Spring Training

Today we went to Peoria, Arizona to the Peoria Sports Complex which is the Spring Training home of the Seattle Mariners and the San Diego Padres. This afternoon the Mariners were playing the Arizona Diamondbacks while the Padres were off playing Anaheim in Tempe.

These are the crowds that brought blankets and towels and were sitting on the grass in the outfield --

Members of the Diamondback team warming up before the game on the first base side --

While the grounds crew water down the infield --

Since the Mariners are the Home Team, they take the field first --

And our favorite player, Ichiro Suzuki at his post in right field --

And at the bottom of the inning, he's the lead-off batter --

It was a good game. The Mariners led most of the game, but by the time the of ninth inning, they had switched out most of the starting players. The Diamondbacks had a four-run inning and ended up winning the game 8-5. We had only decided to go to the game yesterday, so when I went on-line to get tickets, all that was available were seats in the bleachers. Oy, that is hard on the back! We all started standing up between innings which really helped. It's also a very good thing there was a thin cloud cover much of the afternoon! It was really hot again today. Every once and a while there was a wonderful slight breeze.