadtrip Recap (2008)
Tomorrow evening, Tim and I will fly to Chicago where we will meet up with my dad. Its time for The (Second Annual) Great Cook Father-Son-Grandson Baseball Roadtrip of 2009. I figured I’d share the story of our The (original) Great Cook Father-Son-Grandson Baseball Roadtrip of 2008 so you know the background of this grand tradition.
I only started blogging about our baseball experiences this season. Last season, I had to resort to traditional email updates to keep my wife and other family members up-to-date on our trip status. Below, I have copied and pasted those email updates with just a few of the many pictures that were originally attached to the emails. I hope you enjoy.
This season, our Road Trip will take us from Wrigley to the HHH Metrodome to Miller Park and back to the south side of Chicago for a game at U.S. Cellular Field. The last game of the Road Trip will mark an important milestone and I’m EXTREMELY excited to get this trip under way and rack up some awesome family baseball memories.
So, here is the background I promised:
[AUGUST 15, 2008]
So we are in Washington, PA at our first night KOA. The drive went well
last night. Tim got whiney right at the end when we took a wrong turn and
got lost for a short time. Otherwise, he did great.
He wasn’t too excited to sleep in the cabin at first, but he ended up having
a great night and is really enjoying the campground. He thinks the red
light on the fire alarm on the ceiling of the cabin is a ladybug and he
talked about it at great length last night until 12:30 am when he finally
went to bed.
This morning he did some exploring and then hit some baseballs. Pa and I
played catch in between Tim’s hacks at the tee.
Next, we’re off to Cabela’s in West Virginia so Tim can check out some live
fish and dead animals. Then its on to Cincinnati where we will be in a
hotel. The Reds play the Cardinals tonight and I’m hoping Pujols hits 4
homeruns.
Here are some pictures.
Next update tonight following the game.
-Todd
[AUGUST 16, 2008]
Here are a ton of pictures from today. We arrived in Cincinnati around
3pm. Hung out at our hotel a bit. Then we hit the streets and walked to
“Skyline Chili” for dinner. I got the 5-ways Chili, Dad got 2 Cheese Coneys
and cheese fries, and Tim got the kid’s cheese coney meal. You might notice
in the pictures, there was some cheese involved. (note, I also got
non-cheese fries).
Then it was off to the game. As per usual, Tim’s cuteness secured him a ball. This time, from Cardinals reliever Chris Perez, who would eventually
earn a save in the game. We also got two autographs. Some dude, and Edison Volquez — a hot, up-and-coming pitcher for the Reds, you might have heard of him, he started the all-star game for the NL this season. [Note: At the time I wrote this, I was under the impression Volquez had been the starter, I'm not sure why. I'm now aware Ben Sheets was the starter...I'm not sure why.]
We then toured the Reds Hall of Fame, which is really cool. There is a lot
to see and do in there. Including a pitching areas where you can pitch and
someone can stick their head in a little window and call balls and strikes.
Eventually, the game started. We had nice outfield seats. The stadium is
nice. Seemed small and cozy. Tim and I had some great ice cream in Reds
helmets. We did a lot of walking around and seeing all the ins-and-outs of
the ball park.
After the game (Cardinals won 5-3), they had a spectacular fireworkds show.
I think it might have been Tim’s first. He loved it. The grande finale was
one of the best i’ve seen.
Then we walked back to the hotel. Tim fell asleep on my shoulders.
More tomorrow…
-Todd
[AUGUST 16, 2008]
Hi, Guys. Another great day on the baseball roadtrip. We woke up in
Cincinnati and got showered up. Tim had a fine day of brushing his teeth, started off with some quality morning brushing. After leaving the room and
packing up the car, we headed to the free breakfast in the hotel. It hit
the spot. Then it was just 100 mile drive to Louisville. Note, Cincinnati
has some of the best this-way-to-the-freeway signage I’ve ever seen. There
was a sign “To 75″ just as we exited our hotel and another one every block
for the entire mile or two that we weaved around the city before getting on
the freeway.
Tim did great in the car on the way down, which made the drive nice.
Louisville Slugger was excellent, even though Tim was not. Tim’s theatrics
began during the factory tour because little ones are not allowed to sit on
dad’s shoulders in the factory (although there was nothing low hanging that
would have bonked tim’s head). so, he whined a bunch in the factory. I was
suprised how small the factory is. They essentially make all MLB bats
(about 40% of all bats used in the MLB) on one machine. It cranks them out
at rate of 30 seconds per bat. Minor League bats are made on the other side
of the factory.
The museum was really cool. The best item in there, in my book, was a bat
Babe Ruth used the year he hit 60 homeruns. The Babe carved 21 notches
around the label on the bat, one for each home run he hit with the bat
before it broke. The bat is huge, as you can see in the picture when you
compare it to the guy standing behind it.
There was also a baseball diamon in one room. Tim loved it. They gave
everyone mini-bats and Tim swung, swung, swung and ran, ran, ran (the bases)
in that room. He had another melt down when we finally made him leave the
room. Note, that room has a dugout, and Tim and I got an awesome picture
acting like we are teammates at the top step waiting to hit.
