Say what you will about the Kingdome - yes, it wasn't a good baseball stadium - I had a ton of memories from there and still think of it fondly. It was a big part of my childhood. We didn't have a ton of money when I was growing up, and as an adult I can look back with great appreciation to my parents for finding the means to allow me to go to games.
So as I've grown older, one of the things I most looked forward to was taking a child of my own to a Mariners game. Three years ago we had Satchel and that thought grew more vivid and realistic. I probably should have taken him when he was an infant, but didn't. He went to a few Everett AquaSox games, and a high school game here or there, but that's about it.
His third birthday is now a few weeks away, and the clock began to tick loudly. Why? Because kids get in to Mariners games for free until they turn 3. So I knew I had to get it done soon.
Saturday, June 5 was the day. An afternoon game against the Angels. I had a gift card to cover my ticket. Jessica worked that day. The opportunity was perfect. What follows is a blow-by-blow account of a day I'd looked forward to for a long time.
Friday, June 4: Spend the day pumping Satchel up for the next-day's adventure. He seems pretty excited about it, which raises my excitement level, but I know my son, so it's tempered a bit. I've learned in the past that sometimes what I want isn't what he wants, so I try to accept that. ...I said, I try to.
On to Saturday.....
7:07 a.m.: Satchel wakes up. Oh no. This is way, way too early for him to be up and be OK later in the afternoon. He usually doesn't wake up until 8:30 at the earliest, usually 9 or later, so this is no good. I quickly race to get his bottle (yes, he still has a bottle, shut up! And for your information, he calls it Bobby). I jam it into his mouth, lie down with him and pretend to sleep. It works! He falls back to sleep. Thank goodness, because I was staring at a looooong day.
9:06 a.m.: He wakes up for good. This works fine, he should be good to go until 2 or 3, which is manageable. He seems to be in a good mood.
9:10 a.m.: I tell him we're going to take the train to the baseball field! He loves trains! It'll be great! He tells me no, he wants to take the bus, not the train. It has begun. I lie and tell him the buses aren't working today, we have to take a train. He falls for it!
10 a.m.: I see that it's Turn Back the Clock Day and they're giving away free hats! I tell Satchel we're going to get a new hat at the game! Yeaaahhhh! He tells me no, he doesn't want a new hat! Sigh.
10:18 a.m.: I tell him it's time to start getting ready to go to the baseball game! The train leaves at 11:41. He says he doesn't want to go. Oh brother.
10:29 a.m.: He says he's excited to go and does the first of many baseball dances, which is pretty much him bouncing around waving his arms. He's clearly bipolar.
10:54 a.m.: We're about dressed to go, and he does another baseball dance!
10:56 a.m.: He says, no, he doesn't want to go!
10:58 a.m.: Another baseball dance and ready to go! Into the car and away we go to Edmonds terminal to catch the train. Along the way, we rock out to The Beatles, Satchel's favorite.
11:25 a.m.: Arrive at Edmonds station a
nd it's free parking! Yeah! We get out and go buy our train ticket (Satchel is free). This is very exciting for him. He sees the tracks! When will the train be here? Baseball dance!11:27 a.m.: Bored, when will the train get here? Is it coming? Is that it? Where is it?
11:41 a.m.: The train arrives right on time! Satchel is very excited, until it wooshes past us, which freaks him out. But then it stops! We get on.
11:42 a.m.: We get great seats on the water side of the train. Satchel stares out the window the entire ride, checking out the boats, the dogs on the beach, he gets very excited when we go through a tunnel (which is really just under a bridge, but whatever). He is loving the trip.
11:50 a.m.: He sees crows flying and breaks into a rendition of The Beatles Blackbird, which he sings for about five minutes.
12:08 p.m.: We arrive at King Street Station near the stadium. We get off the train and begin the walk to the stadium. I pick him up, because with this many people, it would take forever for him to walk.
12:14 p.m.: He sees Qwest Field, home of the Sounders and Seahawks, and asks if we can go in to watch the Sounders. I tell him they don't play until later tonight. Then he sees a huge photo of new Seahawks coach Pete Carroll on the side of the stadium. He asks who it is. I say it's the Seahawks coach and his name is Pete. He says, "Pete? That's a craaaazzzzy name!"
12:17 p.m.: We walk toward Safeco Field. He sees the food vending booths, including one selling Kettle Korn. "Popcorn!" he says. I tell him it's Kettle Korn, kinda like popcorn. He says he doesn't like Kettle Korn (which he's never had) and only likes popcorn.
12:20 p.m.: We see a guy dressed up like a hot dog, which Satchel thinks is pretty funny, but not as funny as the dog also dressed like a hot dog. We also see an old Asian guy with a cowboy hat very enthusiastically selling peanuts, which is kind of weird. Satchel says, "A cowboy!" I pass three people trying to give away their homemade hip hop CD, which I decline, though I feel bad doing it. I'm sure it's outstanding stuff, but my hands are full. We pass scalpers in Mariners hats and Satchel asks if they play for the Mariners. No quite.
12:22 p.m.: I hear "Is that Allende?" from behind me. I turn and it's Ben Holman, another former Nathan Hale baseball player. We talk for a minute and he's raising funds for his organization, I Love Baseball. It's a great organization that works with youth in the Dominican Republic by offering them educational opportunities in case baseball doesn't work out. Check them out at http://www.ilovebaseball.org/. Anyway, he's giving away tickets to the game. Score! He gives me a free one. The day keeps getting better and better.
