Mariners Morsels - aka "Free Adam Moore and Rich Poythress! (George Sherrill is FREE!)"

Okay, not quite yet. What, you think I found some professional baseball in town? But I will in the next day or so.

See, I'm taking my son to his first "real" baseball game (at Safeco) tomorrow. It just happens to coincide with Felix's next outing. My wife is going to be away for a late-night work meeting, so I figured I'd take the kid to see Ichiro, Jeremy Reed, Rauuuuul, and "Norm Norm" (if he's there -- like, right, Norm Charlton's going to be there -- try explaining age-related performance decline, let alone 'retirement' to a 4-year-old). Oh, yes -- and George. I've completely brainwashed him into loving George (after all, he's spoken with elsid on the phone a couple times...). We might try and make it over to the 'pen to give George a quick "Hey!" It won't be as easy for us to do as it was in Cheney, of course, and really, I don't envision us leaving our seats for anything other than potty breaks (which I completely hope to minimize).

But when you're sitting 14 rows away from the action, you probably don't want to leave those seats, either. I know it's "Two-fer-Tuesday" but I had to splurge. Once. Felix is pitching, and it's my son's first MLB game. Heck, we're not too far away from where my sister normally takes her kids (ages 6 and 1.5). If they can watch 16 games in those seats every year, I can watch one in my lifetime. Since we normally have similar seats in Cheney, my son's going to think that that's the "norm". It definitely won't be. It's actually somewhat of a splurge for me to go to Safeco, even if I sit in the "cheap" seats. Gas, food, tickets (but no beer for me tomorrow!)...

So, if you haven't put two-and-two together yet, then, well, heck. You're really not paying attention. I'm sitting just to the left of home plate. For Felix. With my new camera. And, alas, yes, my old crappy telephoto lens. About 5 sections towards Adrian Beltre from my Opening Day seats. Oh, and about 300 feet closer. The closest I've ever sat at a MLB game.

So, I've charged up my batteries, and re-formatted my memory cards. I may not need my 2x tele-converter, so that'll help with the quality. Or maybe not. I've had practice at Cheney, keeping one eye spotting the action, the other eye through the lens, and the other eye watching my 4-year-old. He loves baseball, though, and as long as I shove his mouth full of Cracker Jacks, Peanuts, and the occasional sip of pop (in moderation, of course, so as to minimize the potty breaks), he'll be fine. So long as no baseballs come flying at us at 100 mph, which, camera or not, I wouldn't have much chance at stopping...

I'll try and get the pix up as soon as I can after the game. Driving home to Olympia after waiting through the parking garage traffic will definitely put me home late. Getting the kid settled down after seeing "the real" Ichiro, etc... will be another monumental task all together. I'll be lucky to have the pictures uploaded to my computer before I'm too wiped out to function. I'll do my darndest to have the photo album up by Wednesday night.

In the meanwhile, enjoy some other non-baseball pictures I've taken. You've probably already seen the Opening Day pix, so I won't continue to throw those at you. And, if you haven't noticed it already, I have the "Lens Fund" PayPal button up. I'd be more than happy to mail signed 8x10 prints to anyone making a suggested donation of $15 or more (I'm not sure how the whole PayPal donation thing works, so if you do send me money and want prints, make sure I know about it). Like I said earlier, I'm really not finding time to set up something more formal for selling prints. I'd be scared to death of glass shards trying to mail framed prints, too. But, I'd be happy to hand deliver something, if you really, really want me to frame/mat it, and we can find a time to hook up.

I've printed Moyer's first 2006 pitch, Clint Nageotte on Opening Day, (a nice 12x18 blow-up, too!) and my wife let me hang a 12x18 of this print in our bedroom (though I've got 4 copies of another version that I cropped differently that I think looks much better). But, I'd be happy to print anything you find of merit. I'm not talkin' ink-jet prints here, either. I have stuff printed on archival-quality paper from a photo lab.

I'll have time between now and then, though, to take suggestions for photos. Since I don't have the Opening Day festivities to contend with, I should have a bit more "film," as well as time to actually shoot stuff around the stadium. Hopefully traffic going north will be OK. With the kid, I'll get to count as a "carpool." That'll help. I should get there early enough, though, to run him through the stadium real quick.

I'm so psyched! Sure, my ulterior motive is to take hundreds of pictures. But, still, there's another huge part of me that's just excited to take my son to his first MLB game. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he gets to see Ichiro at bat. In those seats.

I'm sure it'll be a Kodak (Lexar?) moment.