They also have two batting cages in the museum. I took two rounds. One
with Ty Cobbs bat. The heaviest bat ever. Let me tell you, you notice it
at the plate! The second with a Jim Thome bat, which was designed by Edgar
Martinez (the guy running the cage is a huge M’s fan and picked it out for
me because of the Edgar connection). Dad took one round with the Hank Aaron
bat. Again, Tim had a minor meltdown when not allowed to take any hacks in
the cage.
We all got personalized bats. Tim and mine are with us, but Dad’s is being
mailed to Edmonds. I picked black bats with silver writing to look like
Griff’s bat. I got them personalized to remember the roadtrip.
Next, it was off to Brookville, OH (ten miles outside of Dayton). We’re now
in our cabin at the KOA. Its a great KOA. Tim had an absolute blast. We
arrived around 4:30. Tim played like crazy in the huge boat-shaped sand
box. He played with tons of kids in the playset area. He sat on
crazy-four-wheeler bikes you can rent. He played tons of gold with his new
M’s golf set, even enlisting several neighorhooding campers (kids and
adults) to golf and/or hit baseballs with him.
We capped off the night with Superman Ice cream (except dad has moose
tracks, I think). Then it was more quality tooth brushing. Now, lil’
Timmers is sleeping an Dad is off brushing his teeth.
Oh, I forgot to mention, we BBQ’d at the cabin for dinner. Excellent
BBQ’ing by dad.
Oh, I also forgot a great line from this morning. I was emailing in the
hotel room and Tim said something to Pa. Then, Pa said to Tim, “No, your Pa
has it.” And Tim got this big huge smile on his face like something really
funny just happened and he says to me, “You’re Pa!? You’re Pa!?” It was
quite funny.
Anyway, that’s update no. 3. Please enjoy a ton of pictures below.
-Todd
[AUGUST 17, 2008]
howdy, folks. so we find ourselves at the end of another great day. we
woke up in Brookville, OH this morning at about 7:30. We got the car all
packed up before Tim finally woke up. By 8am, we were on the road heading
to Cleveland. Tim was, once again, excellent in the car. We pulled into
Cleveland by about 11:30.
The game at Cleveland’s Progessive Field f/k/a Jacob’s Field was great. Our
seats were in foul territory down the third base line. The Indians were
playing the Angels. I never really decided who i would root for, but when
the Indians won, it was alright with me.
Before the game, we toured the field by foot and then Tim and I shared some
nachos while Dad had some red vines. Once the game started, Tim did a nice
job sitting in the seats and allowing us to watch the game. However, by the
fifth, Tim was quite ready for a nap and he decided to take it on my
shoulders. I ended up watching several innings standing at the top of the
section behind the seats while Tim did his best job of tryng to break my
neck supporting him while he napped.
During Tim’s nap, I talked to a robust field attendant and a guy in the last
row. The attendant mentioned that it was “kids run the bases” day and that
kids would start lining up by the 7th inning to run a lap of the bases
following the game. So, after his nap, Tim and I met back up with grandpa
and we went and found the line. After the Indians won the game (and
series), the long line started to snake its way through the bowels of
Progressive Field. (I’m happy to report that it has been 19 days since the
Indians’ last “lost time” on the job accident — or at least so read the
sign beneath the field).
Because Tim’s such a little whipper snapper, they let me run the bases with
him. We had a blast. Here is the picture the Indian’s took for us to
purchase:
http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?evgroupid=0&userid=indians&tcount=62&scount=20&gallery_id=1229183&image_id=19
After the game, we collected the kid’s giveaway (they do it after the game
for some reason), an Indians’ art set) and then we called Colleen to
mapquest directions to our next KOA.
We arrived in the Cleveland/Streetsboro KOA around 5pm. Its nice, but not
as happening at the Brookville KOA (which, did we mention, won KOA’s
Presidential Award last year). We played in the kids’ play area, fed fish
from the dock, BBQ’d and made Tim’s first smorse around his first campfire
tonight. Tim had a blast and just finally got to bed.
All in all, it was another excellent day of road tripping. Tomorrow, we’re
off to Pittsburgh. See you then. In the meantime, check out these
pictures.
-Todd
[AUGUST 18, 2008]
howdy, folks. so we made it home this evening, but not before taking in
another great game on the roadtrip. we cruised a quick 100 miles into
Pittsburgh, PA this morning for a 12:30 match-up between the Pirates and the
visiting Mets. The teams decided against taking batting practice this
morning so we wondered around the park before the game and ultimately ended
up down the third base line where the Pirates’ pitchers were playing catch
in pairs. the ball catching opportunities were slim, but we capitalized
big-time. first, a Pirate pitcher (possibly someone-or-other Nelson) threw
a ball to Pa. Then, Tim and I got Pa’s ball autographed by Matt Capps (DL).
Next, Pa got our pitcher taken with Matt Capps.
Next, Denny Bautista threw a ball to me and Tim. Then, Tim and I got it
autographed by Sean Burnett (eventual winning pitcher on the day), Tyler
Yates (relief pitcher today (pre-save)), and T.J. Beam. Finally, we capped
off the session with a picture with Mr. Beam.
Next, we walked around the park for a bit. We even visited the first water
fountain Tim ever used (last September). The water fountain is doing well.
We had a bite to eat before the game and Tim konked out on my shoulders, but
let me switch him to a traditional baby-holding position. He slept through
all the nachos!
