The Mariners 2011 Home Opener started off promising. We saw a bit of sun, found a bar near the stadium that serves $3 tall boys before the game (
The Hawk's Nest Bar & Grill), and had a group of 12 friends together to watch the game. As the roof retracted I was really getting into the spirit.
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| Seattle Mariners 2011 Home Opener |
By the top of the 3rd (I think, it's too depressing to verify) the game was over. The Cleveland Indians were winning 12-0. Instead of watching the rest of the game, I ventured down to the beer garden to check out the new set-up.
The fences that separate the fans from the bull pen have been removed, so you can stand the new area called
The 'Pen and watch the game unobstructed. This is great in theory, but it can't be that long before some drunk fan throws a beer on an opposing (or potentially our own) pitcher while he's warming up. Maybe they're betting that throwing an $8 stadium beer just isn't worth it to an angry fan.
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| Balcony above the Safeco beer garden |
Maybe the best (read: worst) change of all is the addition of La Creperie to the beer garden/'Pen area. I mean, crepes are great and all, but it's bad enough Safeco serves the Ichiroll - a sushi roll. Are Seattleites really eating crepes at a baseball game?
I was recently at an As game in the player's family seating, and this big Japanese family (I know, I know...who's that Japanese guy who came from the Yankees? Whatever.) was drinking coffee--on FREE HOT DOG NIGHT! But it was funny to look around at the sheer mass of everyone around them, eating hot dogs and with cankles settling into their Tevas, and then to look at this Japanese family sipping coffee and wearing snakeskin shoes in Oakland.
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