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The Great Ballpark Chase: Sleepless (no more) in Seattle

timothynrussell
T-Mobile Park
The view from behind homeplate at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park prior to an early July game against the Baltimore Orioles.

(Contributing writer Timothy Russell returns with another set of entries in his Chasing Ballparks series. Leading off this year, Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.)

Well, it’s that time of year again – one of my favorite times – the annual baseball bus trip.

This was the third bus trip I’ve taken. The first was with Diamond Baseball Tours, while the last two were with Coast 2 Coast Sports Tours. I made a point of doing a west coast trip to check off the Oakland Coliseum, which is in its last season as the Oakland Athletics are fleeing town for Las Vegas in 2027. The A’s will likely play in Sacramento until the Vegas stadium is built.

And that leads me to probably the most important person on any of these trips. No, it’s not the tour director or the tour goers.

It’s the bus drivers.

This trip the tour was kind of broken up into two tours. The first one was a 2-day trip around Seattle. After a flight to Oakland, we got more settled into a routine.

For the Seattle leg, our bus driver was Dave, who showed up in full Fourth of July regalia and a red, white and blue hat. He delivered great bits of information about the Seattle area and also had some high-profile gigs.

During COVID, he drove NFL referees to the game and around the city. He’d park the bus in the stadium tunnel and be one of the few people allowed to stay during the game. Even the drivers who drove the players had to leave the stadium.

Clockwise from left, Coast 2 Coast Sport Tours received a shoutout on T-Mobile Park scoreboard; no trip to Seattle is complete without a visit to Pike Street’s famous Public Market Center; and the Mariner Moose celebrates the victory over Baltimore.

As far as baseball, Dave said he has never seen the Mariners win in person. Of course, he doesn’t go to many games. He prefers watching the games on TV at the end of the bar.

Then, there was Roberto, who took over for the bulk of the trip once we got to Oakland. The San Francisco native got in and out of some tough spots, maneuvering the bus around illegally parked cars in hotel parking lots and other tricky areas.

We skipped ahead slightly to mention both bus drivers, but the first ballpark we visited was Seattle’s T-Mobile Park. It’s a stadium that I had been to before, but it’s been about 15 years.

It’s a fairly accessible park, especially if you take the light rail system. As you walk up to the stadium, you see two statues. One is of Edgar Martinez, who played third base and designated hitter for the Mariners from 1987 to 2004. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019.

Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez receive statue treatment at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.

More prominently is the statue of Ken Griffey Jr., which is right outside the main entrance. When visiting ballparks, I enjoy looking at the statues of past players. But viewing the Griffey Jr. statue was more special.

He has always been one of my favorite players and definitely one of the more complete players to play the game. He was a 13-time All-Star with 630 home runs. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016. I don’t wear many non-Detroit Tiger jerseys, but his would be one I would consider buying for my collection.

One of the features you first notice inside the park would be the retractable roof. When closed, it does cover the entire ballpark, but it is not enclosed. It’s more like a canopy that slides over the entire playing field and stands.

The roof at T-Mobile Park is more a sliding canopy that covers the playing field, though the stadium is never fully enclosed.

Some facts about the roof. It covers almost nine acres and has enough steel to build a 55-story skyscraper. There are three movable panels that glide on 128 wheels, powered by 96 10-horsepower electric motors. It takes about 10-20 minutes to fully open or close the roof. It can be done once during a game.

There is also a third statue inside the stadium. That one is of Mariners broadcaster Dave Niehaus. He was honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame with the Ford C. Frick award in 2008. Niehaus broadcast 5,284 Mariners games over 34 seasons until 2010 when he died.

The statue features him sitting behind a desk with a microphone, wearing headphones. There is a scorebook in front of him, opened to the boxscore for Game 5 of the 1995 American League Division Series, when Edgar Martinez hit “The Double.” There is also an empty seat next to Niehaus for fans to pose for photos. (Hear Niehaus’ call here.)

Another feature inside the stadium is the Baseball Museum of the Pacific Northwest and the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame. It is on the main concourse, across from sections 135-141.

Members of the Mariners Hall of Fame are: Alvin Davis, Niehaus, Jay Buhner, Martinez, Randy Johnson, Dan Wilson, Lou Piniella, Griffey, Jamie Moyer, Ichiro Suzuki, and the most recent addition, Felix Hernandez.

The stadium holds 47,929 people. Dimensions of the stadium are 331 feet down the left field line, 378 to left center, 401 to center field, 381 to right-center and 326 down the right field line.

Given the heavy Asian population in the Seattle area, there are plentiful options for Asian food in the ballpark, including sushi, teriyaki, stir fries, and pad thai. There is also the standard ballpark fare, along with burritos, garlic fries, crepes, health food, seafood, and barbecue.

One of the more popular restaurants is Edgar’s Cantina, located in left field and features a heavy Latin American influence.

Also located in the left field ‘Pen area – known as the Bullpen Market – is the Mariners’ top contribution to ballpark cuisine. They sell chapulines, or toasted grasshoppers, in a chili-lime sauce. They got to be so popular that the club has to limit how many are sold each game.

They sell 312 portions each game. A portion size is three ounces and costs $9.99. The 312 is a nod to Martinez’s career .312 batting average. They are billed as high-protein content with no fat, no carbs, and are gluten free.

While I personally did not try any, a couple tour members did and said you could taste the spice more than the insects.

In the game, bus driver Dave finally did get to see the Mariners pull out a win. The Mariners used a five-run seventh inning to take a 7-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. While he wasn’t able to stay for the entire game, Dave was able to see the big seventh inning before taking off to get the bus ready to leave.

Baltimore took a 2-0 lead early, before Seattle tied it in the fifth before the big seventh inning. Seattle’s bullpen gave up just one run and two hits in the final 3 2/3 innings to seal the game, 7-3.

The left field gate at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.

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