At the old ballgame

Speaking of Cinti ex-pats...

Saturday night we joined Cincinnati-turned-Seattle friends Dave and Mary T. for the Reds vs. Mariners game. This was the much-heralded series that brought about the return of Ken Griffey, Jr. to Safeco Field.

Mary T. apologized for the seats - in Riverfront Stadium speak, we'd call them "the red seats" -- but they were great! It was warm and sunny, meaning that Safeco's retractable roof was open, and we basked in the Seattle sunshine while admiring a view of the city and the Sound.

We soaked in the vitamin D...
















...and sure, we had to shield our eyes for much of the game, but when you're in the PNW, you never, ever complain about the sun lest it start raining 5 minutes later.














Mariners fans welcomed "The Kid" back with open arms, and the crowd erupted in cheers whenever he came up to bat. (What, no hits that night? What a crock!) A few days back in Seattle, and Griffey's all, "I want to retire there." Junior, Junior, don't get those Seattleites' hopes up. Don't you know, the peoples wants to see you.


Who would have guessed there would be so many Cincinnati fans in Seattle? Perhaps they were just wearing Reds garb in deference to Griffey...but we saw an awful lot of Reds shirts, along with a UC sweatshirt, a Miami U. t-shirt and lots of Buckeye paraphernilia.



Yes, we were very sad that the Reds got pummeled, 9-1.



















But hey, we got to see a grand slam, we got to dance everytime a homerun was hit, and we got to eat ice cream out of a miniature baseball helmet (which we dubbed "Delish in a Helmet Dish") -- so how could we possibly complain?