Watching a live Mariners Game

Rating: 7/10

Cost: Free for me ($50 for a medium-range ticket, $20 for cheapest)

Location: Safeco Field

Parking: Event parking is $25, I took the bus

Even though I played baseball in video game, I had never seen it- neither live nor on TV. So when I was presented an opportunity to be a spectator at Safeco Field baseball match between Seattle Mariners and LA Angels sponsored by my team at Microsoft, I saw no reason to not accept the gracious offer.

From what I understand Seattle Mariners is not amongst the top teams in MLB unlike it’s counterparts in soccer (Sounders) and football (Seahawks). So a victory at the end against a higher-ranked opponent was sweet treat to watch as match finished with a home run in the last innings overcoming a deficit till the penultimate innings. Here I will describe the experience of attending a baseball game at Safeco, and let you decide whether it’s something for you.

Getting into the stadium is preferable by bus if you don’t want to pay exorbitant parking fees, but unfortunately the nearest bus station (International District) from the suburbs is 15-minute walk making driving preferable option for many. Like any stadium it’s got 100, 200 and 300 levels with ticket prices in decreasing order. I sat in the 200 level. Food at the venue is mostly unappetizing as you’d expect at a stadium. It’s also extremely overpriced. They’ve a recently opened Din Tai Fung which sells 2 pork buns for $9, and a small portion of chicken fried rice for $15.

In general the game is much slower than basketball, soccer or football. There are many “strikes” when the batsman just leaves the ball and it’s very hard to get a “run”. So there is a lot of boredom in the game. However the stadium organizers make sure to keep providing some entertainment, such as rotating camera with various themes such as muscle flex, hugs, Noise Meter as well as just showing random entertainment on the screen such as digital car races. Everytime the batsman for Seattle is at one strike away from finishing an innings, the organizers will start chanting and getting the audience riled up too. There is a lot of cheering and hooting every time an opponent’s And whenever there is a home run scored by Seattle, there is fireworks from the stadium. By the first few innings, I understood most of the game’s format.

The audience started a Mexican wave, but it barely lasted a minute which was much less than any other sporting event I attended. It started raining towards the end which brought the roof to a close (so slowly that by the end it was still half-closed). This prevented fireworks when Seattle hit the home run in the end, but there were sufficient celebrations to make up for it. Seattle had a lead earlier in the game, which it squandered but then restricted LA from getting any runs in the last innings very efficiently and scored a home run worth 2 points winning the match with class.

Overall it’s definitely worth attending a live baseball match in a sports-loving city like Seattle, whether you are too much into the sport or not.