After his nap, we got some mint chocolate chip ice cream in Pirates’
helmets. While Tim ate his (with sprinkles) sitting under our seats, a nice
camera man found us and broadcast Tim for about 10-15 seconds on the jumbo
tv screen in the park. It was actually our second time getting media
coverage on the day. Earlier, we had our text message about the roadtrip
put up on the scoreboard between the first and second levels.
Our seats in the OF were excellent. But, due to the heat, we eventually
relocated to the handicap accessible seats under the right field seats. It
had an excellent breeze that made the end of the exciting game even better.
After the game, we took a leisurely 250 mile drive back to Reading where
mommy was waiting to greet and hug us.
Its been a truly great baseball roadtrip. Although I have to work in the
day tomorrow, the roadtrip continues tomorrow evening with a Phils vs. Nats
game in Philadelphia. Should be more of the same — fun, fun, fun.
See pictures attached.
-Todd
[AUGUST 19, 2008]
Well, here is the final update for the big baseball roadtrip. I was back to
work today before taking off early to head down to the Phillies/Nationals
game. It was nice to be back in the car and on the road again after a hard
days work.
The Phils pulled out a much needed come from behind win. They never led
until one out in the bottom of the eighth. Then they brought in Brad Lidge
and he sealed the deal.
I didn’t expect a big crowd so I hadn’t pre-ordered tickets. When we
arrived all they had left was obstructed view and standing room tickets. We
opted for obstructed view. And, you know what? You can’t see very well
through a big yellow foul pole.
After a couple innings behind the pole, we hit the bricks. We walked down
to the team store and then got something to eat. Pa and I got “Schmidters”
and Tim got the biggest chocolate soft serve with sprinkles ever to be
served in the mini-Phillies helmet.
Tim started complaining about the wind in the stadium and saying he wanted
to go home. So we put on his sweatshirt and walked some more. Eventually,
we found a landing above the left field seats and below the jumbo screen.
There was a sectioned off handicap area with one on in it. Tim went in and
claimed it as his playground. When a guard came to kick him out, a bunch of
guys yelled at her “LET HIM PLAY!!! LET HIM PLAY!!!” So she caved to the
crowd-pressure. Tim played the rest of the game in there and eventually
made fast friends with his would-be ejector. She ended up giving him a
Phillies hat and trying continuously to get him on the jumbo screen to no
avail. He really entertained in there and by the end of the game, he no
longer wanted to go home.
It was a nice game to end an excellent baseball roadtrip. Here are a few
pictures from tonight.
Thanks for staying tuned,
Todd
And that, in a nutshell, was the First Annual Great Cook Father-Son-Grandson Baseball Roadtrip of 2008. I asked my dad to come out and take this trip with us because I wanted to go to the Louisville Slugger factory. We built the rest of the trip around that. By the time we got back to the hotel room in Cincinnati after the first game, we decided the trip had to be an annual thing.
Let the Second Installment begin!
Fenway Park – Part 3 of 3 (A Moment to Remember – 7/5/09)
For the second day in a row, we woke up and had breakfast and played some baseball in Copley Square. On this day, however, we just played catch and did some base running (on four drains in front of the Church in the square).
Soon, it was time to head to Fenway Park for our final game of the weekend roadtrip. We were hoping for a Mariners sweep. But it wasn’t in the cards.
I’m going to break with my usual protocol and skip to the fourth inning. I’ll go back and cover the game from the beginning, but I don’t want to bury the most important part of this unfortunate Mariners loss in the middle of the entry.
You might have noticed by now that I am a big Mariners fan. And, by definition, that means I am a huge Ken Griffey, Jr. fan. Ken Griffey, Jr. means everything to Mariners fans (at least to real Mariners fans). I was 13 when Griff broke into the Mariners back in 1989.
The Mariners were a fairly unimportant team until 1989. Well, they were important to me and about 10,000 other people in the state of Washington. But they were sort of a minor league Major League team to everyone else. They had zero winning seasons in their history. There were constant rumors and threats that the team would move — most notably to Tampa, Florida. The Kingdome — as beautiful and perfect as it was — was largely empty. (By the way, that wasn’t sarcasm, the Kingdome was, indeed, beautiful and perfect).
And then, in April 1989, things changed. KEN GRIFFEY, JR. ARRIVED! All of a sudden, one of the most celebrated young ball players in baseball was a Seattle Mariner. People started to pay some attention to our club. People started showing up at the Kingdome.
In 1991, we had a WINNING SEASON!
In 1995, we WON THE WEST! We made the PLAYOFFS!! We were two games from the World Series.
The Mariners were no longer going to move away! Instead, they built Safeco Field. It was a golden era in Mariners baseball.
Long story short: Ken Griffey, Jr. changed baseball in Seattle, he saved baseball in Seattle, he IS baseball in Seattle.
Therefore, when my son was born in 2006 and we started going to baseball games together, I had a goal: Take Tim to see Griffey.
We have had incredibly bad luck in this respect. Prior to this weekend, we had gone to see him play more than 10 times, and Griff played in only three of those games. In those games, he has had gone hitless (but with a bunch of walks).
So we turn to this game. Shortly before game time, they announced the starting line-up. I was more saddened to learn that Mike Sweeney would be DH’ing and Griffey would have the day off.
