Ballgame Number 4 - Baltimore Orioles vs. Seattle Mariners

Last week I was up in Seattle/Portland talking to youth ministers about the Portland Believe event coming up in October. Being the smart guy I am, I looked at the Mariners schedule before the trip was planned and found a home game to go to. This was the first game that I have been able to go to with my wife this year. Here are my thoughts about the game in the great Northwest.

• Safeco Field was probably the nicest stadium I have been to all year. It is only a few years old and you can tell they put some money into the stadium.

• Granted it was the Orioles, but there was a significant low number of fans at the game. Maybe this had something to do with it being a little cold or the threat of rain (though they have a roof), but I think there still should have been more fans there.

• I know Ichiro is the big star for the Mariners, but this was the most cross cultural group of fans I have seen.

• Though there were not that many fans, they were the most supportive fans as far as apparel goes I have seen all year. Everyone was wearing a hat or shirt to support the home team.

• Only in Seattle do I get to decide between clam chowder in a bread bowl or sushi (I could have got an "Ichiroll" for my in park meal. I chose the chowder in a bread bowl.

• The bullpen was stinkin cool. You could walk up to a chain link fence by the bullpen and literally be 5 feet away from the pitcher warming up.

• We bought a $3 program (not an official program, but a team program right outside the stadium) and it was one of the funniest things I have read all year. You would have thought the person writing the player bios hates the team. I read three all of them ripping apart their own team. Examples - Mike Hargrove, Manager - "We're pretty shocked to still be writing Mike Hargrove profiles for another season." Richie Sexton, 1st base - "For an annual salary exceeding $15 million, the Mariners and their fans deserve so much more. C'mon Richie, start earning your money!" and my favorite, Jeff Weaver, pitcher - "If he never throws another pitch for the Seattle Mariners, he'll go down in history as the worst player to ever play for the franchise."

• The closing of the roof was pretty cool. The game started out outside, but with the threat of rain, about the 4th inning, they closed the roof. The entire process took about 7-10 minutes.

• Another cool feature at Safeco, was that you could order food via text message and have it delivered to your seat. There were fliers that had instructions and corresponding codes to each food item. You texted what you wanted and waited for additional instructions. We did not try it out, but having it available was still pretty cool.

• Tip for the game: Get early for parking. We parked a few blocks away at a "non-official" parking lot and paid $5. We arrived about 30-45 minutes before game time. As we were leaving the stadium we saw that the same sign had been changed $15.