Tacoma Rainiers

 

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I came back a day early from my trip to Glacier NP, so I was able to scoot down to Tacoma for the Rainiers, the AAA affiliate of the Mariners.  I think it is good when the AAA affiliate is so close to the bigs geographically.  The ballpark is nice with the wood overhang and such, but it doesn’t seem at the AAA level.  Capacity is 9600, somehow, but it seems small, and doesn’t have tons of amenities.  The food and beer prices are at big league levels though.  Yikes.  Also the parking lot they feed you to is by the slowest ticket office ever in left field.  Seems weird.  Also a lot of steps to climb once you are in the park.  The game started, and Ryan Langerhans, who has big league experience, played bush league first base, dropping two pop flies to him, one of which opened up the inning for 4 runs.  Ergo, they lost 6-2.  Nice, simple hat.  Their alternate had a mountain on it, which seems even better.  But I don’t do alternates.  If you look carefully in some of the pictures, you can see mt Rainier in the background.  Impressive.

Everett AquaSox

 

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Well, it has been awhile since a new park, but I was headed to Seattle as a waypoint to Glacier National Park(Amazing by the way).  I had been to Safeco Field to see the Mariners in ‘04, so I was able to get my Aunt Marge to come up 45min N to Everett, to see the AquaSox.  I have been eyeing this hat for a long time, and you can see why.  A tree frog on the front? Sweet.  Everett is a short season a league, so some of these kids got drafted like two weeks ago.  The stadium would have a wonderful view past centerfield, but with so much netting and power poles, etc. you lose a bit of the picturesque Cascade mountains in the background.  Too bad.  Their mascot, while a fun (and tall) tree frog, had a dirty uniform.  The cost of SS A-ball I guess.  A little chilly, with a bit of a sprinkle, and the game was highlighted by the manager getting tossed over a call at second base.  And he gave the umpires a run for their money!  It took the home plate umpire to come out to get him off the field.  They still lost 3-1.