Blue Jays at Mariners07.05.24 - 07.06.24
Seattle, WA
This was the first series of MLB games I've attended in person! The Jays' annual trip out to Seattle is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the border and the hive of Jays fans that live in Western Canada, so this was not your typical experience as a fan of a visiting team -- the crowd had to be at least half Jays fans.
I attended the Friday and Saturday games of the series, before ducking out of Seattle on the Sunday prior to the series finale. The Mariners took home the first game 2-1, while the Jays came out on top by a score of 5-4 in both the second and third games.
Being my first visit to a ballpark, I don't have much context to compare it to, but it felt like a classic ballpark; a great representation of what it means to take in a ball game at the MLB level.
First note -- T-Mobile park has a decent location right beside Lumen Field, and the area is very walkable. Lots of food options outside the ballpark before the game -- I got a kielbasa dog heading in for both games. Got myself an ice cream helmet during second game. I think I will make that a tradition at every ball park I visit. And that was some of the best soft serve ice cream I’ve ever had, no doubt!
I splurged on the lower deck for game one, being my first ever MLB game; good crowd of Jays fans nearby, and some fans from California behind me that were very chatty -- one of them knew Cal Raleigh (catcher for Mariners). And some other Jays fans from Calgary directly beside me.
And for game two, I sat on the bleachers. It was a scorcher, and unsurprisingly I got burnt to a crisp!
Finally, special shoutout to this one local, loitering around the Chinatown metro line, who left me dumbfounded with the remark "What the fuck is a Blue Jay? Have they won the Super Bowl yet?". Good times!
