Baseball-- The stands were filled with Red Sox fans and it was a bit disconcerting to he hear the rythmic “Let's go Red Sox, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap,” sitting on the third base side at Safeco. The Mariners scored first, but Boston came back and then surged ahead. Both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz two Boston sluggers any team would be glad to adopt did some of the damage. More than disconcerting, the “Let's go Red Sox, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap,” was irritating as first I heard the Mariner's fans boo the chant and then try to take it on, “Let's go Red Sox Mariners, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap”. But on this day the Mariners were not going down easily, they tied the score at 7 in the seventh.

In the eighth inning something happened that had never happened at Safeco field in it's seven year history. The high afternoon sun and less than stellar fielding gave an assist but the batter, Adrian Beltre circled the bases sliding across home with the go ahead run, an inside the park home run. We watched from our third base vantage point as the go ahead run scored and watched the umpire signal safe! 8-7 Mariners!! The first inside the park home run in Safeco field history.
In the ninth inning we watched, I clicked pictures as both Ramires and Ortiz struck out. Boston was down to it's last out. I looked at the score board for the stats on the next hitter. Varitek, a good hitter, but with only a few home runs stepped to the plate batting left handed. Then I heard that undeniable sound, like a loud click. I couldn't follow the flight of the ball but I heard and saw it bounce off the glass of the hit-it-here Cafe, a line drive home run off the glass on the second deck, game tied. The Boston fans once again came alive. “Let's go Red Sox, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap,”

I looked at the clock in center field, 4:15 p.m. The train home leaves at 5:25 p.m. Was this game destined for extra innings? Betty had been questioning the talent of Richie Sexson the free, big swinging 6 foot 8 first basemen for the Mariners. I turned to the man in the next row and said to him, Sexson's due. He agreed, that Sexson was due. The ball that he hit was not hammered but it was high flying and the crowd watched it clear the fence and fall into the bull pen, Mariners 9 Boston 8.
The walk to the train was scorching across black asphalt parking lots and the train station seemed to have cornered all of the stale and motionless air in Seattle. But the Mariners had won. The train was air-conditioned and the ride home was pleasant. In Portland it was still 90 degrees at 9:30 p.m, a day and a game to remember.