Game 112, The King Arrives At Home
Dave · August 9, 2005 at 5:51 pm · Filed Under Game Threads
It’s Felix’s debut in Seattle. This is, by far, the most anticipated Mariner home game in years. I bought my parents tickets just to make sure they didn’t miss it.
All Hail the King. Long Live the King.
Edited to add: 8 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K. Groundball machine. He’s awesome.
Comments
432 Responses to “Game 112, The King Arrives At Home”
#389
You’re kidding me! He’s starting on SUNDAY? God! I just bought tickets for Monday. UGH! Any suggestions?
402 – Um… two games in two days? I guess I don’t see the problem.
Any idea when they will announce the pitching match ups for the rest of the week?
Just got back from the game. Friggin’ awesome.
1-0. 2 hours, shortest Safeco game ever. Three fly ball outs. No walks. YuBet triple (I couldn’t believe it, when I looked down after watching the ball I expected to see him coming into second, but he was already nearly to third). 3-1 K-B ratio. Long Live The King.
A reason to get excited again.
Man.
I’m spent after being there for that game.
My random and somewhat un-educated thoughts:
A few of us watched The King warm up in the bullpen before the game. He looked calm, collected, and prepared. No hint of nervousness that I could see, he had a huge grin on his face most of the time before he started throwing.
Beltre really should’ve been charged with two errors, in my opinion. His “where do I go with the ball” moment in the first was unfortunate, and scoring it a hit against the King was even more unfortunate. Beltre didn’t look very comfortable at the plate either, I don’t think.
I had a pretty good view of Doyle in the outfield, but there wasn’t that much to watch. I got a funny look from the guys sitting next to me when I said “C’mon Doyle!” when he was up to the plate.
The atmosphere in the Safe was pretty electric. Even the people who didn’t really know who King Felix was, seemed to feel that they were part of something special.
I’m going to rub my boss’s nose in all of this tomorrow, since he punked out and didn’t go to the game with me.
Those of you USSM folks I didn’t get a chance to meet, I’ll be more social next time when I’m not standing in the middle of waitresses trying to knock me over, and those I did, it was nice to meet you all!
Oh, and the best thing was watching the five or six batters in the first three innings who fouled their best efforts straight back. The bottom really falls out of Felix’s secret off-speed pitch. After that, they usually just waved at the next one, or drove it into the infield.
They’ve just said on the post-game show that Felix will start on Monday. Don’t know how official that is, but they did announce it as a correction to their original statement saying he’d pitch on Sunday.
A late post here as I was watching the game on FSN and attending to some personal business. Felix got the benefit of some calls, but so did Lohse. Jim Wolf, the HP umpire tonight, strikes me as a pitchers’ umpire. Having a brother who pitches for the Phillies may have something to do with that.
Overall, love Felix’ composure, especially after the botched play by Beltre that loaded the bases in the 5th, and I think we could be looking at a future Gold Glover if tonight was any indication.
Excellent pieces of hitting by Reed and Betancourt in the 7th. If Betancourt can learn to go with the outside pitch more often instead of pulling it, I think I will really start to like him.
By the way, did Rizzs really say in the 7th inning, “Youth was served”? Is Rick trying to be hip all of a sudden?
The only weird looks I got for shouting “Doy-ull” in my worst Bronx accent were from my sweetie. She also doesn’t like it when I take my shoes off, or make the really loud wood-block noise with my mouth. Ah well.
Rusty responding to Russ in #179…
DMZ was there at the King Street Oven Tavern thingie. I did notice he was a little later than 5:30, but I did say “hi” on my way out. And Jonah Keri does seem like a cool dude. Didn’t get to meet everyone but it was cool slurping happy hour Microbrews for $2.75.
Steve Thornton is spot on about how relaxed Felix was warming up. I might also add that he was pretty disciplined about stretching out. Probably not obsessive compulsive about it like Ichiro, but it was good to see. And he seems to have a good rapport with Wiki but hopefully he also pitches well with Torrealba.
