Stadium Scenes Part II: Safeco Field

I made a trip over to Seattle to catch the Mariners' final homestand against the Oakland A's and Texas Rangers. The M's took the first game against the A's 4-2, but dropped the next to the Rangers 7-3. I wasn't too worried about the outcomes of the games, I just wanted to catch one last glimpse of Ken Griffey Jr. just in case he doesn't return next season. Here are some of my favorite shots from the games:

Cliff Pennington HR that I caught in BP. My first at an MLB Game!

Ken and I have always had a special connection.

This one's for Night Owl.

Reunited and it feels so good.

The old "Arms Akimbo Club" over at first base.

2009 AL Cy Young winner?? A boy can dream.

It was a real treat to see the Kid on the field one more time and I had great seats just behind the M's dugout. I was literally 10 feet from my childhood idol Griffey, who probably was staring at me because my jaw was on the ground. Funny side note: I bought one pack of 2009 UD A Piece of History at the game and pulled a Ben Stiller shirt swatch from Along Came Polly, anyone interested?

Stadium Scenes: Safeco Field

I was lucky enough to get some time off from work and head over to Seattle to catch three Mariners' games over the weekend, two against their bitter rival the Kansas City Royals and one against the L.A. Angels. The first game at Safeco was a slugfest that featured six HR's and an eventual 8-4 win for the Mariners. The tables were turned the next day, as a classic pitcher's duel was staged between Ryan "the Hyphenator" Rowland-Smith and the odds on favorite for the AL Cy Young Award, Zack Grienke. Predictably, a Mariners' offense more anemic than Kate Moss could muster only one hit against Grienke, and the Royals took the game 3-0. The final game of the series featured more of the same for Seattle, as Joe Saunders (who came into the game with a 5.27 ERA) scattered 3 hits over 7 innings and Vladimir Guerrero crushed 2 longballs on the way to a 11-0 Angels victory. Despite the rather poor play of the Mariners, and the fact that neither Ichiro, Ken Griffey Jr., Russell Branyan or Adrian Beltre played in any of the games, I enjoyed my time there; Safeco Field is an absolutely beautiful stadium and the weather was great. Since I did title my blog "First day Issue: Baseball Card Collecting & More", I though I had better figure out what the "and more" portion of the website would be. I'll start with some of my favorite pictures from the games: