What A Swell Day For Baseball

April 4, 2001

The weather was perfect for a baseball game, and even if it hadn't been, that wouldn't have stopped several of us from leaving early that day to catch the first afternoon game of the season at Safeco Field.

The Oakland "Laura's Bet For Wildcard This Year" Athletics wasted no time and scored a run in the first inning, but the Seattle "Superstars Are For Sissies" Mariners fired right back and left the inning tied 1-1 and I'd go into more detail here except that I'm having to go pretty much strictly from the game log as it is since we were still getting settled into our super sweet 12 rows away from third base seats and getting our beverages taken care of.

The second inning was uneventful, as was the third, although Ichirio "Ichiro" Suzuki did get a single but we were unable to do anything with it, and in the fourth inning, the ever-annoying A's managed to get another run in but it would be the last time they did that, and the M's came charging in the bottom half to tie it up again with a walk and a couple of singles and surprisingly enough, a strategically hit double play that allowed the run to score.

The fifth was also not terrifically exciting, but evidently Gerald "Something Made Me Mad" Perry was ejected, and why, I can't say I ever really figured out, which I believe can be blamed on trying to procure a beverage at the time.

Now I'm not exactly sure what happened next (let's just chalk it up to said procurement of said beverages), but Seattle went crazy while I was away from my seat but according to the game log, it went a little something like this: Al "Someday I'll Pull My Weight Around Here" Martin struck out. Then Carlos "I Want To Play Shortstop For the M's, So I'm Already Way Ahead Of A-Rod In Laura's Book" Guillen singled. Tom "Remember When I Hit That Grand Slam Against Baltimore Last Year & We Beat Them 4-2!" Lampkin singled. Oakland made a pitching change. David "Here I Go!" Bell doubled and scored Carlos. Ichiro was intentionally walked. Mike "Griffey Who?" Cameron singled, Lampkin scored. Edgar "I Am the Greatest Hitter That Ever Lived" Martinez singled and picked up two RBI's with Ichiro and David. Oakland made another pitching change. I chuckle to myself as I'm reading this, since I missed it the first time. John "I Think I'll Pick Up An RBI Too" Olerud hit a sac fly that scored Cameron. Bret "Welcome Back!" Boone singled. Anthony "Now Hitting For Al Martin" Sanders doubled and scored Edgar and Boone. Carlos flied out, and right aboutthat time Laura "I Will Never Get Over Missing This Inning As Long As I Live" (last name deleted to protect the not so innocent) returned to her seat and asked, "What in the [expletive deleted] just happened?"

The seventh was uneventful and in the eighth, I have to mention that Norm "He's Back" Charleton came in to relieve Arthur "Artie To Laura" Rhodes and took care of business which was great to see. In the bottom of the eighth, we got a couple more hits and tacked on another run, making it 10-2, which would hold as we shut them down again in the ninth and game over!