The Finale

Hey everybody!

Ever watch a fireworks display? The show itself is always exciting and exhilarating, but the finale is always spectacular and well worth the wait. This roadtrip to Seattle was just like that. I had been to the ballpark before, but going with friends and seeing a good game made this finale a great conclusion to a summer that has had so much happen and fill me with so many memories.

We woke up early and took the bus down into Seattle. From there we walked down to the famous Pike Place Public Market. When thinking of possible places to go for this roadtrip, the first thing that popped into my mind was the market and the great entertaining act of the fish market employees. They certainly didn't disappoint.

Once they get an order, the employees engage in a ritualistic, but humorous chorus of yelling and shouting while throwing the sea animals around the shop. The humor and passion that they bring to the job makes them more of a tourist attraction than the actual product they sell. If you're ever in Seattle, don't miss them.

After seeing the projectile fish, we started to make our way down to the park. Along the way, I used the opportunity to explain to Tyler the wonders of all the Seattle skyscrapers. Our host was just as knowledgeable as I was when it came to Seattle landmarks that even I learned a lot. The ten block walk to the park was filled with interesting facts and figures about skyscrapers, city planning and history.

Once we got to the park, we met up with another one of my friends from high school and went in. The Mariners were playing the Yankees, so a large crowd was on hand to see the game. The bleachers were almost completely full and even the upper deck was about 3/4 full.

One of the neat features at Safeco Field is that fans are allowed to look through chain link right into the bullpens and see the pitchers warm up. When I saw that Joba Chamberlin was pitching, I knew that I had to go down and get as close of a picture as I could. However, the real interesting picture was the Yankee catcher Jorge Posada. I'm sure a lot of you have seen that SportsCenter commercial with Posada when he is going down a hallway at the ESPN studios and people in offices he's walking by are yelling "Hip, Hip Jorge!" It happens about three times during the commercial and the final scene is of Posada looking very irritated and annoyed while shaking his head.

When Posada came into the bullpen to warm-up Chamberlin, I yelled at the top of my lungs "Hip, Hip Jorge!" Posada looks right at me and just glares. I was the only one who yelled something, so I was very easy to spot. I just busted up in laughter while everyone looked at me. It was so funny that I was the only who yelled that. I'm sure Posada gets that yelled to him at every park in the Majors, but just the fact that he acknowledged what I said was pretty funny.

Ken Griffey Jr. had a three-run homer and four rbis as the Mariners chased Joba Chamberlin after just three innings. The final score was 7-1 in favor of Seattle.

This represents the last baseball game for me this year. Baseball Extravaganza 2009 is officially concluded. As with all my other entries, I will author a "Final Thoughts" entry for this blog. I'm going to need a few days to kind of gather my thoughts and come up with a summary for this summer. As evidenced by this blog, a lot of stuff happened this summer and putting it all together is going to be a challenge.

I will try my best to get a "Final Thoughts" here in the next 24 hours.

Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)