I started thinking worst case scenario. This is very possibly our final Mariners game of the season. They don’t come back to the Northeast this season. In 30 years, would Tim have to tell his son, “Yeah, your grandpa took me to see the great Ken Griffey, Jr. when I was a boy. But I never saw him get a hit.” I hated the thought. But there was nothing I could do about it. The Mariners were facing a lefty, Jon Lester, and Mike Sweeney had to get his work in to stay sharp.
Then in the fourth inning (with no disrepect to Sweeney), something wonderful happened:
I was totally unprepared. (That notice was actually posted in the 5th or 6th inning).
Tim was sitting on my shoulders. We were at a food stand behind the grandstand behind the seats by the 1B dugout. I had just ordered a sausage with onions and peppers (for me), a hot dog (for Tim), a diet coke, and a bag of peanuts. There was no counter at the cash registered so I had to hold everything in one hand while finding my money and paying the cashier with the other hand (while still balancing Tim on my shoulders with no hands).
In the midst of all of this, I hear the following over the stadium P.A. system:
“Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, JUNIOR!”
Instantly, my thought was, “The Red Sox don’t have a Junior! AHHHHH!!!”
I jammed my wallet and change into my pocket, gathered up everything as best as I could and ran toward the field as fast as I could.
This picture shows our starting point and our route to the field:
When we ran into the back of the grandstand, I believe we were in Section 13 or 14.
I yelled up to Tim, “I THINK GRIFF IS UP!”
Right as we got in view of the field, we saw Lester start his wind up and deliver a pitch to Griffey. What happened next was possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever seen at a major league stadium: Griff drilled the pitch off of the Green Monster!
According to my DVR, it looked something like this:
I think that to everyone else in the stadium, it was just a random lead off hit in the top of the fourth inning. But to me, it was possibly the greatest baseball moment ever. For the first time in over ten years, I witnessed Ken Griffey, Jr. — my boyhood hero and favorite baseball player of all-time — get a hit for my Seattle Mariners and I witnessed it with my son sitting on my shoulders sharing the moment with me. And the fact that he hit the ball off the Green Monster, the most famous outfield wall in baseball, made it even more exciting.
This simple hit is easily the highlight of my season so far, and I plan to think and talk about it with Tim for years and years to come. I hope Tim and I get another chance to see Griffey play — this season and next. But, if that is not possible, this hit will keep me satisfied.
(By way of background and to clarify, *I* have seen Griffey get tons of hits, hit numerous homeruns, multiple grand slams, makes dozens of circus catches (including the one when he broke his arm in half) — but I’d never shared any of those moments with Tim. That’s what made this hit so special).
By the time I could get to a spot where I could put our food down and get to my camera, Franklin Gutierrez had advanced Griff to second with a single. Here is Griff leading off of second:
Griff would have two more plate appearances on the day, both walks. He went 1-1 on the day. Amazingly, I got zero pictures of Griff at the plate during this game.
Okay, now lets back track to the beginning of the game.
We entered the stadium again through the CF gate on Lansdowne Street. It was a 1:35 start, but the teams still took BP. We arrived as the first group of Mariners were hitting, including Griffey and Ichiro.
We started out in the CF bleachers. Griffey was blasting bombs into the RF bleachers. I wanted to go over there, but there is no way I am going to try to catch a HR ball with Tim on my shoulders. Shortly after we arrived, Griff hit a ground rule double to straight away CF that bounced up into the stands and directly into my Dad’s glove.
My Dad has had great luck with Griffey this year. In addition to this BP ground rule double, on the first day of spring training, my Dad got Griff’s second BP homerun in his second tour of duty with the Mariners.
I decided to go up onto the Green Monster and see if Tim and I could get into the seating area. There is a staircase in the CF concourse that takes you up to the Green Monster. You can walk out to the edge of the seating area, but they won’t let you out into the seats without a Monster ticket. So Tim and I just stood around up there for a few minutes taking in the view before heading back down to the field level seats.
I had a thought in the back of my head that it would be neat to get a ball thrown up to us on the Green Monster. Tim and I stood in the closest spot to the seats that you can get to without a Monster ticket:
We stood in the spot under the red arrow where the guy in the red shirt is standing. I noticed Jason Vargas and Jason Phillips standing together below in LCF. (In the picture to the right, that is Jason Phillips after the two Jasons split up).
After a few minutes, someone hit a ball to Vargas. I yelled down from the Mondster, “Hey, Vargas!!!!” He heard me! He looked up! He turned around and he fired the ball to me. Unfortunately, it was too low and it clanked off a light and some bricks just below us — out of reach.
Jason Phillips stood and watched Vargas’s failed attempt. And just then, someone hit him a ball. “Hey, Jason!” Phillips looked back up at me. He turned around and he fired the ball to me. A perfect strike. It would have hit me directly in the chest. It was a very impressive throw, and much appreciated.
“Thanks, Jason!”
Here is a picture that illustrates the flight of the ball:
At the time Phillips threw the ball, he was even a little bit — maybe 10-15 feet — closer toward LF. He didn’t lob the ball up to me. He fired it on a line, just like the arrow in this picture. As I said, a very impressive throw.
Tim and I then went down to the CF bleachers and met up with my mom who was standing right where my Dad caught Griff’s ground rule double about 10 minutes earlier.
