(originally posted on my blog at the original groupee.com social networking site.)
friday's mariners game was an awful thing. but what made it worth the trip was the opportunity to see ken griffey, jr. return to safeco, for the first time since he was traded in 2000.
a short ceremony before the ball game marked the occasion and included a 3-minute-long standing ovation from a crowd of 46,000+ people, and jay and edgar stopped by to hand junior a framed photograph of safeco field, titled "the house that griffey built". i was not the only one moved to tears by the festivities and the memories in the stadium that night; and recalling the look on griffey's face as his old buddies walked out onto the field still smarts a bit.
it was the video of memories spanning griffey's career with the mariners that reminded me of my introduction to baseball and our home team. in first grade, my elementary school held a father's day fundraiser, selling tickets to a game. my dad and i went - my first game, and if my math is right, junior's first year.
as the short, sweet ceremony came to a close, i looked over at my best friend and baseball-buddy and said "well... i could go home now." but there was still a game to watch. sadly, the reds handed us our [bats] on a platter, as we lost graciously (ha!) 16-1. i'll claim that we were distracted by the festivities and the sold-out house! (but clearly we recovered, because we returned the gesture on saturday with a 9-1 win.)
No comments:
Post a Comment