Opening Day!!

It's time for our lives to be dominated by the game, where the voice of Dave Niehaus (who is up for the hall of fame this year, by the way) narrates the fabric of our lives. Spring is here, and with it - baseball!! I've loved watching baseball since junior high, when the Mariner's made their first big run. When I was in school and my roommate was using the tv, I used to watch the plays being reported every minute or so using ESPN while working on homework. I have to say, though, that Jesse's love of the game far surpasses mine- so much so that he pores over the daily newspaper to find any interesting tidbits or reports about his beloved team. I've never met someone quite as devoted as he. Growing up, we watched the games, but my dad wasn't a particularly HUGE fan, so this is all new to me.
Today I found the cord that allows me to download pictures from my camera onto the computer, so here's some pictures of the fun from the first game of the season! Play ball!

Jesse's babies... I think he might have taken this picture to email to his best friend/cousin Jerry, who, it seems, is an equally big fan, considering, he texted Jesse early Monday morning with "Happy Opening Day!" I was amused.

The Opening Day Ceremony. The flag is huge! They had the "real guys" carry out the flag during the second game (Tuesday) since it was "Honor the Armed Forces Night." There were a lot of men there who are/were in the armed forces, and it was interesting to be there and see many of them receive honors from the M's. Some recovering Iraq vets were even in the crowd with crutches and all.

Safeco Field. I think this is when Dave Niehaus threw out the ceremonial first pitch. You can sort of see the black car at the top right of the picture - he drove out from the Mariner's tunnel all around the field in the black convertible, while highlights from his annoucing career played with a video for the whole stadium to see. He's been announcing for about 30 years for the Mariner's!

The Frozen Couple.
Our seats were way out in left field on opening day, so we were near the open air part of the stadium. At one point snow and hail were blowing in, although we were sheltered enough that we stayed dry. But BOY was it cold. And I was coming down with a cold, so I look really lovely and pale.

There were about 46,000 people at the first game. This was our view as we were headed down the stairs overlooking the street. It was a madhouse!

We have 15 more games to look forward to, so baseball will be the theme of our summer! We have about 2-3 games a month. Our seats for the rest of the games are in the 3rd level but they're right behind home plate, so it's an awesome view. During the second game, we felt like we were right in the middle of everything!