Felix Hernandez and Erik Bedard were standing below us. Felix runs all over the place trying to make high light reel catches during BP. At one point, he caught one near us. He looked up and made I contact with me (and Tim). There was a lady from Seattle shouting at him standing directly next to me to my left. Felix fired the ball up to us. He threw it to our right side so the shouting lady wouldn’t interfere. I could have caught it without moving at all — I just had to reach across my body and back hand it. However, as I started to go for the backhand, I realize there was a 8′ish year old boy wearning a Red Sox jersey and a glove standing next to me. If I didn’t catch the ball, he’d get it. I decided to let me have it since we already had the ball from Jason Phillips and we got Felix’s warm up ball the day before.
Soon thereafter, someone hit a ball into the OF corner by the end of the Red Sox bullpen. Here was the scene:
We were standing in the red circle. Erik Bedard was standing at the red “X”. There was a rope running along the warning track. (I think it was to keep people involved in the pre-game ceremonies off of the grass). The rope went down the warning track and around a big door in the outfield wall. The ball went in the corner behind the rope as shown above.
Bedard turned around and walked over and grabbed the ball. A whole bunch of people including a bunch of 10′ish year old kids, were standing by the bullpen directly above the ball. I figured Bedard would grab it and flip it up to them. While those people all yelled at Bedard for the ball, Erik picked it up and looked at them. He then walked as slowly as humanly possible back over to the yellow “X” in the picture above. Then he looked up and made eye contact with me (and Tim), and fired the ball to us. I had the feeling that Bedard had watched Felix throw us the ball when I let the kid catch it and he was trying to finish what Felix had started. The yelling lady was still next to me. Like Felix, Bedard threw the ball to my right so she wouldn’t get it.
Next, it was time to walk around. We checked out the RF corner and the Pesky Pole:
As RF corners go, this is one of the most interesting in baseball. Not very “corner-ish.” More like a RF curve.
We walked up through the old wooden grandstand seats:
We headed out to Yawkey Way and watched Tom Caron from NESN interview comedian Mike O’Malley:
Sean Casey was walking around the NESN set. I walked over to get a picture of him (or possibly with him), but he vanished into thin air.
It was getting close to game time, so we walked back into the stadium and went through the busy concourse behind home plate:
When we were down here, we got Tim a chocolate ice cream helmet and headed toward our seats in the grandstand behind home plate:
The seats were great. Here was our view:
The red arrow points to where Tim and I were standing when Griffey hit his single off of the Green Monster.
We watched te pre-game festivities such as the reading of the Fenway Park Code of Conduct…
…the carrying of the pink backpack to the Mariners bullpen by Christ Jakubauskas…
…the third ceremonial first pitch by Marky Mark Wahlberg (and his re-do third ceremonial first pitch due to his first third ceremonial first pitch sailing high over the catcher to the backstop):
Finally, it was game time. As always, future Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki led off for the Mariners:
I like this picture for two reasons — (i) the ball is captured right above the plate (but low, it was called a ball) and (ii) Dustin Pedroia is, for some reason, floating in the air at second base (click on the picture to see it larger, Pedroia is totally off of the ground).
I got some more Red Sox pictures:
I wanted to get a shot of Big Papi clapping his hands before stepping into the box but I missed it. He hit the next pitch into the RF bleachers, the second Red Sox home run in the first inning.
By the time Griff was up for a second time, we were touring around in the grandstand out beyond the Pesky Pole. He walked. Here he is leading off first base:
We went out to the concourse in the RF corner and took this picture showing the Red Sox World Series and other banners:
FYI, see the guy wearing the red shirt above the blue 1967 banner in the middle of the picture? He is standing in the walkway behind the grandstand seats where Tim and I spent a lot of time over the course of the weekend.
The red arrow in that last picture is pointing to this:
I’m guessing this guy is called the “Green Monster.” We saw the real one of this guy running around on the field before each game, but we never saw him in the crowd. This was the best we could do with respect to getting a mascot picture.
See the red arrow in that last picture? It is pointing to a staircase that leads to the “Players Club.” I’m not sure what the Players Club is all about. It looked like it was for special events or people with special tickets. But we headed in to check it out and no one seemed to mind. Here is what it looked like:
…more players club…
…and we found something cool in the Players Club:
(From Left: 2004 World Series Trophy, Todd & Tim, 2007 World Series Trophy)
We walked out of the players club just in time to see this…
Through the break in the grandstand and bleachers, that is Jacoby Ellsbury hitting a home run to bring the score to 4-3 Mariners.
We met up with my folks and watched the game on a TV while we ate some food at the tables in the RF corner. From our table, you could see the Players Club above the food stands:
While we sat here, the Mariners brought in Miguel Batista. It was not Miguel’s day. He gave up a bunch of runs and the Mariners eventually lost the game 8-4.
