2012 USSM/LL Trip To Safeco
Update: The deadline for purchasing tickets has passed. Looking forward to seeing you all there tomorrow. Also, the M’s have a nice little surprise for fans sitting in our section on Saturday night. You’ll want to be hanging out with us. It’s going to be awesome. We’ll all be assembling at the right field gate at 2:45 on Saturday for our special early entrence to the Q&A – which starts at 3:00 – so don’t be late.
After a one year (leukemia induced) hiatus, the USSMariner/Lookout Landing annual event at Safeco Field is back, and this year, we promise you won’t have to watch Ian Snell pitch. These are always a good time, so you should come.
When: Saturday, July 14th, 3:00 pm (gate will open for us at 2:45).
Where: Safeco Field
What: Pre-Game Q&A with Jeff Sullivan and myself, plus scouting director Tom McNamara and assistant GM Jeff Kingston
Cost: $20, which includes a View Reserved ticket for that night’s game against Texas ($22 normal price)
Tickets for the event are now on sale through the Mariners official site. You will need to purchase a ticket through this group site in order to get into the pre-game festivities, even if you already have a ticket to the game. But, given that you get four hours of pre-game hanging out with cool people (and Jeff), $20 is a bargain, and you could always sell your other ticket to offset the cost.
Oh, and as for the timing of the announcement – we wanted to make sure nothing was going to pop up at the last second to keep me from coming, so I got another blood test this morning, and I still have just as much leukemia in my body as you do. Come celebrate remission with me at Safeco.
So, July 14th. Be there.
Comments
48 Responses to “2012 USSM/LL Trip To Safeco”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hate that I have to miss this year’s after the hiatus last year. I was able to go the last one we held, and I recommend it to anyone that can.
Happy for the continued good news on your blood test Dave!
In my 75th year a 12,000 mile round trip on short notice is hard to pull off but I would love to join you all. I also understand the true value of clean blood tests, may you have many more.
Looking forward to it. Really hope to make this one, as my last was, regrettably, the Ian Snell game.
(maqman, where are you? Are you the guy in Cornwall/Devon?)
Blehh. I’m producing a show for that day.
Oh, well. All attendees to this trip gets half off tickets to my show on all the other days.
I’m currently unemployed (although I hope to fix that soon.) My wife might be working that night. I don’t know who I’d drop the kids with.
It’s still worth the $20 to go. I’ll be there if I can get my details worked out.
I got to spend half an hour talking player acquisition and development with Tom McNamara at the last one I went to. That was awesome.
After six years of missing this for various reasons, I’m looking forward to attending my first, and on my birthday no less. Now I just have to find a nice-looking retro M’s cap…
Glad someone will be there. Anyone notice that the Mariners have had the lowest attendance in the majors (and probably much of the minors) the last two nights?
My wish list (not that I can probably make it):
Jay (of course)
Matthew (also, of course)
Curto
Derek Zumsteg
Geoff Baker
Can we set up a Chuck Armstrong dunk tank? I would throw in an extra $20 for that.
If my business trip cooperates, I’d love to be there
Let’s get the cheerful stuff done first: Hurray for meetups and no lukemia!
That being said…
Glad someone will be there. Anyone notice that the Mariners have had the lowest attendance in the majors (and probably much of the minors) the last two nights?
More stuff here:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/current_attendance.shtml
Notice that attendance overall is UP in MLB. Here, not so much.
Teams that are beating out the M’s in attendance/game so far: KC, Pittsburgh, Houston, San Diego
We’re 3rd from the bottom of MLB, a couple thousand ahead of Oakland and Tampa, and about 4,000 a game ahead of the Cleveland “hire Chris Anonetti” Indians.
I think what this all tells us is a smart GM is not a panacea for everything that’s wrong with your franchise. It’s a start, but just a start.
The other thing to note that there’s a good reason to want to be competitive as much as you can: Cleveland is above .500, in contention and their attendance is at the bottom of the league. Why? Because their fanbase has been beaten down by so many bad years (see: Tampa). You don’t just magically get to go back to 2001-2002 once you have a contending team in Seattle.
It also makes it clear why the M’s cut salary from last year… and why they might do it again. If you look here:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/SEA/2012-roster.shtml
Scroll to the bottom: it appears that if the team lets all the FAs walk (including Ichiro)… there’s only around $10-15 million left to add to the roster (and we definitely need adds to the roster to contend), assuming salary is held constant. (Bolded because that’s not a safe assumption.)
Oh, that ticking sound you’re hearing? Ichiro and Felix’s FA clocks getting louder.
Zduriencik’s restocked the system nicely, but the problems aren’t finished yet. There is no “ZOMG! We’ll have SO MUCH MONEY when (insert name here) leaves the team!” time coming up anytime soon.
Bastille Day! Living over a thousand miles away, I’ve only been to the 2009 event but it was a ton of fun. I’m still almost 200 miles away but I’ll see if I can attend.
Dave, I hope I have no more leukemia in me than you do; congratulations, that is great news.
We did get to see Doug Fister’s debut, though, didn’t we? What became of him?
I wouldn’t miss this for the world.
The event is good news. That last bit is even better.
I’m new here, Dave. My son (now 27) was an out-patient at Children’s for 4 years before he finally beat this thing. He was about 12 when diagnosed and a sophomore in high school when he left the hospital for the last time.
This kind of thing alters the footprint of your life, and I would say the outcome for those in remission is an enhanced perspective and a blessed life’s journey.
My boy is married and playing baseball in Europe, where he’s been a league-leader for three years – currently in Bulgaria trying to qualify for the WBC (for which he would ultimately be ineligible.)
He is a survivor, a catcher, and a hero.
