In baseball there is a standing criticism of people who only attend games when a team is having a winning run, or during a good season. This criticism is extended to fans of all sports in the United States who only tune in for teams with the makings of a great year. In defense of myself and almost every Seattleite seated at Safeco Field last night I want to ask “who wants to set aside time to fight traffic, to pay money, to sit around scores of drunk Americans, to watch a bad team lose a boring game?” So, yes, I am a fair weather fan of the Seattle Mariners, and probably always will be.
The game was a backdrop, a venue, a theater, and an excuse to a greater purpose: the purpose of spending time with people I love. My friend Molly and I took the Water Taxi from West Seattle to meet my folks at Elysian Fields for dinner. The sky was not according to Hoyle clear, but the sun over the water made sharp the skyline. Seattle is like a city in bloom, having not yet fallen into the decay of a place past its peak. All along the waterfront, and as deep into the city as Westlake Avenue or 6th Avenue South, the erection of towering boxes of mirror glass, the next soon-to-look-outdated architectural fad, are too numerous to track or even to notice. Seattle is looking more like a shiny Vancouver with every passing day.
Attending a baseball game in person is a good way for gatherers who want only to talk together, while not being forced to do so; escaping the distractions of television’s over-messaged intensity. It is a slow game with peaks of excitement, but not too much. It was a far more freeing experience than I remember. We sat, and stood, and cheered, and booed and gathered around the idea of community for an evening. It was quite delightful.
albaniacalling 