Not just any game.

A normal Saturday night baseball game.

It started out at the Pyramid beer garden across the street from the Seattle Mariners Safeco field where we enjoyed a pre-game cold one. It was one of the nicest days of the year. A cold one led to two when a friendly chap from Vancouver bought both Josh and I a round. “A cold one on the Canadian?” we questioned. Okay.
TJ, another local friend, recently began hosting people at his house via couchsurfers.com. Markin, his first couch surfer, was fresh off the plane from czech republic. His skinny build, piercing blue eyes, Euro accent and small afro fit his personality to a T. What is "T" anyway? This was Markins first taste of the United States. He was all smiles and loving it.

When we got into the ball park, things were buzzing. The Boston Red Sox were in town and they were supported by what seemed to be half of the crowd. I have to believe a lot of them were Seattle transplants, otherwise they all travelled a ways for this game. Once inside, 41 thousand people filled the stadium. It was close to a sellout. I had read on ESPN.com that it would be a low scoring affair with Josh Beckett and Felix Hernandez pitching, two of the best pitcher's in the majors.

The five run first inning by Seattle was capped with homers by Ichiro and Casper Wells, whom everyone called Casper. He was the "unfriendly ghost" to the Red Sox fans. People were still finding their seats and the Mariners were splittin’ wood. The Mariners crowd was giving it to the Red Sox fans whom were hunched back in their chairs in disbelief. A lot of Mariners fans, myself included, were rubbing it in while we could. Anyone with a Red Sox hat in the near vicinity was gifted with a "hey, how 'bout those mariners?!!". The fourth inning brought all the fun. By this time, the two couples in front of us clad with Red Sox attire were more than a few beers to the good and seemingly done talking trash about the Mariners. They were moving on to hot dogs or peanuts.

Then came the fourth inning. The Red Sox had Ellsbury on 3rd base. A pop fly to right was caught by Ichiro. The runner tagged and started for home. The throw by Ichiro was an absolute laser. It might’ve even had a red tracer behind it. The catcher for the mariners, Bard (which is a fun name to say anytime you can), caught the ball in his mitt, switched it to his bare hand and took a flying knee to the chin by the runner and was knocked completely over on his back. The call on the field was "safe!". The Red Sox faithful were jumping out of their seats and loving it. The Mariners fans were spilling popcorn and yelling profanities at the umpires, or at anyone near their seats that could hear them. Only milliseconds later, the Mariners manager was at home plate arguing the call and the "boo's" that filled the air were as loud as I have heard at a baseball game. The 3rd base umpire came to the plate and began talking with the home plate umpire. Meanwhile, "Bard" is on his back and looks like he took a haymaker from Mike Tyson. Felix, the pitcher for the Mariners is hot. He is yelling at the ump and showing the ump Bard still had the ball in his hand. Chaos ensued everywhere, even in the stands. After a minute of chatting, the home plate umpire reverses the call; "out!" and signals with his arm and fist in the air. The Mariners fans cheer and all yell "yeah, thats right" while the Red Sox fans are complaining "you cant change the call.. what?!!".
This out ended up being crucial to the outcome of the game. After the call was reversed, Francona, the Red Sox manager whom notoriously chews 60 pieces of gum a game, wait, who does that? Come to think of it, all baseball players do is chew gum/seeds/tobacco, spit and constantly adjust their nut cup. Where was I? Oh, Francona - he storms out of the Red Sox dugout and gets right up in the face of the home plate umpire. We thought they might kiss from where we were sitting. After only fifteen seconds of yelling, the Mariners fans were all ill-advisely requesting the departure of the manager with more “boo’s” and "throw him out” chants. The umpire did just that, which garnered even more applause, cheers and whistles. You could see the blood boiling in the Red Sox fans. It's only the fourth inning and we lost our voices already.

I had enough peanut shells at my feet at this point in the game to fill a shopping bag. Aside from the peanuts, garlic fries and kettle corn were making the rounds in our section. After giving up five runs in the first, Beckett settled down and pitched well for the Red Sox. King-Felix, the pitcher for the Mariners, gave up two 2-run homers in the sixth inning. This provoked Red Sox fans whom were pointing fingers and taunting again. Now it's 5-4 Mariners.

By now, the guy in front of me had his share of beers in him, and I thought for some reason it would be fun to continue heckling. Anytime we had the chance, we were saying "easy out" when one of the Boston hitters walked to the plate. Or, "keep him honest" when Felix threw to first keeping the base-runner close. At one point, the Red Sox sent the runner stealing from first. He was thrown out at second by none other than the Mariners catcher, "Bard". "Thats what you get for trying to run on Bard", someone yelled. The guy in front of me raises his arms in disbelief dropping a few F-bombs. “What the F***?!" An older fellow ushering didn't care for these words and came marching up the stairs. "Listen buddy, this is a family friendly park and we don't need you talking or acting like an idiot. Now, enough with the cursing or I'm kicking you out of the game." Our section of fans all laughed. You can bet he would've put his fist through something if he could have, but his desire to see the rest of the game won, so he shut up and sat down.

The Mariners sealed the game by bringing in Pitcher, Brandon League. He was capable of throwing at what seemed like the speed of sound. His entrance was appropriate. Each player gets to choose what song they want played when they are introduced during the game. League's song? "Legacy of blood" by the metal group "Consume the Fire". Skulls and metal music filled all the big screens at the field. The guy in the media room at Mariners field was loving it, because they replayed the loop over and over again as League walked in from the outfield bullpen. The song continued as he threw twelve pitches while warming up on the mound. Once the 9th inning began, most of the balls he threw were fastballs. We saw one hit 99mph. He retired the side and the Mariners won. Red Sox will probably win the world series, but we had our night of Mariners glory taking them down and it all went out with death metal!

Check out the video links below to see the home run's and laser that Ichiro threw from right field to get Ellsbury out.

listen to Brandon League's introduction song (legacy of blood) here by Consume the Fire: http://www.reverbnation.com/consumethefire

http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_08_13_bosmlb_seamlb_1&mode=wrap&c_id=mlb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XId_UqPOAAU&feature=youtube_gdata_player