Game 61
Today will now be known as D-Ray Day. Today is the day the Mariners lost the war.
Perhaps not so extreme as all that, but earlier this week I reminisced in this space about the victorious campaign of ’95. Tonight, the Mariners were swept by a team that has never had a winning season, and occupies the stadium built to lure Seattle’s baseball team to Florida.
A team that was not in the league in 1995, but is managed by three of our coaches from that year, along with one of our star pitchers as its pitching coach.
Bleh.
After yet another round of my new favorite game, “pin the tail on the Mariners fan”, I set off for tonight’s contest with one goal in mind. Trade Seat 11 for a hot dog, at the very least. Perhaps get bus fare for the ride home.
Tonight, the bus was on schedule, leaving me plenty of time to match wits with the scalpers. After an abortive attempt to get the Canadians (real ones) to the game on mass transit, I led my intrepid crew through the streets of Seattle, towards the promised land of SODO.
Noticing our plight in front of the Colman building was this fellow, who asked the right question of the right fellow at the right time.
“Are you guys going to the game?”
The answer, of course, was yes. As was his reply to my standard quip, “Do you need a ticket?”
One hot dog later, we enter the building, already talking baseball. The Canadians split off after our walking tour of Pioneer square, and my revelation that the cheapest beer they would see for 4 hours would be at Sluggers. Wacky northern neighbors. We’ll miss them, but not their chemical-laden smoke.
Vintage Mariners tonight. Tino doesn’t do all the damage, but several of our other former prospects do. Aubrey Huff, and Jorge Sosa, who hasn’t lost to the Mariners since we converted him from an outfielder in 2001.
Yep, that was us.
Paul C. smith of MLB.com says it best :
“Starter Jorge Sosa pitched 6 1/3 innings and gave up five runs (one earned) on six hits and two walks. He struck out six and threw 117 pitches, 75 for strikes”
The one earned run was Bucky Jacobsen’s 8th HR of the year, a 421 ft. blast that would have hit the KOMO sign (and quite possibly the glove) had it not been caught by another happy fan. I sat in that section for two years, and exactly two HR’s landed there. Both Grand Slams, one of which hit off my seat while I watched last year’s series finale vs. Tampa Bay from the bar below it.
This year, it is seeing more action than I am, by a damn sight.
The hometown nine managed to erase Ron Villone’s 4 run 2nd inning to take the lead. Yay, us.
They also managed to blow his 5th win of the year the next inning, and then let the game slip completely away in the ninth.
At least tonight, Ichiro was able to bat in the final frame. But with two outs, he failed for the 4th time to reach the 200 hit plateau.
For the fourth time.
On our way out, some kids begged us to take their hand-made Ichiro sign for use in Game 62. No problem, I was thinking about making one anyway. Now I just need a collection of large digits to record his race for the record, and I’ve got it made.
No free pepsi. No win for Ron Villone (again) No 200th hit for Ichiro.
No Joy in Mudville.
No hope.
Mariners Lose. Again.
And Dave, you were right. He was inducted (by the Veterans Committee) in 1994. But his 7 world Series rings (out of nine chances) carry a lot of clout. As do the pinstripes.