Tim and I watched the last inning from our familiar RF corner by the Mariners bullpen. We were hoping Griff would get one more at bat, but it wasn’t in the cards. We settled for one more picture with the field before heading out:
This game, we switched things up and exited the stadium from the RF exit so I could get a picture of this:
When my Dad was a kid, there was no baseball team in the state of Washington. Ted Williams was his baseball hero. This is what the plaque below Ted says:
9
Ted Williams
Boston Red Sox
The greatest hitter who ever lived, an American patriot, and a pioneer in the development of the Jimmy Fund. Ted Williams will forever be one of the great heroes in the history of baseball, Boston and America. He amassed 521 home runs despite sacrificing five years in his prime to serve his country during World War II and the Korean War. He was a relentless champion of children, such as this child to whom he is offering his cap, in their battle against cancer, and helped make the Jimmy Fund at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute the world renowned center of research and care that it is today.
The memory of Ted Williams will forever be a point of pride for the Boston Red Sox, the people of Boston, New England, and the United States of America.
We took one more picture outside:
“Good bye, Fenway!”
With that, we started our walk back to the hotel…
…so we could start our drive back home.
For so many reasons, it was such an awesome weekend shared with Tim and my folks.
Season Fan Stats:
18 Games (plus one 5+ hour rain out with no game)
7 Stadiums (Safeco Field, Camden Yards, Citizens Bank Park, Citi Field, Nationals Park, Yankee Stadium, and Fenway Park)
13 Teams (Mariners, A’s, Rangers, Rays, Orioles, Tigers, Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, Mets, Nationals, Braves and Padres, Dodgers — and sort of the Giants)
14 Ice Cream Helmets (Mariners (4), Phillies (3), Mets, Nationals (2), Red Sox (3) and Yankees)
17 Baseballs (12 Mariners, 2 Rangers, 1 Phillies, 1 Red Sox, 1 Umpire)
4 Divisions Closed Out (So far in Tim’s Life — AL West, AL East, NL West, NL East)
3 Autographs (King Felix Hernandez, Jason Phillips, Ryan Perry)
2 Player/G.M. Photographs (King Felix Hernandez, Jack Zduriencik, Ryan Perry)
5 Mascot Pictures (Mariners Moose (2), Orioles Bird (2), 3 Presidents (Nats), Screech (Nats) — Honorable Mention: The Green Monster statue bench)
Fourth of July at Fenway – Mariners Win!
So, we woke up to a lazy Saturday morning in Boston…
…it was Independence Day, better head over to Fenway.
Wait, first, we better hit some baseballs in Copley Square:
I’m not sure why, but some tourist actually took pictures of Tim hitting in Copley Square.
Soon, it was time to hit the road for our already familiar walk down Boylston Street to Ipswich Street and over to Lansdowne — ah, Fenway Park:
Tim and I entered the park through Gate C on Lansdowne and headed up the CF stairs to the Green Monster. I was sad to learn that they were already checking tickets, so we couldn’t get all the way out onto the Monster, but I took pictures for this panaramic:
My folks entered from Gate A on Yawkey Way and went into the field seats behind the Mariners dugout where someone snapped this shot:
Tim and I came over and met up with my folks and we spotted our buddy from the streets of Boston, Mariners GM Jack Zdureincik:
While we were standing here, there was almost nothing going on on the field. Felix Hernandez and Erik Bedard were playing catch down the LF line by the Green Monster. But the field was otherwise empty. Maybe some grounds crew people were watering the infield. Tim and I were just sitting in the front row drinking some cold water to cool off.
A couple minutes after taking that picture of Jack Z. above, Tim, my mom and I moved down the 3B line a bit and stood where the red arrow is pointing in the picture of Jack. Immediately, upon our arrive (literally within a few seconds), Erik Bedard and Jason Phillips walked by:
Bedard spotted Tim and I and chucked his and Felix’s warm up ball to us — Sweet!
“Thanks, Erik!”
Jason Phillips looks over at us and give us a big smile and a point, “You again!” We returned the favor with a smile and a point. If you haven’t read the last two entries, Phillips, Tim and I had shared a couple exchanges the previous day and two days earlier in New York.
In case you aren’t familiar with Mr. Phillips and want to look him up on Baseball-Reference.com, you’ll notice there are two Jason Phillips in major league history. This one is Jason Lloyd Phillips. He is now the Mariners bullpen catcher. But he previously played for the Mets, Dodgers, and Blue Jays. His best season was 2003 when he hit .298 with 120 hits, 11 HRs and 56 RBI for the Mets. Hopefully he’ll get another shot to make a big league club. If not, I’m happy to have him in the Mariners bullpen and organization.
Back to the game at hand. We noticed that Mariners ALL-STAR pitcher Felix Hernandez was signing autographs down the 3B line. I’m not a big autograph guy, but I figured what the heck, let’s give it a shot. I didn’t have a pen, but I thought it would be cool to have Felix sign the ball he’d just used to play catch with Bedard.
Much more than autographs, I prefer getting our picture with players. So when Felix grabbed his warm up ball back from me I asked him if we could get our picture with him. Felix signed the ball with a borrowed sharpie and responded, “Sure.”
I took the first one myself and then looked at it and it wasn’t very good. Felix just stood and watched me waiting for me to give him the “okay” on the picture. Very cool. A nice Bostonian said, “Let me take it.” So I handed her my camera and Felix posed for another picture with us — much better:
“Thanks, Felix.”
“Thanks, lady.”
Here we go:
When I gave King Felix the ball, I was wondering if he thought it was odd that I’d ask him to sign such a dirty ball. He didn’t give me the ball, so he didn’t know it was his warm up ball.
