Safeco Field (Seattle Mariners)

Seattle
Safeco Field (In and Around)

  

  

  

  

Space Needle

  



  Experience Music Project (EMP)

  Pike Place Market (Home of the first Starbucks)

  

  

 Ballpark Assessment

Category Score (0 to 10)					TOTAL (0 to 50)
Location	Atmosphere	Food	Exterior Architecture	Interior Architecture
5	6	10	9	8	38

Safeco FIeld is located next door to Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks (and Seattle Sounders FC).  The complex is an easy walk from the Seattle's primary train station, King Street Station, and offers great views of downtown Seattle, Qwest Field, Puget Sound and the Seattle seaport.

Safeco has a wide variety of food selections throughout the stadium from sushi to barbeque and anything inbetween.  There is a really nice beer garden and restaurant just across the street from the stadium, which sets the tone for the entire game.

The location of the home and away team bullpens are of particularly special note.  Located in left-center field, the bullpens are are separated from the fan by nothing more than a chincy thread fence so you can watch the starters, relievers and closers warm up (and heckle them to your hearts content) from about 10 feet away.

Game Comments (courtesy of MLB.com)

Game Date: July 23, 2010

Attendance: 34,932

Weather: 74 degrees F, clear

Length of Game: 2 hours, 37 minutes
Final Score: Boston Red Sox 2, Seattle Mariners 1

Josh Beckett allowed one run on five hits and struck out five in 5 2/3 innings in his first start since May. Bill Hall broke a tie in the seventh with a solo homer. Seattle's Jason Vargas pitched seven strong innings.

Stories from the Road

Apparently, it isn't cloudy, rainy and overall dreary in Seattle all the time.  The weather was absolutely perfect when I was there, mid 60s, light wind and not a cloud in the sky.  Most of my time in Seattle was spent walking from one tourist trap/attraction to the next:

Tourist Trap 1 - Space Needle.  The views of Mt Rainier, the city skyline and surrounding areas from the observatory deck can be absolutely fantastic, if the weather is good.  I lucked out as I visited the Space Needle (and paid my $18) during one of the best days of visibility during the summer.

Tourist Attraction 2 - Experience Music Project.  EMP is a museum dedicated to telling the story of the Pacific Northwest music scene.  In addition to the standard walk-through of the origins of Seattle grunge (replete with guitars, costumes and album covers behind glass encasings), there is an entire floor of the museum dedicated to "experiencing music."  People can walk into one of roughly 20 sound rooms and bang on drums, strum on a guitar/bass, play a piano, sing, etc for up to 10 minutes to their hearts content.  It really makes the place worth visiting.  I walked a labyrinth located right outside of the EMP building for the first time in my life (The experience wasn't as soothing as some people suggest).  Is this better than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland?  Absolutely!

Tourist Trap 3 - Pike Place Market.  The original (and  always jam-packed) Starbucks can be found here along with the fish market, which has been made famous by the occassional "fish toss".  People will literally stand near some of the fish racks for 30 minutes just to see one fisherman toss a fish to another fisherman.  I'm sure none of these people are actually from Seattle.  One of the more famous fish racks was giving out samples of smoked salmon, which turned out to be the best smoked salmon I have ever had.

Finally, a couple side notes about Seattle:
1) The city is really hilly.  I wasn't expecting this, which made the my 5-mile walk around the city that much more tiresome/treacherous (That's right, I was risking life and limb to complete this project).

2) Lewis Black's famous Starbucks rant could have worked equally well for Seattle as it did for Houston, TX.  While Houston might be home to a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks, Seattle is home to a never-ending string of Starbucks locations.  The chain is so prevelant in Seattle that you can probably start your day at one end of the city with a Starbucks coffee in hand, and walk to the other end of the city without ever having to go without a cup of coffee in your hand.  As you make your way across the city, drinking your coffee as you go, you will inevitably pass a Starbucks at the precise time at which you finish your first cup, second cup, etc.