America's Pastime Friday night we went to the Mariner's game. We had great seats, just 4 rows back of the Mariners dugout. The first batter of the game hit a hard grounder to Brett Boone (see previous entry) who bobbled it and got an error on the play. Later in the inning with a guy on 3rd, someone hit a sort of blooper to right field. Ichiro timed the catch perfectly and threw a laser to home plate. The guy at third didn't even attempt it. It was awesome! Then the scoreboard lights up with, "Lesson #51... Don't go... On Ichiro!"

Anyway to make a long story short the O's had a one hitter going into the 9th inning and were winning 2-0. So the crowd rose to it's collective feet, and tried to rally the boys. Ichiro led off with a single. Cameron moved him to third on a double. Then Edgar Martinez got a single which scored Ichiro and moved Cameron to third. Now the score is 2-1. McLemore is put on first as a pinch runner (cuz Martinez is slower than dirt). Boone comes up to the plate and makes a weak ass effort, and strikes out on three pitches. However, Mclemore steals second during Boone's at-bat. The O's then intentionally walked Guillen for the possible double play. Up to the plate come John Olerud. He hit a hard shot to second base. The second baseman couldn't handle it and the ball squirted into shallow right-center. Cameron and Mclemore score to win the game.

It was a great game! And a lot of fun.