12:31 p.m.: We e
nter the stadium. Satch has been here twice before, once for a Nathan Hale game and once for Mariners Fan Fest. But this is his first Mariners game and I'm really excited. We spot the marketing interns giving away the free hats and get them. He's excited because now we each have the same hat! He puts it on and it's too big, but we look awesome.12:41 p.m.: We reach out seats, high in the third level on the first base side. Great view of the city and the field. Satchel wants to know where Ichiro is. I don't see him, but I do see The Moose, which is mildly exciting for him. I explain that they are warming up, but I don't think he gets it.
12:45 p.m.: He asks if the game is over. I say no.
12:50 p.m.: There is a moment of silence before the National Anthem for John Wooden, the UCLA basketball coach who died the day before at 99. Great coach, great teacher, but it seemed a little weird to have a moment of silence for him. But no big deal. National Anthem starts and Satchel wants to know what the name of the song is. I say The Star Spangled Banner. "That's a craaaazzzyyy name!"
12:56 p.m.: He again asks if the game is over. I say no, man, they just finished warming up, the game hasn't started yet. He doesn't seem to like that answer. I continue to assure him that we'll get ice cream and walk around soon, and look for kids things. He wants to go now. I say we'll good soon. How soon, we'll see.
12:59 p.m.: He says he's not having fun. That hurts. I break out the Veggie Bootie, which he scarfs down.
1:03 p.m.: He spits up a little bit. I freak out. The last thing I need is him throwing up all over the place. I brought him a change of clothes, but not me, so I position him carefully. But it passes and he's fine. Disaster averted.
1:05 p.m.: The game starts. He doesn't really notice. He watches most of what ha
ppens on the big screen scoreboard.1:06 p.m.: Asks to go find kids stuff again. I say soon...again.
1:13 p.m.: He's getting restless so I offer him a bottle. He is very excited by this. He lies on me and drinks, I watch the game. This will work.
For the next several innings, he kind of dozes on me. I don't think he's asleep, but his eyes are closed, he's relaxed and only once in awhile opens his eyes when he hears a loud noise that he thinks might be the "boat races" I've told him about. It never is, though.
2:02 p.m.: He starts moving around, checking out the seat next to him, getting more active, or restless. I know my time is short, but the M's are struggling, so I'm OK with that.
2:58 p.m.: We make it to the sixth inning and I finally decide to get us moving. This game is going nowhere, I've got to pee and I'm hungry, so now is as good a time as any. I ask him
if he wants to go walk around. And we're off.3:11 p.m.: We walk down to the first level, where I am on a search for garlic fries and a veggie dog. I find both, but find carrying a backpack, a veggie dog, garlic fries, trying to eat and keep an eye on a wandering toddler is not as easy as it sounds. But, he says he doesn't want ice cream, so there's that.
3:20 p.m.: We pass by The Moose "house" where he's inside taking pictures with kids. I ask Satchel if he wants to take a picture with the Moose, knowing full well the answer. We move on.
3:28 p.m.: I have no idea how the game is going, but I hear moans and booes, so it can't be good. I see the kids play area, but there's a long line. We linger outside, where there's a fountain of a baseball player, who Satchel decides is Ichiro. I wolf down my food and scope out the play area, and realize that you need a ticket or something to get in, and by the looks of it, all the tickets have been given out. Satchel hasn't noticed the play area, so I strategically keep him from seeing it by encouraging him to go into one of the team stores.
3:30 p.m.: I'm trying to finish off my fries as fast as I can when I look down and see that Satchel has taken one of the foam fingers out of the store. I eat faster and usher him back in.
3:35 p.m.: Since I didn't have to use my gift card to buy a ticket, I figure I can use it to get him something. He despe
rately wants a foam finger, a pink one, though he changes his mind to a dark blue one (not that there would have been anything wrong with pink). Then he wants a bobblehead, which is too expensive. I convince him to get a stuffed baseball guy, so we get that, and he seems happy.3:41 p.m.: We continue to wander the stadium and, knowing that he likes museums, we got to the Mariners' museum and hall of fame inside the stadium. He likes it! He's very excited by the display that shows how a baseball is made. He poses in front of a couple of player exhibits, touches a real bat, overall has a great time. Great photos too.
3:50 p.m.: My camera batteries die. Dang.
3:52 p.m.: I ask if he's ready to go. He says yes. I think it's about the eighth inning or so, so now is probably a good time. We head out of the stadium with the throngs of other people escaping.4:07 p.m.: He again asks if we can go to the Sounders game, especially when he sees a huge inflatable soccer ball going up outside Qwest Field. I tell him next time.
4:15 p.m.: We reach our train, which isn't ready to board yet. He's restless so I give him some of his sandwich. Then the doors open. We spend the next several minutes moving from seat to seat until we find one that works for him, on the third level with a view of the water.
4:27 p.m.: A couple asks if they can have the other two seats in our booth. Sure. But Satchel doesn't like it, gets very shy and asks if we can move. I say forget about it and give him more sandwich.
5:31 p.m.: We arrive at Edmonds Station. A good trip back, more boats and dogs to see. He was great. We get in the car and drive home.
It was an awesome day for me. So much fun. I knew he wouldn't be into the game, and that was fine. But he was in a great mood, he seemed to generally have fun and said he wants to go again, "this time with Mommy." I hope that he'll remember the adventure we had when he gets older. If not, that's OK, I will. Now, gotta get Sounders tickets.
This is so great, Mike. I got choked up a couple of times. The way you documented this day is a great gift for Satchel when he grows up. He will always have this to remember by. :)
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