Katie's Mariner Madness: March 2010

We are getting closer to another Mariner’s Season (Home Opener is April 12th!!), so I thought I should wrap up my 2009 season pictures. Between August 28th and October 3rd, I went to 5 games. This might be a little longer post, but I wanted to include some of my favorite photos. On Friday, August 28th, I took 4 of my high school girls from church (one is now in college though) to see the M’s play the Kansas City Royals. We were in Row 7, down the first base line, so we had some great seats. Here’s my girls (back to front): Lauren (blue hat, now in college), Erin, Kayla, and Kara:

A shot from our seats:

Felix Hernandez pitching (notice the Moose on the right side):

Mike Sweeney up to bat:

Sean White starting his pitch:

Final Score:

The next night (8/29), I went to another M's game and brought ScottieJo with me. We got to sit in Row 2, down the first base line. We got up there early, so that I could show her the stadium. Before the game, the Mariners honored the Seattle Pilots as they celebrated their 40th Anniversary. The Pilots are the original professional baseball team in Seattle, but only lasted one year (1969):

Ian Snell pitching (Jack Hannahan covering 1st base):

As with anyone and any team, there are always former Mariner players on other teams. Here’s one of our former pitchers, Gil Meche:

Also, one of our favorite former utility players, Willie Bloomquist:

Finally I was able to get a good action shot of one of the KC players getting caught in a pickle:

FInal Score:

On Friday, September 18th, I went up to another game bringing my co-worker, Denise. The M’s were playing the Yankees. We sat a few rows back on the 3rd base side. For this game, the M’s honored Sigi Schmid and the Seattle Sounders, by having Sigi throw out the first pitch:

Felix Hernandez pitching and Adrian Beltre on 3rd base:

Ichiro hitting with a lot of the M’s along the dugout:

This picture is for my Uncle Larry. I guess one of his favorite players is Derek Jeter, so he asked me to get this picture:

This was the score at the end of the Top of the 9th:

Then, the Mariners came up to bat. One of our guys was on 2nd base, when Ichiro came up to bat. I thought that it would be a great time for him to hit a home run, which he ended up doing. He’s in his home run trot here:

This is a great greeting to come Home to for Ichiro, but I’d also be scared going into the middle of that mob and getting hit on the head:

FINAL SCORE!!!!!!

I took a short break from going to games and my next one was on Friday, October 2nd (the last Friday game of the year). I’m finally sitting back in our season ticket seats. One of the things the Mariners do is hand out some awards. I don’t know exactly how it works, but the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) choose a winner in several different categories for the M’s. I’m guessing the BBWAA does this for each team in the MLB. Whatever the case, they named Ichiro the M’s MVP of the year:

Griffey:

Another former M’s (although he played here many years ago and is still going strong), Omar Vizquel:

Final Score:

On Saturday, I went back up for the next-to-the-last game of the season and again I sat in our season ticket seats. I usually don’t take pictures of the dugout, but I thought that this was a great shot (notice how clean it is). Of course, this is at the beginning of the game:

The Aussie, Ryan Rowland-Smith:

If you’ve been to a M’s game during the last few seasons, you have seen the signs for “Rally Fries.” I won’t go into the whole story of why it started, but it has gotten so popular that even M’s fans at the away games have signs asking for Rally Fries. The M’s Bullpen would not be left out this year, so they posted their own sign. It reads “THE BULLPEN ARE PEOPLE TOO.....’RALLY FRIES’.”