University of Washington may be the only one starting its Autumn Quarter in the last week of September, so this weekend was the first one for my son after his sophomore year kicks off. In his freshman year, he asked me to pick him up almost every weekend because he loved his more comfortable bed at home and enjoyed watching TV and playing video games in bed. Though, in his last quarter of freshman year, he lived in the double dorm alone because his roommate got a Residence Adviser's position, moved out to another building and no one else was assigned to my son's room, he still preferred coming back home at weekends. On Thursday night, I called him to tell that I would be very late to pick him up in the evening of Friday, probably it would be around 6:30 pm. Surprisingly, he didn't plan to go home because would do homework in the library. I actually prefer him staying on campus during the weekends, this indicates that he gradually is involved into college lives.
I woke up around 7:00 am and watched a Bundesliga match in which Monchengradebach wining Wolfsburg. Later on, I caught William's amazing free kick but Chelsea would lose at the end.
I had planned to go to a Mariners' game before the season ended and there would be only two games left. Though it had been still raining in the morning, the sunshine came out while I was watching the soccer matches. It's college game day but I didn't watch any this week. After checking on Mariners' website, I decided to drive to Safeco Field. It shouldn't be sold out, I would buy the ticket at the ticket window at the field, then I would save a couple of dollars of online process fees.
I had planned to park a little bit away from the field where the charge was less, however, I wanted to try to park in the garage at Century Link Field where I had never parked. The charge was only 15 bucks and it was only across the street to Safeco Field. I bought a ticket for the seat in Terrance Club at the price of 67 bucks without any additional fee. Last time when I was at a Mariners' game was 2007 with my son and my dad when they just moved to US to live with me. We actually left earlier because my son and dad didn't understand the game.
After so many years not coming to the game, I already totally forgot the facilities. Asking a stupid question of where was the restroom before walking into the club, I explained to the staff that I hadn't come for 8 years. She showed me a questioning smile as if saying to me how dare I could miss the games so long.
I had drunk two bottles of beer at home in the morning, so decided to go for a cup of soda. The boy behind the concession stand recommended me to buy a 10 bucks cup, which could be refilled as many times as I wanted. Right after sitting down on my seat, I heard a phrase: "Bed Timing", a guy who was probably 10 years senior wearing an A's jacket was trying to get through in front of me to arrive at his seat. After both of us settled down, he saw my ticket still in hand and became interested in it because he said this was his first time at Safeco Field and he got a pass from someone, which was in a plastic tag hung on his chest. He said he preferred printed ticket as mine and even asked me to give him to take a look. I joked that it could be a souvenir.
From my seat, I could view the first base the closest and it was a wide open view of entire field with skyline of downtown Seattle at the background. It's a bit chilly but I was fine though the gentleman sitting on my right complained a little bit.
Mariners got the problem in the first inning, and they had been behind by 3 until 4th or 5th inning. I started getting back the enjoyment of baseball game. As I shared, fans at a baseball game are very relaxed. Especially, when the flying ball comes your way, you deeply interact with the players and the game.
We experienced a long extended game after both teams tied at the end of 9th inning. The gentleman wearing an A's jacket had left at the end of 8th inning, and people started leaving while 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th kept coming. However, there were still a couple of hundreds fans left when 14th inning arrived. A couple at their 60s or 70s sat at their seats till the end of the game in which A's eventually won but nobody really cared. The husband of that couple kept turning his head back to talk to me. He told me that he'd never been in a game in person, which got into 12th inning before and never caught a ball in his glove in a baseball game. After a ball flew over our heads, he asked me if I noticed a ball net located somewhere at Cub's home field for the purpose of receiving flying balls, I told him I never noticed and actually I never went to Wrigley Field, so didn't quite understand what he referred to. There could be two reasons he asked me that question: First of all, I wore a jacket with a small 787 logo on it and my face was not familiar to him, so he was wondering if I came or moved from Chicago; Secondly, I had showed knowledge of baseball during the game and seemed a devoted fan because I had been sitting in the chilly night with only a jacket on for so many innings while they were wearing the thick coats. Why I picked that jacket was that I didn't have any Mariners gear any more and didn't want to wear Sounders, Seahawks, Huskies' or defunct Sonics' sweatshirt to the game. That 787 jacket became the only choice. However, from the face in the clip I filmed, you may tell I was a bit tired at the end and my face looked like a monkey's face.
In the last inning, I joked to that gentleman sitting in front of me that we might have to stay until the next morning, he seemed taking it seriously and might think it would be even possible. At the end, I said to them "It's fun, have a good night." His wife agreed: "It is fun!" They are more serious fans than I am and probably started feeling to lose something when Mariners would get into off season.
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