Saturday March 7th 2020

The nice weather with above average temperatures continued today. There was significantly more wind than Friday which probably prevented a new high temperature record. Even so, it was in the mid eighties today.

I returned to the Peoria Sports Complex for another Spring Training game. Today the Seattle Mariners were the home team taking on the Oakland Athletics. The previous two games I’ve attended at the complex were hosted by the other team sharing the facility, the San Diego Padres.

It was interesting to observe the differences between a Mariners home game and a Padres home game. The first thing I noticed was the different graphics on the scoreboard. Mariners blue was the dominant color along with their logo. In fact, it turned out that the software keeping track of the score on the video screen was different. Both teams line ups were displayed all the time and different information was emphasized. It was much more informative than the system used at the Padres games.

The similarities were in the way the game was managed by the sports complex. The national anthem at both home team games is ten minutes before the game. The ads, prizes and events between innings are the same. The announcer even had to correct himself after calling the team the San Diego Mariners.

There were more people at this game than the others I’ve attended at the sports complex. The 8,274 people in attendance were 2,000 more than attended the Giants vs. Padres game last Sunday. Another difference is the make up of the audience. I think there were more people supporting the Mariners than the visitors. At each of the Padre games, I think the visiting team had more supporters in attendance.

I enjoyed the game. There were a number of home runs and a couple of interesting fielding plays to go along with the usual Spring Training mishaps. One Mariner outfielder didn’t stop a runner from advancing from second to third after he caught a fly ball. He apparently thought he made the final out of the inning.

Today was my day to get annoyed with the people around me in the stands. The guy in front of me was tall. His head was right in my line of site to home plate. I’d lean to the side to watch the play and he invariable managed to move his head the same way. It’s not like he was trying to block my view. He just couldn’t keep his head still. One more row in front had a very large gentleman that couldn’t stay in his seat. Every few batters he got up and made all his neighbors get up so he could go for a walk. He didn’t even wait between batters let alone between innings. All of them were gone by the sixth inning.