Electric atmosphere. Wasn’t sure if my memory was short or not, but I kept thinking I hadn’t seen Seattle that charged about a pitching performance since the Unit. On the way out, on the loudspeaker, I heard Dave Neihaus make the same comment.
408. I hope the KOMO guys are wrong. If so, I will be at Safeco this Sunday. Imagine the atmosphere in the park when Felix the King pitches to Vlad the Impaler. If his next start is indeed on Monday, I will have to pass on what should be a sure win because it’s my Dad’s 60th birthday.
Speaking of the Royals, did anybody see Cleveland scored 11 runs in the 9th tonight to win 13-7? Guess it’s good to know that as bad as things have been this year, it can always be worse.
Re: the home plate umpire. I was sitting in CF on a line directly behind the mound. Saw every pitch. The ump’s strike zone was low and wide for both pitchers. And both pitchers were smart enough to know they were getting the calls and kept pounding the ball low and wide.
I just got back from Safeco and I’m absolutely giddy.
The professional baseball game my dad ever took me to was when I was 10 years old (sad, I know) and I got to see a kid named Griffey play at the Kingdome for the first time and hit a homerun; and I don’t think that I’ve been this excited since then.
Felix was just incredible, and with every reason in the world to be nervous. He pitched out of tough situations, he fielded his position incredibly well (who knew?!?) and his stuff is ridiculous. It’s just not conceivable that he’s only 19. Everyone went nuts when Josh Beckett, just 23 years old at the time, put together a great stretch and pitched an incredible game 6 against the Yankees…. for King Felix to do the same thing at the same age he has until October of 2009…
Some other dude in 346 knew the name Doyle when shouted. If you are here, I commend you.
Special night.
Re: #414
I was very impressed by how well Felix fielded his position.
Especially after watching what could generously be called “shaky” defense by Beltre, I think the King just decided that he’d play defense himself if the guys behind him couldn’t get it done.
But then again, WFB had a pretty nifty play also. So don’t read too much into it.
I wish I had the words. So, I quote Carl from ATHF instead.
FRIKKIN’ AWESOME!!!!
And DMZ was at the King when I left at 6:30. I saw two things I never thought I’d see: A lights-out 19 year old MLB pitcher, and a highly social Derek. Though the latter apparently requires a significant quantity of alcohol.
Back up to Dave’s comment:
…the strike zone was fairly generous, I thought.
Really? From my vantage point it seemed like he was getting squeezed a lot on the outside. Not that it frustrated him all that much.
Oh, and I should mention (unrelated): There were about 15 people watching Lohse warm up in the BP. There were at least 10 times that many watching the King warm up. Heck, they were five deep when he was warming up IN THE OUTFIELD.
Here’s to a healthy labrum and hoping that the King never meets Drs. Jobe or Andrews.
Heh, nobody else in section 334 got “GO DOYLE!”, but we yelled it anyway. It didn’t work as well today, though maybe we managed to jinx Morneau in the 5th inning?
Sadly, though, it was kind of tough to *really* see Felix’s pitches from that high up, to really get the effect… much better angle for watching Reed and Betancourt’s heroics in the 7th inning instead. Still, it was an enjoyable game, and everyone seemed appropriately excited about it, which was cool.
It was nice to meet some of you at the King (heh heh, I just realized the name) Street Bar & Oven before the game. I get points for being more antisocial than Derek, right? I’m happy people were amused by my Nippon Ham Fighters jersey; unfortunately I missed all of the pre-game Pacific Rim festivities while trying to get pictures of Felix in the bullpen, which I’m going to dump off my camera now, and hopefully will post in a little while, if they didn’t all suck due to the lighting.
No, that was Jeff Nye, not me.
