In search of the perfect game

Sports Writer

I’ve been fortunate and I am proud to admit that I have been able to attend a lot of different games throughout my life. For some folks, if the weather is nice and the home team wins, it is the best thing that can happen to them.

For many others it comes down to what the team is giving away. I’ve received bobble heads, which are kind of cool. I have an EWU t-shirt that was given to me at a WSU game. Go figure.

As I remember WSU wasn’t giving anything away to its fans that day. Why not?

Going to games isn’t cheap, we all know that, but fans would like a little something in return before they are willing to spend big money. Getting the most for your money has been going on for a long time.

I remember a time when my dad loaded mom and us kids in the car and took us to Spokane on a Fourth of July to watch a Spokane Indians’ baseball game back in the day when the Indians were the LA Dodger AAA affiliate.

We were excited to go to the game because we knew the starting lineup and we had our favorite players to cheer for. But the extra added attraction this night was the fireworks show that was taking place after the game ended.

When it came to fireworks my dad was just a big kid. He loved those things and so did his kids. I’m not sure when I started getting into the enjoyment of watching a fireworks show, but we knew it was going to be fun because dad said it was going to be a, no pun intended, blast!

A couple of years ago my siblings and I went to a Seattle Mariners game in July that had a fireworks show following the game’s end.

The funny thing is the tickets were already purchased before we knew there would be a fireworks show to follow.

But we all remembered how much dad would love to see the fireworks. You need to understand that dad was a big baseball fan as well.

On this particular night Toronto was in town and there were Canadians all around us. We were in the second row with a great view of the game and where the fireworks would be flying high.

After the Blue Jays batted in the eighth inning, the Blue Jays fans in front of us left Safeco Field. I watched this all happen and looked a lot closer at the padded front row seats that were now vacant. I felt that it would be a shame if those seats weren’t occupied.

So I told my siblings that it was time to upgrade for the ninth inning. Oh, I also told the guy next to me with his four-year-old daughter.

She really only wanted to watch the fireworks show and since there were two more seats available it was only right that they should join us and make that upgrade as well and they did.

Blue Jays fans are a fickle lot.

You would think that traveling from British Columbia they would also like to see some explosive fireworks going off to the music of the 1980’s but noooo, they were only there to watch Toronto win and when that wasn’t going to happen. I think they decided to drown their sorrows in the watering hole across the street.

I’m sure my dad would have been proud of his youngest son looking out for his older siblings and finding more comfortable seats to watch a fireworks show.

It was a great night with Felix pitching and the Mariners beating a very good Toronto ball club and the fireworks show was about as good as I have ever witnessed.

Maybe King Felix didn’t pitch a perfect game that night but all things considered it was about as perfect of a game that we could have asked for!