Best wishes to you.
Great news about your continued health and a fantastic sounding event.
Someone wrote,
> Geoff Baker
I hope this was a lame joke, but if this person gets scheduled to be there I will have to give it a pass. Baker’s a muckraker and isn’t legitimate.
A USSM/LL event AND no leukemia! http://weather.blogs.foxnews.com/files/2008/03/snoopydance.gif
Will be there!
Excited to see you guys all in person, and hope that I’m not as stupid in person as I am here.
I’m moving out of the country just 4 days before. Talk about timing:/ If something changes, I’ll certainly check it out. I’ll raise a toast to Dave being leukemia-free wherever I am, though!
Attending a wedding that day. 🙁 But I just wanted to post to say I couldn’t be happier to hear about your test Dave!! May good fortune continue to smile on you!
And there I shall be. I’ve been looking forward to this for two years. Congratulations on the remission news and thanks for doing this for us again.
Man, I’m attending a wedding that day as well. 🙁 I just moved from Walla Walla to Wenatchee, so the drive to Seattle is a lot more doable, but alas, I shall be in Walla Walla then. Grr.
Have fun, guys. And best of all, it’s fantastic to hear you’re doing well, Dave.
Bought a ticket and will be a first time attendee. Can’t wait for it!
Dave, you are truly an inspiration. We’ve all learned to be better M’s fans because of you, and now over the past year we’ve gotten a lesson in how to stare down cancer and defeat it. Such great news on the remission!
vetted_coach, thanks for sharing your son’s story as well.
Feeling stupid right now… apparently I have to enter a special offer code to purchase tickets. Am I doing something wrong or did I miss posting of the code?
Those numbers aren’t quite right. There’s not much chance Vargas, Ryan, Jaso, Moore, and Kelly are going to cost the M’s nearly 20 million for 2013. Vargas is the only one who would get a sizable pay increase, and let’s go nuts and assume that’s somewhere around 10 million. Ryan might get 3 million, Jaso might get 1 million for his first arb (but I doubt that very much), and Kelly might get 1 million. That’s $15 million at the most, and I’m being generous with a few of these.
This, of course, assumes Vargas is even kept. He’s easy trade bait or, if they keep him, signable to a team friendly deal. Same thing for Jaso. Ryan, for sure, is not going to get the “3 year average amount” for an arb-3 eligible player that B-ref’s numbers use. Kelly might get a decent pay raise, but with his injury history it wont go bonkers.
Feeling stupid right now… apparently I have to enter a special offer code to purchase tickets. Am I doing something wrong or did I miss posting of the code?
It’s on the web page Dave linked to. It says the code is USSM.
Thanks Paul! I was trying to do it on my droid and that part didn’t show on my screen. I saw it later when I checked using my regular computer. I should have updated the post but thanks for the assist.
Hey guys, I just bought a ticket for the event. Where in Safeco field are we planning to meet at 3PM (i.e., which gate)? Thanks. I am excited.
First time post, but I love the debate and analysis on here.
Being based in England, I was wondering, are there any plans to film the Q&A sessions? I imagine that they’d make fascinating watching for those of us not there for whatever reason.
Belated congrats on the continuing good health Dave.
Oh I do hope the other fellows will also be up there … shifting from foot to foot, and looking vaguely uncomfortable.
I am flying from Nebraska to Seattle with my wife and son tomorrow to see my first game at Safeco field after 30 years of being a Mariners fan. Looking forward to this weekend and being able to meet some other fans!
It is Happy Felix Day, as well, so I am advocating for as many Kings Court shirts as possible in our section.
I hope the special treat is that we can either: A) collectively create the lineup, or B) release one player from the roster of our choosing.
Alright…got my tickets….gonna go see Ringo Starr Friday in Spokane and head to Seattle to seee you guys Saturday! See you there!
OK, this is probably a dumb question – where’s a good place to park? The Safeco garage isn’t open until three hours before game time, and it’s kind of expensive anyways.
Yes, I know, I should take the bus, or Link, or something.
I wonder if the special fan surprise is our very own Justin Smoak to take home and mow our lawn, take out the garbage, and wax the Bimmer, provided we don’t give him back. But that wouldn’t be a huge surprise.
I *really* wanted to go to this as well (I was at the Snell game one), but alas my band is playing at Conor Byrne that night of course. 😐
Congratulations to Dave on being leukemia free, and you all have a good time Saturday. I’ll check in from my phone for updates (after I’m done playing… maybe!).
It is also a day where you can donate new or used baseball gear to the Boys and Girls Club of King County, so if you have something, bring it on down to help out.
Just bought three tickets. Sounds like a great day. Can I assume that I’ll finally be able to get the inside scoop on why Willie Bloomquist never got to be an everyday player for the M’s? Such a mystery.
I just tried to buy – it appears to be sold out
I am bummed that I won’t be able to attend – it sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun.
DawgDays, when I’ve gone to Safeco I’ve found it easier to park elsewhere (far away) and take the bus. I work at UW, so generally I’ve parked in the U district and taken a 71/72/73; but any bus that hits the bus tunnel would work.
Neff, I have a pair of extras. Bring $40 cash to the park tomorrow and find me outside Safeco at 2:40, and you can just buy them from me.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned it but Zunino is making his professional debut tonight as a DH in Everett vs the Tri-City Dust Devils. http://m.heraldnet.com/heraldnet/pm_110653/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=8C1aq5GW
Thanks, Westside. I’m coming from the Eastside, and getting back there after the game by bus isn’t the greatest.
Anyone else with an extra ticket they’re willing to sell?
Dave – is the ticket offer still open? If so: walter.neff@mac.com