(Alternatively titled: “You know your team is having a rough time when ever Mariners fans feel a need to mock you…”)
April 8, 2013
Seattle 3, Houston 0 (Box Score; Gamezone)
W: J. Saunders (1-1)
L: P. Humber (0-1)
S: T. Wilhelmsen (3)
There is something about Opening Day Baseball. This holds true even if it is not really Opening Day (in fact a week after actual Opening Day, which is not really Opening Day anymore as W. Huber has decreed from upon high that there will be an official Opening Day game before Opening Day, but alas I digress), rather the home opener, and the opposing team’s home opener to boot. Still, for the first time since the eternity of the most recent Void, baseball had found its way back to the Pacific Northwest. Not only was baseball back in the Northwest, but the Astros were heading back to the Northwest for the first time since June 7-9, 2004 when the Astros took two of three from the Mariners. I’d had the opportunity to attend game two of the series – it is was phenomenal. Though the Astros were held to three hits on the night, a MoBerg sac-fly in the top of the seventh inning sent Bags home for the Astros only run of the night, which proved enough as Clemens-Lidge-Dotel managed to hold the Mariners scoreless. It was, to say, memorable for me as it was the first time I’d seen the Astros in person since I’d left the Houston area in late 1993/early 1994.
For me, however, the game last night had a very different ‘feel’ to it. The Astros came into Safeco Filed not as a ‘curiosity’ via inter-league game, rather as a soon-to-be regular visitor to Safeco Field as the newest (and least regarded) member of the American League West. And with that came a sense of unease, at times slowly eating away at the anticipation and excitement of being a part of Opening Day*esque festivities. The Astros play the previous five games had only served to magnify this unease. Still, Opening Day*esque baseball was back, and I was still looking forward to being a part of it.
And I was still looking forward to it even after two of my close friends who I’d invited to join me and my colleagues on the trip to Safeco held us up from getting to the park for a collective hour-plus as they attempted to get their shit straight… Yes, I was annoyed (read: pissed off). Fortunately, for the sake of my colleagues who actually wanted to see most of the Opening Day*esque baseball pre-game festivities, I drove like the proverbial bat out of hell’ and made up 30 minutes on the trip. [Unfortunately, Washington loves their photo-radar machines and I am unconvinced that fortune may have shown brightly enough upon me yesterday to have avoided all (or even many) of the photo-radar sped-traps set up on I-5 North to Seattle]. That said, we arrived at Safeco safely, and in time to see many (but not all) of the Opening Day*esque festivities. And in arriving at the park, whatever difficulties or apprehensions involved in so doing were instantly gone. It was, after all, live baseball. On a beautiful night. In a great venue. And once again all seemed right with the world.
Admittedly, I was hoping (against hope) I would get the opportunity to witness an Astros win against ‘hated divisional foe’ the Seattle Mariners, but that was not to be (Astros lost 3-0). I did, however, get to witness an encouraging outing from Astros’ starter Philip Humber (6.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, BB, 2 SO, 1.11 WHIP, 3.09 ERA). And, fortunately, I did not have to endure another 10-plus strikeout performance (8 on the night) by the Astros (and remained aware of the ‘K-Count’ throughout the game as my colleagues made every effort to ensure that I could not remain oblivious to Astros’ whiffs (either during the present game or for the Astros season-to-date)), so there is that. Most importantly, however, I got to see baseball – Astros baseball (even if it was the craptastic version that we’ve seen since game two of the 2013 season). And despite the loss, in being at a baseball game and enjoying all that goes along with being at a game, all was right with the world once again.
