g99 | the King vs. the Chief and goodbye to Area 51

Mariners 4 | Yankees 2

OK, the minor intrigue of Felix pitching against his long-time idol and good friend, Freddy Garcia, for the first time was over-shadowed (just a bit) by the whole Ichiro is now a Yankee deal... I was extra glad I already planned to attend, even before the news broke.


Oh, a couple of roster moves to mention between last night and game time tonight...
Justin Smoak and Trayvon Robinson switch places between Seattle and Tacoma and Mike Carp is activated from the DL.


The jerseys were still regular price...

But most other Ichiro-related items were on sale...

I'll admit to being a little wistful...

There he was, in his old familiar place, except he had run out of the other dugout and was wearing a different uniform....

So, the first at bat that I saw Ichiro take as a Yankee...

was against Felix Hernandez (a pop-up to 3B)...

I took a little walk around the concourse, as the M's were taking the lead in the third...

Felix won without his best stuff (in fact, the 8th inning was kinda scary as he hit a couple of batters, including A-rod (who we heard immediately after the game had suffered a broken hand and was going to be put on the DL). Lucas and Tom were awesome (as per usual!) and the offense was able to do just enough against Freddy and the seemingly endless bullpen arms that Girardi cycled through.

On my way out of the ballpark, I lingered a bit longer than normal, knowing some things would be a bit different next time I visited...

Still collecting some thoughts....