Fenway Faithful West Coast

Last Thursday we were out of the house at 7 am, heading north to Seattle's Safeco Field to watch the scrappy Mariners play the Red Sox. I'd been there a month earlier with my long time buddy Karen (I refuse to call her an Old Friend) after we finished our week long Inside Passage cruise. We just had to stay an extra night to see the Mariners and Yankees. Those Mariners hung in that time, made it a game to the end, but lost by a run. It was easy to root for the Mariners that day. We even got seats in the Kings Court, yellow Tshirts and K cards to be part of the 'fans who go wild when Hernandez strikes someone out'. Now here I was, on my way to a showdown between my life long team of my heart, and the adopted state rivals.

We decided to avoid the parking insanity near Safeco, particularly since there were two Gold Cup soccer games immediately following the baseball game. With the parking lot full at the Tukwila light rail station (near SeaTac airport), we roamed the neighborhoods nearby until we found a spot. Got our tickets just in time to run up the escalator and catch the 11:03 train. After walking the few blocks to the park, and strolling all the way around the perimeter, we arrived at Home Plate about 15 minutes before our scheduled meet up with Sal, our teacher buddy from Lagos days, who had our tickets.

And what great seats they were (thank you very much, JS)! It was a beautiful day for a ballgame, sunny, blue skies with a few puff balls, great skyline behind the outfield walls. A little chilly, as we were on the shady side. Dilemma: wear the hoodie or use it as a lap blanket for my goosebumped, shorts clad legs? Legs won. I wore a more discreet shirt than my bright red official Red Sox shirt, which also is short sleeved. I did see a ton of red shirts in the crowd, almost as many Bosox shirts as Mariners shirts! Today called for the 100 years Fenway shirt, navy blue with LONG sleeves. And the big red B on the back...

We joked about seeing 3 games: the hitters innings, the middle relief pitchers' duel, and extra innings. The outcome? Red Sox on top by 1 in the 10th. A long game by Safeco standards, it was after 5 pm when the crowd began to leave. We loaded up with coffee in Tukwila before heading south on I-5 for the long long long drive home. Rolled in at 10 pm.

Note to self: Trips to Seattle require at least ONE overnight. And always meet up with Sal for a game when the Red Sox are in town!