Major League Disappointment

The Mariner's season kicked off today with 5-4 loss to the A's. For some reason, their game was played at 2:05. On a Monday. Who is going to watch that? Luckily, it was replayed in the evening and I have to say, despite the loss, it was a good game.

I wish I could say that for the exhibition game I went to on Friday night. The Mariners, my boys in blue, came to take on the ineffectual Portland Beavers at PGE Park. Of course, I purchased tickets as soon as possible and began counting the minutes until the first pitch.

I knew the game was off to a bad start when the first pitch was greeted with boos. Governor Kulingoski had the honors--despite the fact that he is a democrat in a very blue state, he has earned the loathing of the citizens of Oregon. It's gotten so bad that republican Kevin Mannix, who is just to the right of Hitler, may actually win the election. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

Bad omen #2: Richie Sexson, who was born in Portland and now willingly lives in Vancouver, WA (yeah, I don't understand it either) was not playing. True, he's no Ichiro, but he is, in my oft stated opinion, the hottie on the team.

If that wasn't bad enough, the rain came in. Oregonians can put up with a lot of rain--more than most human beings. However, there comes a time when you have to let it pass through. So, at 8pm, the game went into a rain delay. Being as we are all hearty Oregonians, we waited it out--we sang along with such songs as "I love a rainy night" and watched the field crew do bellyflops on the tarps. Finally, an hour later, the tarps came off, the dance of the outfielders was performed and the game resumed.

Unfortunately, Ichiro, Betantcourt, Ibanez, the new Japanese guy and the like were gone. In their stead were a bunch of people I've never heard of. While they were good players--at least they were far better than the Beavers, which is no hard task--I still wondered who they heck they were!

I ended up leaving the game early--without anyone I knew, it seemed pointless to fight the cold air moving in. However, once I was home, I looked up the players who came on the field after the rain delay. The had put in the Mariner's farm team! Yes, for the bulk of the evening, I had been watching a very expensive AAA game!

What I understand is that if the game had been called for rain instead of a rain delay, the tickets would have had to be refunded. So, they put in the Tacoma Rainiers instead. So, we watched a $5 game for 10 times the price--I actually paid more for this ticket than I would to see a Mariners game at Safeco field! I understand that, in the pre-season, the major league teams need to avoid injury. However, isn't there some sort of acknowledgement that fans payed to see a major league team instead of 2 AAA teams? I can't fault the management for pulling out the Mariners, but I can fault the ballpark for keeping my money when a refund was in order.