Passionate Tales of a Blue Kitten

(He has his kids' names tattooed on his wrists. That's why he kisses them. I love that.)

"Sure, it was unfair to just expect a guy to eventually throw a perfect game or a no-hitter. Perfect games and no-hitters are hard! Felix had made several bids before, but he'd never gotten this far, he'd never gotten to the end, and in an odd and unjust way, we were disappointed. Felix, too. On the one hand, we were all being greedy and presumptuous; on the other hand, it was a testament to Felix's skill. "That guy, right there? He's going to throw a perfect game. You watch. He's overdue." Felix has been the kind of pitcher where you see a game like this coming. The game came."
--Jeff Sullivan

You know, it's a funny thing I've noticed. He's King Felix to baseball, but he's usually just Felix to us Mariner fans. And we love him. We need him. And he loves us back.

Made it through the two middle-of-the-night Mariners games! To recap, they (and the A's) played two games in Japan, for international relations and all. These count as regular seasons games, even though the rest of the regular season doesn't start for another week. (Which means the Mariners--and presumably the A's--now go back to practice games for a week!) Anyway, these games were night games in Japan, which meant 3 AM my time Wednesday and 2 AM Thursday.

On Wednesday, I set my alarm for 2:45 AM, woke up, made coffee and watched by myself in my bedroom. (Not even the dog was watching with me!) But GOOD GAME. Seems like Felix always pitches well on opening day and Dustin Ackley hit a home run and Ichiro got 4 hits, which the crowd LOVED. (He's HUGE in Japan. This, more so than the actual games, is why I'm disappointed that the national media hasn't give this more coverage. It's such a great story.) Oh, and the Mariners won. Perhaps I should mention this! (It also went into extra innings, hahahaha.)

Then I went back to sleep for a few hours, woke up on my own at 8, went to my grandma's house (this is my mom, my aunt's and my normal Wednesday activity. Sorting through the house and stuff . . . though I'm mostly just THERE.) Dozed for half-an-hour or so, but mostly just tried to work and clicked aimlessly around the internet.

Anyway, my sister invited me over to her place for Thursday's game with a couple of her friends. HUGE PRODUCTION, by the way, because our family is so stupid passive aggressive. ("I don't know I'm supposed to come." "It's up to you." "You might get mad at me." "It's your choice.) Anyway, I ended up going. Her friends weren't coming until 11, but I didn't want to get there that late. And brought the dog! Ended up falling asleep for about an hour around 8:30, woke up and thought FOR SURE it was super-late, but, no, only 9:30!

It was kind of awkward when her friends first showed up? I think it was the late hour and . . . I'm not sure how well anyone knows each other outside of my sister? The Participants! My sister, Krista. Ryanna, who my sister (I think?) originally met on Twitter and is now one of her best friends. I'd met her briefly before and we've talked some on Twitter. And Joanna, who's been friends with my sister since high school. I'd met her a few times before. And . . . not really sure how well Ryanna and Joanna know each other? They drove over together, but I'd gotten the impression in the past that they were sort of ~separate circles~ for my sister. (But then, so am I. So maybe she's converging her circles!)

Anyway yeah. My sister had Criminal Minds on, which I'm not sure anyone cares about but her, lol. So none of us talked much. But, after it was over, we flipped over to a replay of a Rangers/Royals spring training game and that gave us baseball-y things to discuss! And then we made a Walmart trip, which killed some time. Got back and freaked out about Mike Carp being on the DL and Carlos Peguero being called up.

The actual game . . . hahahaha. WELL. If there's a cliche of a Mariners/A's game, this was it. At least, to start with. Jason Vargas did his thing where he pitches well, Bartolo Colon no hit the Mariners through 4 innings. But Justin Smoak hit a one room (OH MY GOSH. What is this typo? He hit a HOME RUN. Maybe I'm not as awake as I think I am), so YAY. We're all hoping for him to really break out this year. But then the bullpen blew it pretty much right away, boooo. So the Mariners lost.

Which is sad because now I can't go around for the rest of the week bragging about the Mariners having the best record in baseball. I don't even really count it as being tied for the best record since, sure, no one but the Mariners and A's have won a game, but also no one but them has lost a game!

But it was fun! I'm kind of hoping to be more social about my Mariner fandom this year and I think we ended up having a nice time.