My dad buys a team ball at each stadium he visits. He got Felix to sign a Red Sox / Fenway Park Fourth of July Ball.
Here we are in the 3B side concourse showing off the Bedard-Hernandez ball:
Although you can’t see it, that wall has signs for all of the Red Sox World Series Championships. FYI, you can see in this picture that I brought my new Rawlings Trap-Eze infielders glove. I saw it at the Rawlings outlet and loved the white lacing. I have no actual need for an infielders glove (I play LF for a beer league softball team), but I had to get it. I love it.
Next, we checked out Yawkey Way:
This is the main street along the 3B side of the park. FYI, Fenway Park’s address is 4 Yawkey Way. This street and all of the people shown in the picture are actually *inside* the stadium.
That band was playing on Yawkey Way and they were rockin’ it hard. I really enjoyed them. To their right, you can see “Big League Brian” — the dude on stilts. He has a soft baseball that he throws back and forth with fans in the crowd. Tim wanted to go down to see him and the band, but when we finally made our way down there the band was packing up and BLB was nowhere to be found.
Next, my folks headed to our seats in the CF bleachers — section 37, row 21. Tim didn’t want to go out into the sun. So we hung out in the shady standing room area at the back of the grandstand behind third base.
And we took some pictuers.
Here is the Mariners bullpen crew walking to the bullpen — Chris Jakubauskas is sporting the pink backpack (Q: Is my A-Rod ball in there??? We’ll have to wait and see…):
Griff and his colleagues stood for the National Anthem:
Ichi and Griff in the on-deck circle:
Ichiro led off the game. Its no secret, but I’ll go on the record — this guy is decent, extremely decent:
He was followed shortly by The Kid:
In the bottom picture, you can see the ball going foul. He hit it directly above me and Tim.
By the way, I must note that the people at Fenway (pretty much everyone, fans, attendants, cops, everyone…) are so cool. Many of the standing room areas under the grandstand have painted lines on the ground that are clearly marked “STANDING ROOM.” In those areas, they have attendants that will come ask you to stand in the lines if you are milling about outside of the lines.
As Griffey was at bat, I was standing right behind the seats and 15 feets or so outside of the designated ”STANDING ROOM.” Tim was on my shoulders and I was focused on taking shots of Griff. A bunch of other fans were standing all around me, also outside of the designated “STANDING ROOM.” I could hear an attendant approaching and telling people they needed to stand in the marketd areas. Then amazingly, he went to every single person in my area EXCEPT ME. He tapped each person on the shoulder and politely explained that they needed to stand in the painted “STANDING ROOM” areas. But he just let me stand in the middle of the aisle and take pictures of Junior. How cool is that? He understood that it was important to me to get some shots of my guy, and he just let me stay there and do my thing.
“Thanks, dude!”
After Griff’s at bat, Tim was ready for a chocolate ice cream helmet, and we were lucky enough to walk by a standing room counter space right as a guy left it — so I watched the game from here (leaning around the pole) as Tim ate his ice cream:
FYI, if you want oreos, M&M’s or other toppings on your ice cream helmet at Fenway, I believe you have to go to the ice cream place behind the RF bleachers. They had no toppings at the ice cream stand at the back of the grandstand.
Here is a shot of the grandstand seating down the 1B line:
In
In my post for the July 3rd game, I mentioned that Tim and enjoyed standing in the walkway behind the grandstand seats down the 1B line. The red arrow in the last picture shows where we stood for several innings during this game. Here is what it looks like up close:
Tim is sitting on the step in this picture. He is checking out some beads that a Red Sox fan gave him on our walk to this spot. The guy was all dressed and painted up in red, white and blue for the Fourth of July. He saw Tim on my shoulders and gave him a set of red and blue beads. For the rest of the weekend, Tim had me wear one set while he wore the other.
Here is our view of the field from where Tim was sitting (FYI, the view is much better from the standing position — I really liked it in this spot):
Tim loved it in the aisle way. He was all smiles, that is until he grabbed his glove and started playing catcher:
Note, Tim is not wearing his shoes. He felt right at home at Fenway. He was in his socks probably 50% of the time while we were at Fenway during the weekend.
From the aisle, we watched the Mariners bullpen stand in a line:
(From left: Coach John Wetteland, Mark Lowe, Sean Kelley, David Aardsma (bald), Roy Corcoran (hat behind Aardsma), Sean White (looking down), Chris Jakubauskas, Not-Sure-Probably-Jason-Phillips, Not-Sure-Probably-Miguel-Batista — through the crack, pink backpack).
I’m not sure why the Mariners bullpen does this, but (as you’ll see) they do it a lot. They are standing in a line facing away from the scoreboard and toward the doorway from the bullpen to the field. I meant to try to ask someone in the bullpen what it was all about, but I forgot. My mom’s theory is that they are seeing off a bullpen-mate who is entering the game. I’m not sure. I don’t think a reliever came in at this point. Anyone have any ideas?
Finally, we had avoided the sun long enough, we decided to join my parents in our seats in CF. Here was our view:
[NOTE: While uploading that picture, Franklin Gutierrez hit a 3-run bomb against the Rangers to put the Mariners up 3-1 in the bottom of the 8th. Can we finally beat the Rangers? Yes! Go Mariners!]
