It was a 3:40 start (pregame celebration starting at 3 pm). The gates opened at 1:10 pm, but we couldn’t get there for that, because of work and school. Usually I could get to a game about an hour and a half early and not have any problem getting into my favorite parking lot (just south of the Safeco Field Parking Garage), but we ended up parking about 2 blocks further away and it was quite expensive. Let’s just say that you probably had to park at least a mile away from the stadium to get any parking under $20.
Gates were open when we got to the field, but I had to exchange a few tickets. I was thrilled with the ones I got (row 14 for a July game and Row 3 for a M’s vs Yankee game!!!) We finally got into the stadium and headed to get some food before sitting down. All the lines were very long and we got back to our seats with one minute to go before the Pregame ceremonies. We have some great seats this year, just to the left of home plate. As you will be able to see in pictures, we have the foul ball net between us and the plate again, so I have to switch my camera to manual focus mode. If I use the auto focus, it isn’t a guarantee that it will focus on what I want and instead it will focus on the net. Here’s a picture from our seats from my phone:
The M’s honored the World Baseball Classic by having the flags of all the nations that participated in the WBC. The M’s had two players (Ichiro and Johjima) on the WBC’s winning team (Japan). I know you can’t see all of them, but the Australian and Canadian flags are at the front, the Japanese flag is towards the middle, and the American flag is towards the end:
If you haven’t gone to an Opening Day game, I highly recommend going. It is so awesome. After the country flags were brought out, they had the team introductions. First they introduced the Angels and then it was the M’s turn. The whole coaching staff, trainers, and interpreters were all introduced:
Then the players came down the red carpet under the balloons. I have pictures of all of them coming to the lineup, but I won’t bore you with all of those pictures. Here are a few highlights though.
Ichiro (who wasn’t starting, because he was on the Disabled List):
Some of the pitchers and non-starting position players:
Now the person who most people came to see and who got the biggest and longest applause out of everyone.......KEN GRIFFEY JR!!!!!!!!
The new manager and most of the starting lineup:
The team:
A close up of the pitchers and some position players:
A close up of the starting lineup (minus the pitcher and catcher):
For the National Anthem they had the Navy Band Northwest perform, which was awesome to hear:
Here’s some of the fireworks and smoke:
This July is the 10th Anniversary of Safeco Field and so they had Dave Niehaus read a tribute and had a video up on the big screen:
Every year they have a child, who is sick or has been sick, run around the bases. This little boy was lucky when he got around to homeplate. He was met by Junior, Ichiro, Felix Hernandez, and I can’t remember who the fourth one is:
If you remember some of the old M’s players, you’ll most likely remember this guy. His name is Harold Reynolds and he played several years with the M’s and now is a commentator for ESPN. He threw out the ceremonial first pitch:
If I remember correctly one of his last seasons with the M’s was Griffey’s first season, so Junior is the current player who caught the throw:
First pitch of the game by Carlos Silva:
Now for the star of the game!!! Griffey’s first at bat, which is what everyone was waiting for. I thought it would have been awesome if it was a night game, so that I could have seen all the flashbulbs going off. You could see some in the daytime, but it wasn’t as powerful (he’s in the batter’s box here):
Although he didn’t hit the ball on this one, I thought it was a sweet swing:
This is as the ball is coming towards the plate:
This is the ball leaving after Griffey’s hit:
The Grounds Crew doesn’t dance at every game, but for the Opening Day game, they always do:
Before the game, we had a moment of silence for several previous players, managers, announcers, and others in the baseball world. One of the players that they honored was Nick Ardenhart, the Angels pitcher who was killed in a hit-and-run accident on Wednesday night, April 8th, a few hours after his pitching debut. What I didn’t know until later (after getting home from the game) was that he was actually supposed to be the starting pitcher for the Angels for this game. Another person that we honored was the “Tuba Man.” He was robbed and murdered by a bunch of teens back in late October. He would play his tuba before and after the M’s, Seahawks, Sonics games, and events at the Opera House. I remember hearing him play many times. During the 7th inning stretch, we had a group of tuba players play “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” for us. It was a great tribute:
Towards the end of last season, I learned a new thing on my camera. It is a “sport” setting and allows me to hold open the shutter and it will take multiple pictures right after another. I wish I would have figured it out sooner, but now that I know about it, I use it a lot, especially when taking pictures of the pitchers. Here’s one of my favorite players, Brandon Morrow, in a series of photos:
Here’s the score after 9-innings!! I think this might be only the second extra-inning game that I’ve been to:
We won in the bottom of the 10th!!!!!!! Here’s the celebration at Home Plate!!!!!
The hand operated scoreboard after the run was added for the 10th inning, but before they added it to the total:
Here it is with the run added to the total:
It was a great start to the new season. I’m sure they’ll have a better record than last season. :-)