Anyway. Pretty much as soon as the game ended, we crashed. Joanna, Ryanna and me in the living room and Krista in her bedroom. I woke up at around 8, then went back to sleep and got up for good at 10. Now it's past noon and no one else is really awake? I've been Joanna and Ryanna check their phones a couple of times, but then go back to sleep. And heard Krista move around some, but I think she's still sleeping. Oh wait! Ryanna and Joanna just got up. Maybe they knew I was creepily talking about them here.

I was going to post a few more things, but this post is long enough. So more later, probably.

YOU GUYS, I JUST WANT TO POST BASELBALLLLLL! BASEBALLLLLLL! The Mariners are on pace for 162-0! (Isn't the beginning of the season fun???) And, like, I know it'll probably all crash and burn soon enough, so I'm trying to enjoy the winning while I can!

So there's a game at 11 on Wednesday and it's a Felix start, so I'm VERY GRUMPY that I'll probably be at work. Probably because I kind of think the job won't last till the scheduled end date (Friday)? Not that they've told us that, but they hired a lot more people than they expected, so. Anyway, my point is FELIXXXXX. (Even though I'd feel the same way about Bedard and Pineda! Yesterday I realized that I actually really like our rotation this year, which is kind of an amazing feeling, since, by the end of last year, ughhh.)

I have to go to my cousin's daughter's sixth birthday party tomorrow, which I didn't find out about until tonight (I've told my mom I like to know these things in advance! I do have plans, even if they don't involve leaving the house, you know? I mean, I did find out about the party, I think, yesterday, but not that I was expected to go.) And, besides, she can't possibly be turning six. That's so old!

I was reminded tonight that there is a character on Sanctuary named after my high school. And, I mean, my high school is probably the only one with that name. SO. I forget if I ever found out how that happened.

And, oops, in the same category as, "how is my cousin's daughter six?", how is after midnight??? Off to bed!

Felix Hernandez just pitched a 2-hit complete game, gave up one run and lost. NOW DO YOU SEE HOW BAD THE MARINERS OFFENSE IS? And his one run? Jose Bautista's 50th home run. Seriously? How should Felix get all the blame for this loss? After a while, I actually started rooting for the Mariners to lose because this game is just the perfect illustration of what all the Felix for Cy articles have been talking about. The Mariners offense is historically bad. How could Felix have won any more games than he has? How could anyone have won more games with this team?

In happier news, Ichiro got his 200th hit, woo! 10 consecutive seasons. Crazy-good.

OH AND LISTEN TO ME NOW. (Sorry, I have to use caps because I think people tune out when I talk about baseball.)

Can you rec me completed book series? Any genre is fine, but I'm going to be insistent on the completed part. Oh, and I'd prefer them to be series that focus on the same character(s) for the entire series, not one of the ones that have a different main character each time. I'm not sure if I'll follow through (remember when I said I wasn't going to acquire any more new books?), but I'm getting tired of reading stand alones and ongoing series.

YOU GUYS!

So the Mariners game started off all lame! Felix Hernandez was giving up a lot of walks and the guys were making a bunch of errors. Russell Branyan did get a home run, which excited me because it was his first one in a while and it made a new career high for him. But the Mariners were down 5-1 going into the bottom of the 7th (and that's a lot for them).

Ken Griffey, Jr. was up first. And it was his bobblehead night. And the thing about him is you just know he's going to hit a home run on that kind of night. He just does. He's older now, and there's a good chance this is his last year, but he's still magic. SO. Yes. He hit a home run. And that set off a rally, and they tied the game.

And it was just one of those nights where you can feel that energy. I mean, I could feel it from the TV. It was the first game of the homestead. It was Junior's bobblehead night, and fans love him. And a lot of fans were wearing gladiator helmets since they're still banned from the bullpen. And I guess it's a form of superstition that I always believe we're going to win those games. Once they tied it, I believed.

But I must admit my belief wavered when the Rays got a home run in the top of the 11th. We had the bottom of the order coming up, and they've been doing pretty well, but . . . it's still the bottom of the order. We got a man on base and managed to move him over, but we were down to the last out, and Ryan Langerhans was up.

AND HE HIT A WALK OFF HOME RUN. First one of his career and only his second home run of the year! I mean, he was in the minor leagues until we got him from the Nationals! But he's been awesome for us! Jack Zduriencik (our GM) is amazing at picking up guys like him.

(This isn't my best Mariners post. I'm tired. But I wanted to remember it.)

ETA: LOL, what? Checking MLB.com--Did everyone get walk off home runs tonight???