Midweek, Mid-day Game

One of Tanners Christmas presents was Yankees v. Mariners tickets in Seattle for him and I. Originally, the plan was for it to be part of a larger family trip, but with all the back and forth with Pete, the vacation days ended up having to be used differently than planned, so Tanner and I went alone. We had bought tickets to the mid-day game, flying up the night before and back after the game. 

We left after school on the last day of school and flew to Seattle. We got Smashburger in the airport for dinner which was just awesome. Tanner was very excited and as always liked the plane ride because he got soda. We got to the hotel in Federal Way just in time to watch the Mariners manager get thrown out of the game on TV before we hit the sack. 

We were up early the next morning (being back a timezone) and left the hotel to go have breakfast at Dennys. Tanner got his usual chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream and bacon. After breakfast we headed up to Seattle and found a place to park (free parking is a HIKE), and got to the park prior to it being open to the public. We found the gate that opened the earliest, which was out in the bullpen and hung out by the Yankees bullpen to kill some time. We stood there and watched Andrew Warren throw a pretty long bullpen session, which Tanner was really impressed with (A. because you are SO close, and B. because the kid threw SO fast). After they finished, we were just standing there talking and Larry Rothschild, the Yankees pitching coach walked up and gave Tanner a ball. Souvenir gotten, a game used, official MLB ball. 

We went to the bullpen store and looked around and as we were coming out, ran into Tanner's friend Evan and their family. We knew that they were going to this game also, but figured finding them wouldn't be as easy as running into them on the concourse. By then the rest of the stadium was opened and so we all went to the BIG Mariners store. Tanner got a new (and 50th or so) Yankees hat. I got a vintage Seattle Rainiers shirt and we picked up a program and scorecard. The big highlight of the trip was I was going to teach Tanner to keep score. 

We went to the "speed pitch" booth and Tanner was able to hit 46 on the gun and throw two out of three for strikes. 

We went to our seats and I showed Tanner how to set up the scorecard; getting the line-ups straight, the weather, first pitch time etc. He sat there with his pencil at the ready while they opened up the roof just in time for first pitch. We ended up sitting right in front of a bunch of other folks who had come in from Boise also. We got some nachos prior to the game getting started and then settled in for a really fun game. Mark Texiera hit a two run home run and there was some good pitching. Tanner kept up his scorecard the whole time. We ran out between innings to get hot dogs and then again to get candy (it's hard to tell with me whether the big draw is the game or the food) but didn't miss logging a pitch. I taught him how to close the book on the pitchers, what the positions were numbered, how to handle substitutions etc. and he seemed to have a really good time. He finalized his scorecard on the plane ride on the way home, figuring the game statistics for each player for both teams. 

We got home pretty late after the game and Tanner proceeded to crash out for the next couple of days.  It was such a short turn around, and so packed full that it took him some time to recover. It was a lot of fun for both of us and time away from the family together is always special.