My tweet that was a response to this tweet about the origin of Dr. Seuss’s “The Cat in the Hat”
I am a big believer in using constraints to inspire creativity. I once had a composition teacher tell me “To be more creative, define problems for yourself, and then solve them.”
In other words, use the truth of “necessity is the mother of invention” in a deliberate way.
One of the best things I’ve done for myself: I bought a small flashlight and a pair of scissors to keep in a standardized place in every room. I never need to bother looking for them, and I use them often.
In addition, they’re labeled, so that if by chance they do migrate to another room, we know where to return them.
I went to this Wednesday afternoon game at T-Mobile Park in Seattle to get my first Mariners game in for the season, and to take in the massive star power:
The amazing generational talent Shohei Ohtani pitching for the Angels
Future Hall-of-Famer Mike Trout, who I had not seen play before
Julio Rodríguez (2022 Rookie of the Year) of the Mariners early in his second season
It was a great time all around, even though the Mariners lost 4-3. Weather was good, just a little chilly but not bad. I sat in one of my favorite parts of the park: Section 328, in the upper level but low in the section in Row 4, which offers a great overall view of the field plus the southern end of downtown.
View from my seat with Shohei Ohtani at bat
One thing I love about where I live is that I can go to games without needing to take the car out of the garage, so no screwing around with traffic or parking! I can walk (35minutes) or get a free Metro shuttle (5-10 minutes) to the dock for the King County Water Taxi ($5.75), and then have a lovely scenic ride across Elliott Bay to downtown. From there it is maybe a 15-minute walk to the stadium.
This was the view back toward West Seattle:
View of West Seattle from the King County Water Taxi
Looking the other direction, toward the south end of downtown:
View from the Water Taxi approaching the southern end of downtown, with the baseball stadium just to the right of center
Again, the star power in this game was off the hook. Here’s Ohtani delivering a pitch to Julio in the bottom of the first inning:
Shohei Ohtani pitching to Julio Rodríguez
Of course, being at a baseball game, snacks were a necessity!
Gotta have some Cracker Jack at a baseball game!
In the last few innings of the game I set out on foot to explore the stadium and see what was new this season. This was the first time I had seen the Julio photo booth, so of course:
Here I am in the Julio Rodríguez photo booth
All in all, an enjoyable afternoon. The Mariners have a few more of these “businessman special” (forgive the gendered antiquated term for weekday day games) games this season and I’ll definitely want to go again.
After the game, I walked back to the water taxi and walked home. Pretty great to go to a game and be home before 6pm.
This was also the first game I had been to with the new pitch clock and other game-speed-up rules, and the accelerated pace was noticeable in a pleasant way. I grew up playing baseball every summer from ages 5-20, so the pacing is innate for me, and this felt good.