Ballparks - 10 - Safeco Field, Seattle, WA

2 May 2005

The above date is also a link to the box score and anything else you could know from that game, courtesy of the great ‘BaseballReference.com website. I will try to follow that format as this series progresses.

Safeco Field, Seattle (2 May 2005)

Seattle became a big-league city for the first time in 1969. The Pilots lasted one year in the Emerald City before financial troubles forced the owners to sell them off to Milwaukee where they became the Brewers. Given the aging, outdoor stadium they had to endure, the city upped the ante and built the Kingdome in 1976. The new expansion Mariners began their existence there in 1977.

Today, perched on the Seattle waterfront, right next to CenturyLink Field where the Seahawks play NFL football, sits Safeco Field. The American League Mariners have been there since they moved out of the awful Kingdome in mid-season, July 1999. Unlike the standard domed stadium where all games are played indoors, Safeco Field has a retractable roof with three panels that can cover the field like an umbrella on those days when that Seattle ‘sunshine’ rains down. The field remains open to the outside air and there is no need for heating or air conditioning.

Safeco Field and its Retractable Roof (2 May 2005)

Following the tradition started by Baltimore’s Camden Yards in the early 90’s, Safeco has a ‘retro-modern’ layout with asymmetrical dimensions, real grass and better sight lines. After all, it’s a baseball-only park.

I was on my first getaway since retiring two months earlier…still in full thrall over the realization that I could go to the other side of the country and NOT worry about being back at the desk on Monday.

Google “Ichiro’s greatest catches” and you can find a link to the replay. Of course, I was nowhere near right field, high and behind home plate…pretty much as far away from the catch as I could be. BUT, I could have been paying better attention. Like the fight fan who lays out a pay-per-view expense only to miss the first- round knockout while he turned around to adjust his seat, I have no recollection of this play. I might have been in the can. Futzing with the camera. Concentrating on my beer. In late December when ESPN was waxing hysteric about ‘The Plays of the Year’, THAT catch from THAT game was a year-end TOP TEN play…and I WAS THERE…and missed it.

Safeco Field, Seattle (2 May 2005) 

With less than a 20-year history, the place has not had the time to rack up many significant events. It was here in 2004 that the great Ichiro Suzuki collected his 258th hit of the season, breaking a record that stood for 84 years.

One of the rarest feats in baseball, the perfect game (27 up, 27 out), has been pitched only 23 times in the Major League’s 140-year history. Two of those games were thrown at Safeco. Phillip Humber of the White Sox beat the Mariners 4-0 on April 21, 2012. Later that season, the home team’s own Felix Hernandez pitched the most recent perfecto, beating Tampa Bay 1-0.

That crazy 2012 season also had the Mariners throw an even more rare combined no-hitter (just 11 in history) where a total of six pitchers held the Dodgers hitless on June 8.

Downtown Seattle from Safeco Field (2 May 2005)

Fans seated on the upper deck on the first base side can see the great Seattle skyline as the sun sets (if there is sun that day). I’m leaning over the railing on top of the third base side for this view up the bay shoreline.