Yo, Meathead!

So Donnie Walsh has come to the New York Knicks. I have a bottle of expensive champagne ready to celebrate the second Isiah Thomas gets fired as Knicks head coach! Will it be tonight? Friday? Even if the organization retains him in some capacity, I can handle that—as long as he is not coach and I don’t have to hear his ridiculous ramblings or statements regarding the team.

Just to underscore how bad it’s become for everyone involved, I had to include this picture. It’s from a November 2007 article in the New York Observer entitled “Life in Knicks Hell.” It’s got writers Mike Lupica of the Daily News and Peter Vescey of the Post as Dantés surrounded by the Knicks in a send-up of the Inferno. I had to laugh when I saw Stephon Marbury ripping out his own guts and Isiah holding his own decapitated head in his hands. What a hilarious cartoon! And just last week, New York magazine ran an article about the Knicks called, “Absolutely, Positively the Worst Team in the History of Professional Sports.” Wow! Walsh has a long hard road ahead to even get the franchise to sniff respectability.

Okay, enough ranting about the Knicks. I know I said I’d write about Opening Day at Safeco Field this time, and I still will—but for those of you who will say, “It’s over two weeks since Opening Day!” I know that! But we just got a puppy this week, and trying to find extra time to blog has been tough. Then Ed and I had some technical problems with posting which delayed me a few days. Neither is much of an excuse, anyway, but they’re all I got!

So Opening Day was really cool! This was our first trip to Safeco, so I took the ferry over from Bainbridge Island, and my wife Laurice picked me up. We were a little bit late, which is fine by me—can’t remember the last time I actually went into a baseball game for the first pitch—but since the Safeco parking garage was full, we looked for parking on the street. Unbelievably, lots were charging $40.00 just to park for the game—that’s even more than it cost to park in San Francisco! Not sure if they were just trying to rip people off because it was Opening Day or if prices are always like that—I’ll have to see. Fortunately, we were persistent and found a free spot on the street two blocks from the park.

Speaking of San Francisco, except for having a roof, Safeco reminded us a lot of Pac Bell Park, or AT&T Park, or whatever they’re calling it these days. (Not sure anyone in the Bay Area cares what it’s called now that they are faced with the Barry Bonds-less Giants.) The layout of the corridors and the placement of the concessions seemed very similar, as were the sightlines of the field and the exterior of the park. Anyone out there know if these buildings had the same designer?

Good thing Safeco has a roof, too! Opening Day was pretty chilly, and in addition to rain, sleet and hail fell during the game, which started shortly after 3:30 pm. It was a good game, with Seattle coming from behind to overtake the Rangers and win. Since then, the Mariners have been pretty iffy—we’ll see if they settle down and play well consistently, as many predicted. (Since we all know the standings this early in the season really mean nothing, I’ll let my comments on them go for another week or two!)

Going back to that old debate over whether I should become a Mariners fan or stick with the A’s—my dear, wonderful, awesome wife bought me the Major League Baseball package on our TV system, so now I can watch my original favorites, the Mets, as well as my adopted AL team, the A’s, for every game. Unfortunately for the debate, this gift may have backfired on Laurice’s plan to get me to root for Seattle. Now that I can watch the Mets and A’s, why would I pay too much attention to the Mariners?

By the way, how many of you saw the news that on April 3, while touring Fenway Park, a 13-year-old girl was attacked by a red-tailed hawk? The AP reported, “The hawk was perched on a railing in the upper deck behind home plate while the group toured the stadium. The hawk flew at the girl and swooped with its talons extended, scratching her scalp.” She wasn’t seriously hurt.

The capper? The girl’s name was Alexa Rodriguez. An omen for the Yankees this year? Time will tell!