Felix did handle a ton of chances (five?), that was awesome to see. There’s something about the two-strike count, everybody’s hoping for the K, but it’s a ground ball instead, and “dammit, I’m GOING to get you out, dude, don’t even bother swinging; what’s the point?” Surprising but fun There was even one where Sexson could have run it out but tossed it off to Felix, who sped it to the bag.
I can’t think of a damn thing not to like, frankly. The only thing lacking with Felix’s outing is that it wasn’t Roger’s 20 K game, or something. The kid’s nineteen. One of the best games of all time? No. One of the best by a teenager? Yes, absolutely.
BTW, the infield single in the first wasn’t an error by Beltre; he let it go on purpose, hoping it would bounce foul.
For the longest time I thought “Nippon Ham Fighters” was like “Ham Fighters” from Nippon, which is the coolest image. Then I found out it was just the Fighters, from Nippon Ham. Still cool, but not crazy cool.
But I still love the Ham Fighters.
Ham Fighters have the nicest uniforms this year, along with the Seibu Lions.
I have a Fighters cap too. 😀
Hanshin went to those stupid three-button types and the Giants are just like the SF ones, so…
106: “Okay, the K-I-N-G sign to rack up the strikeouts is the greatest idea ever. You people rule, whoever you are.”
Thanks for the glowing endorsement. 🙂 I’m just glad they got such a successful result!
That was the most amazing game I’ve been to at Safeco in the past two seasons. It’s been said a dozen times already in this thread, but the atmosphere was electric. The stands were still full 5 minutes after the game ended and people were spontaneously cheering on the sidewalks outside as they walked to their cars. I guess we have to take advantage of any opportunity to be esctatic about this team.
What a crappy day (for me)… had to work tonight, but no prob, set the DVR to record King Felix on Extra Innings down here in Oaktown. I get home, fire it up, and what do I have? 4 hours of the Dish Network logo, wtf! I guess god doesn’t want me to see Felix pitch. After two glasses of Pezzi King Old Vines Zin and reading this thread, I don’t feel quite as disappointed. So thanks to all here at USSM, reading this thread is the next best thing to actually getting to see this game (even if in this case the next best thing is significantly crappier than the best thing.)
The Fighters depress me. I wish their pitching hadn’t imploded this year. To think, they made it to First Stage last year, and are only escaping the cellar this year due to the inept Rakuten newcomers…
But yeah, the new uniforms are MUCH nicer than the old ones (I have both, but wore the new one today).
Anne — those signs were awesome! I kind of got a picture, but it’s from extremely far away. How many K’s did you guys prepare?
Thanks, Deanna. We had 8 Ks total, and figured after that we’d either start putting blue tape directly on the railing or tape Ks on our shirts! Between the radio, tv, photographers, jumbotron, and our own cameras, we had pretty good coverage.
I was working on getting some popular support for Doyle as well, but I think most people around me were utterly confused.
The strike zone was pitcher friendly. No Doubt.
Lohse also took advantage.
The only thing lacking with Felix’s outing is that it wasn’t Roger’s 20 K game.
Future Game Headline: The King K’s more than Years Lived.
419:
I get points for being more antisocial than Derek, right?
You just didn’t drink enough. 🙂
Forgot to tell you: I like your blog. You’re becoming the Mariner Bat Girl.
Deanna – Second the props on the web site. Read the latest entry about an hour ago. Two thumbs up. Better than Batgirl. I mean, she’s cool and everything, but a little too precious for me. Okay, I know who Sweetcheeks is, but so many cutesy little nicknames makes it hard for the casual reader to figure out what the heck’s going on. I did buy the big Batgirl mug though. When will your mug be available? 🙂
Re. #421 on the Nippon Ham Fighters: It would be interested to see what would happen if Boone signed in Japan and did his bat-flipping trick against them….
392: I haven’t actually bought them yet, but I’ll let you know when/if I do.
#412
I have to hope against you. I’m going on Monday. That ticket cost me a pretty penny. But if he pitches on Sunday, I hope you have fun 🙂