Before sitting down, Tim showed my folks his shoulder-top power stroke:
My mom and the Fenway faithful taught Tim how to do his first “wave”:
The Mariners changed pitchers and the outfielders converged to do some stretching:
Soon, I decided to go down behind the Mariners bullpen, just in case Griffey, Ichi or Branyan decided to hit a HR there. Tim stayed with my folks for a bit, but then he requested to come down to me — by this point, the boy was bare footed (so I made him stay on my shoulders):
Can you spot us in that picture? We’re standing next to a police officer at the back upper corner of the bullpen. Notice anything else in that picture? Yep, the guys were back at it again:
I know there is some meaning to this, but what is it?
We watched Miguel Batista play catch with Ichiro between innings:
All of a sudden, Tim tells me, “Take a picture of those guys!”
Todd: “Who?”
Tim: “Those guys” (pointing, but I couldn’t see it because he was behind my head)
Todd: “Who? I can’t see where you’re pointing.”
Tim: “THOSE GUYS!”
Todd: “Buddy, I can’t see where you’re pointing. Who do you want me to take a picture of?”
Unknown Voice: “He’s pointing at me.”
Todd: “Oh, okay.”
Here are “those guys”:
“Those guys” didn’t care at all that Tim and I stood right here in the middle of the aisle for the last three innings of the game. Very cool. Thanks, those guys.
The police office asked Tim, “Hey, little guy, are you a Red Sox fan?”
I told him that we were Red Sox fans to the extent that we can’t stand the Yankees (sorry, Yankees fans). The officer responded, “That’s fine by me. We can accept that.” He was a nice guy.
Soon we saw this guy stretching out and warming up:
David Aardsma = Mariners Win.
The Happy Totals to prove it:
If you couldn’t tell, our seats were under the “great” in the “make something great” sign.
How awesome, three games into our weekend road trip, the Mariners are 3-0.
The bullpen guys marched back to the dugout to greet the rest of their teammates — Jakubauskas totes the pink backpack…hmmm…and my A-Rod ball?):
Then I watched a couple guys fix the Mariners bullpen mound. This closet is at the CF end of the Red Sox bullpen:
The bullpen fixer guys, like everyone else, were really nice too. One of them congratulated Tim on his team winning the game.
Before leaving Fenway, we got a family picture:
Tim shows off his Felix Hernandez ball.
It was the Fourth of July, so that night, we headed to the park along the river and watched some fireworks:
After fireworks, we returned to our hotel and who did we run into by the elevators? Mariners reliever and keeper of the pink backpack, Chris Jakubauskas. As he walked by, I called out, “Hey, Chris!?” He spun around, “Hey, man.”
He walked over and chatted with me and my folks for a couple minutes – probably about 3 minutes or so. Here is paraphrased excerpt of part of our conversation:
Todd: “So you got an A-Rod ball in your pink backpack?”
Chris: “Huh, what? Oh, yeah. Where’d that come from?”
Todd: “Its mine.”
Chris: “I was going through the backpack because I have to make sure we have certain things in there and I pull out this A-Rod ball. I’m like, ‘What the h— is this A-Rod ball?’ I took it around to everyone, ‘Did you put this A-Rod ball in there?’ No one knew about it.”
Todd: “I gave it to Jason Phillips the other night in New York”
Chris: “I’m gonna have to ask Phillips about that one.”
Todd: “I’ve had it sitting around for a couple years and couldn’t stand it, so I thought it would be happier in the pink backpack.”
Tim (to Chris): Do you want to come see my room?”
Chris: “What, little guy?”
Tim: “Do you want to come see my room?”
I told Tim that Chris has his own room and was on his way somewhere so he couldn’t come see our room. Before parting ways, I asked Chris if he’d watched the fireworks from his room in the hotel. He explained that David Aardsma (a former Red Sox player) got them out onto the Green Monster to watch the fireworks. Hmmm…its nice to be a major league ball player and to have connections!
It was very cool chatting with Jakubauskas. He was extremely nice and was glad to chat with some Mariners fans in the elevator bank. Many props to Jak. He’s got some fans in the Cook household.
After chatting with Jak, we called it a night and looked forward to our final game of the weekend the next day…
Season Fan Stats:
17 Games (plus one 5+ hour rain out with no game)
7 Stadiums (Safeco Field, Camden Yards, Citizens Bank Park, Citi Field, Nationals Park, Yankee Stadium, and Fenway Park)
13 Teams (Mariners, A’s, Rangers, Rays, Orioles, Tigers, Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, Mets, Nationals, Braves and Padres, Dodgers — and sort of the Giants)
13 Ice Cream Helmets (Mariners (4), Phillies (3), Mets, Nationals (2), Red Sox (2) and Yankees)
15 Baseballs (10 Mariners, 2 Rangers, 1 Phillies, 1 Red Sox, 1 Umpire)
4 Divisions Closed Out (So far in Tim’s Life — AL West, AL East, NL West, NL East)
3 Autographs (King Felix Hernandez, Jason Phillips, Ryan Perry)
2 Player/G.M. Photographs (King Felix Hernandez, Jack Zduriencik, Ryan Perry)
5 Mascot Pictures (Mariners Moose (2), Orioles Bird (2), 3 Presidents (Nats), Screech (Nats))
Cook & Son Bats
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