Father's Day and Fireworks

DAD'S DAY: Turning back time here for a recap of Father's Day festivities last month.

If the Mariners are playing at home on Mother's Day or Father's Day there is a very good (like 90+ percent) chance we'll be at those games. This season we spent Mother's Day at the park, and were there on Father's Day, as well.

Father's Day happened to coincide with a celebration of Juneteenth. We'd never seen the Juneteenth flag before. It's the rightmost one in the photo below.

It was so cold in our seats in the shade (yes, in mid-June!), that before the game, we walked around to find a sunny spot in the stadium. We wound up standing by the ROOT Sports broadcast team for a bit. Below, former Ms catcher-turned broadcaster- waves at us and says, "Happy Father's Day!"

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot to cheer about on the field. The Ms lost 0-4 to the Angels. But a bad day at the ballpark is better than most other days other places, so it was still fun.

Afterward, we drove down to West Seattle and got some Hawaiian take out food for dinner.

But back to the game ... During the game there was a little 'excitement.' The stadium-wide emergency alarm went off. 

I only took 13 seconds of video, but it went on for more than a couple of minutes. It was rather disconcerting, to say the least. 

We didn't feel an earthquake. We didn't see or smell fire. So ... what's the emergency? Because we live in modern day America, my mind immediately went to an active shooter, of course. Fortunately, we didn't hear any gunfire, either.

Play was stopped and the managers and umpires got together to talk things over while the alarm continued to blare. There were no instructions or explanation on the big screen or PA for guests. No 'Stay in your seats while we investigate' or any such message. I kept scanning the crowd, looking at people to see if anyone was streaming for the exit. We had seats right on the main concourse and were close to an exit, so we stayed put, but I'm hear to tell you, if we'd been up in our usual nosebleed seats or were somewhere where egress wasn't easy, we would have been out of there.

Meanwhile, CJ was working an escalator across the stadium from us. Come to find out he has never had training what to do when the alarm goes off (rather MAJOR OOPS! if you asked me). He recalled reading in an online training module that in an emergency, escalators should be turned off, so that's what he did. He also advised guests not to enter the stadium until the cause of the alarm was determined, which seems prudent. 

Eventually, the alarm was turned off, but no one was ever given an explanation of what happened. CJ sent an email to one of his supervisors, requesting that there be training for what to do in an emergency and suggesting guests should be informed, as well. 

As of this writing, a couple weeks later, CJ still hasn't had any training about what to do in the event of an alarm, but when the alarm went off  again earlier this week (early July) apparently there was a PA announcement with information that it was a false alarm, and CJ's supervisor told him his email helped  make that happen. So bravo, CJ!

FIREWORKS: Just two days before Father's Day, we were hanging out on the streets outside of T-Mobile Park. Our primary reason for being there was to pick CJ up after work. However, we enjoyed some pyrotechnic entertainment while we waited.

It was Star Wars night at the game, and after the game, there were fireworks set to Star Wars music.

I took a couple of crappy cell phone shots of the rockets' red glare.

And a short video of the finale. I assure you, Star Wars music was playing, but all you can hear is the booms!