Who's counting?

Those of you who know me are aware that I hold a personal record of which I am quite proud and will add to this afternoon.  Today I will attend my 43rd Seattle major league opener when the Boston Red Sox take on the Seattle Mariners.

I can hear your congratulations now, but one of you smart-asses won't be able to keep from pointing out my arithmetic error.  This will be my 42nd, not my 43rd Seattle opening game... M's first game was in 1977, 42 not 43 years ago.

Au contraire! I will exclaim.  You're forgetting Seattle's other, lost and pretty much forgotten, MLB team... the 1969 Seattle Pilots.  Yes.  There I was, with my good graduate-school buddy Tim Curry and 14,991 folks to witness the home opener of the Pilots in Sicks Stadium.  It was a cool, but sunny afternoon with no rain.  Gary Bell pitched a complete game shut-out to beat the Chicago White Sox 7-0.  By today's standards, seeing a pitcher throw a complete game was remarkable, but even more so, in the days before the Designated Hitter, Bell drove in two runs with a double.  The short sad, might I say, tragic, history of the Pilots is not worth sharing, certainly not on a happy day like this for the Mariners.  But I was there.

Stay tuned, I plan to update this from the game, later.

Go M's!

UPDATE!

I'm here!  Way up in Section 308, at the exact height of the right-field foul pole.

Being seranaded by Macklemore, a Seattle native and big M's fan.

3:51

Surprises already.  Haniger leading off.  Fraitas catching, not off-season pick up Narvaez.
Spectacular guitar solo national anthem by Pearl Jam's Mike McCready.

Lot of goosebumps as brand new Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez introduced to throwout the first pitch.


Game underway, Marco's first pitch: Benitendi, soft groundball to Bruce at first.  Out 3 unassisted.