Game 1 of 162 is in the books. (Regular season count that is.)
But the Mariner’s playing was only a small part of our evening.
[It was a large part of Carl’s evening, because he was in Oakland – where the game was being played.]
Up here in Seattle the Mariner’s opened up Safeco Field for anybody that wanted to show up.
Admission = $0
Parking cost = $0
T-Shirt = $0
And for Season Ticket holders – all the food you can eat = $0
Good crowd for the game
More than 15,000 showed up.
It helped that it was a beautiful night, and this was a chance to watch the game on the big screen. And I do mean BIG.
Biggest screen in a Sports Stadium in the USA
During the off-season, the Mariner’s played with the outfield dimensions. While they were at it they changed some other bits of the field – removing many left field seats and adding Edgar’s Cantina.
Reconfigured left field
One of the other fun things at the field was allowing 6 contestants to try and hit a home run.
This was a radio call in winner thing. Carl called and signed up our friend Kevin (since Carl would be in Oakland).
Ready to go onto the field
Getting into the zone
Kevin and Richard, and the unsuspecting ball on a tee
So it turns out that each contestant got 5 swings, and the ball was on a tee, set in the outfield just past 2nd base.
This was just like the setup we used to use for the RUG Home Run Derby, except we had a pitching machine.
The first contestant, Richard, hit two rollers, a bouncer to the wall, one to the top of the wall ……. and finally hit one out.
Kevin strode up to the plate tee and gave the ball a mighty wallop. It sailed out of the field.
(If he had held back he would have been able to get a few more swings in.)
Spoils of winning are two front row tickets to a future game (not in right field), and getting to meet a Mariner alumnus.
Of course since the Mariner alumni were just wandering about the 2nd deck were the Season Ticket holders were hanging out, we could have seen them anyway. None-the-less, it was pretty cool. The chosen Mariner was Dave Henderson.
Jay, Kevin (the HR hitter) and Dave Henderson (a real HR hitter, sporting a World Series ring)
(This was a little different from the time he came and sat with our little group in the outfield.
Ashlan had gone up to get something and when she arrived back at the seats – there was Hendu.)
Just to note, none of the other four contestants got a ball over the wall.
Oh yeah, there was a game going on at the same time as all of these other shenanigans.
Felix was Felix, the game got tight in the 8th and 9th inning, but the Mariner’s prevailed over the A’s.
And Wilhelmsen was finally able to close out the game.
Wilhelmsen closes
It was a great, really fun evening.
Spring is here, and baseball is back.
Raincharm's Weblog 
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