Dear Anna and I went to the Mariners game yesterday and had a grand and sentimental old time. Not only did we see Ken Griffey get a hit, but we also witnessed Ichiro score the first run of the game in the bottom of the 1st with a most elegant slide into home (his body well to the right of home plate but swiping his left hand across it as he went by) on a double by Jose Lopez. It brought back memories of the late 90s when a much smaller Anna and I went to so many games to see Junior, Edgar, Randy, and Jay et al deliver home runs and shutouts and playoff appearances for several years running. Junior is a bit beefier these days and slower (when he got a hit they put in a pinch runner), but the sweet swing is still very much in evidence. The Mariners' center fielder, Franklin Gutierrez, is incredible and made two unbelievable catches, one of which resulted in a double play as the hapless Ranger base runner on second base had already rounded third thinking an extra base hit had just occurred. Frankie tossed the ball to second to double him up and the inning was over.
Naturally, there has to be a downside. The guy sitting next to me was apparently at the game with a business associate and, attempting to impress his companion, he simply would not shut up. A comprehensive know-it-all, he vomited forth anecdote after anecdote, got up sat down, went to get food, went to get drinks, jostled me with his elbow countless times, stood up to put stuff in his pocket, stood up to take stuff out of his pocket. And every time he chose to stand up, his ample posterior blocked my view of the hitter. During all of these proceedings, the motor mouth flapped non-stop.
All ended well however, as the Mariners won 5-3 and remain 4 games behind the Angels at the all-star break. Considering that they were predicted to finish a dismal last in the AL West this season, they are looking pretty good.
We had fun!!
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