That was one long, cold game ...

Seattle Mariners 11
Kansas City Royals 6

I haven't been that cold at a game since Apple Cup 1998 in Pullman.

It was freezing. 72 hours earlier I was at Qwest Field sweltering and listening to the Dalai Lama. Tuesday evening I was feeling a breeze off the water on a night that felt like it might have reached 38 degrees. There are moments where the Kingdome is missed ... and then you realize how awful that thing was for baseball and the moment passes ... because you look around and see a ball hit to the gap in left center and watch it hit the grass and you become glad that you might have been wrong in 1995 ... which is another story entirely ...

It is well worth it to take a bus in from Northgate, plunk down a whopping eight bucks to get in the ballpark, splurge another buck for a scorecard, and then find a good spot on the rail about the M's bullpen to keep score and watch a game ...

As the game progresses and it becomes clear that you actually know how to score a game a number of things happen. First, people sort of glance at the card. Second, people come over and try and read the card over your shoulder. Third, people flat out ask you about game details.

Bear in mind that if you are going to keep score like I did, that you must be thorough and consistent, else the wheels fall off and you look silly when people ask because you don't know how many strike outs someone has. Trust me on this.

Game notes:

Attendance listed as 17K+ ... no #@(%ing way were there 17 thousand people in the stadium. It looked like a Tuesday crowd from 1987 ...

I didn't realize that grounding into a fielder's choice granted the batter an RBI ...

Lopez had one of those games where he kept flying out, but because Ichiro kept finding himself on third it appears he had a great night at the plate due to the RBIs ...

Richie Sexson's night can be viewed two completely different ways depending on how you use the stats ... he was either 0 for 3 with two strike outs and in need of being benched .... OR, he had an OBP of .400 because he walked twice and came around to score and salvaged his night with patience at the plate when it counted ...

The "Countdown to Cooperstown" display with the number of days until Dave Niehaus' HOF induction is very classy and cool ...

Several players wore "42" in honor of Jackie Robinson; Beltre, Rhodes, Batista, etc ... and there was a large 42 above 2nd base ... very nice and tastefully done ...

Speaking of which, it was nice to see Arther Rhodes pitch in an M's uni at Safeco Field again ...

0 home runs in a game with 17 runs scored makes for a lot of rallies, pitching changes, long innings, and a 3 1/2+ hour game ... when it is cold like last night, that is a long time ... a few years ago I went to a game that lasted 2 hours and 4 minutes ... we weren't through 5 at that point last night ...

The sound of the pitcher warming up with the snapping sound from the catcher is very cool ...

drunk idiots are drunk idiots in any city or ballpark ... heckling the other bullpen does not "get into his head" ...

Hideo Nomo needs to retire ... who knew he was even still in the majors? I had to look it up, he had not pitched in MLB since pitching for Tampa Bay in 2005 ...