Official Road Trip Stop #7: Safeco Field Seattle, Wa

9/1/2009
Angels 1 @ Mariners 2

What a difference 24 hours and a 14 hour drive makes! After being completely underwhelmed by the Oakland Coliseum ( though we did get free Pepsi out of it ), we made the overnight trek from Oakland, CA to Seattle, WA in one of the most grueling drives of my young career.

However, we made it out alive through the mountains and wilderness of Northern California and Oregon and arrived in Seattle with enough time to do some light sight-seeing before heading to the ballpark.

And what a ballpark it is! Situated south of Downtown Seattle, Safeco Field opened in 1999 to replace the aging King County Domed Stadium (or, Kingdome).

Safeco is everything that the Oakland Coliseum is not. Big, beautiful, fan friendly, baseball-only and modern, Safeco is an early highlight on this trip.

Safeco Field is another stadium that is built with a primarily brick exterior, reminding me of AT&T Park and Coors Field, but Safeco manages to still have a distinctly northwestern feel, and fits it's home city very, very well.

In fact, Safeco fits Seattle so well that it even has a retractable roof that is deployed whenever the notorious Seattle rains arrive. What makes the roof unique though, is that it merely covers the stadium like an umbrella, instead of fully enclosing it, allowing Safeco to maintain an outdoor feel while the roof protects the field and fans from the rain.

We expected to see a game with the roof closed, as it had rained pretty well for most of the afternoon. However, the skies cleared up just before gametime, and the roof was opened to allow for spectacular views of downtown Seattle from our seats.

Getting to Safeco Field can be done by car, train, or foot. I can't vouch for the train option, and we refused to pay $20 to park, so we walked from our hotel in downtown Seattle. The walk was about a mile and a half, but when it saves $20, it's highly recommended. Seattle feels like a pretty safe city, and we've noticed that most of locals enjoy walking or biking as well.

There are plenty of neat little bars and cafes along the walk for something to do before and after game, and the stadium has plenty to see and do beforehand, as well.

There are plenty of good food options in Safeco Field, and, being Seattle, there are a lot of seafood options to choose from. This includes the Ichi-roll, a sushi dish named after Mariners star Ichiro Suzuki.

The fans in Seattle seem pretty intelligent, but very mellow. They really do love their Mariners, but no waves or beach balls here, which is kind of refreshing. The 7th inning stretch skills really need some work, though.

It's not ALL good at Safeco. There are train tracks that run directly behind the right field stands. Throughout the game, train whistles will pretty constantly blare through the stadium. It's a quirk that's charming at first, but gets really old really fast. Also, in the age of HD, the scoreboards could use some upgrades. And after about the 2nd inning, the in-seat vendors seemed to disappear.

Overall though, these are minor annoyances. Safeco Field definitely makes a trip to Seattle worth it for any baseball fan, even if it means driving almost 14 straight hours from Oakland.