When I went to Yankee Stadium Friday night the King & I were sitting in our season seats in section 420B row 7 seats 3 & 4, we had some young people sitting right behind us in row 8.
I was scoring the game in my Bob Carpenter scorebook which holds 100 games.
A few weeks ago I started my second book for this season.
I heard this people talking so I decided to chime in.
I'm so happy I did.
As a result, I wound up meeting people who were originally from the Northwest.
Peter Campbell was from Bellingham, Washington which just south of the Canadian border around 100 miles north of Seattle on I-5. He now resides in Champaign, Ilinois.
He happens to be relatively new to the game of baseball. He started following it the last 3 or 4 years. He sounded pretty knowledgeable for not being a fan of the game for a long time. I was rather impressed.
He doesn't know how to keep score but he wants to learn. I'll be more than happy to teach him.
He told me he's a big Seattle Mariner fan. In particular, his favorite player is Ichiro Suzuki.
He likes to follow the Mariners around. He's seen them in a number of parks including U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. He told me how much fun he had with the White Sox fans who didn't enjoy him rooting for his team.
Good for Peter he still found a way to enjoy himself in a visitor's ballpark.
He told me he hasn't been to Wrigley Field yet.
I told him that he needs to get there.
If & when he does I told him I met a guy named Andrew Van Cleve who lives up the block from Wrigley.
I plan to arrange to have him get in contact with Andrew so his visit will be as memorable as possible.
This time he came to NYC to visit his friend, J.J Howland who like Peter lived in the Northwest until 4 or 5 years ago when he moved to New York City.
J.J. was from the Seattle area. He was accompanied by his fiance, Jessica who has family from the Portland, Oregon area.
They meet up every summer and they go to a few new ballparks together.
Fortunately for me I was in the right place at the time.
The same can be said for them.
Since they want to continue to get to new places and ballparks they came in contact with the right person.
I plan to stay in touch with them so I can help them make it happen.
As for me, ironically earlier on Friday I was planning for my upcoming visit to the Northwest in September.
So once I found out these people were from the Northwest it made it easy to relate with them.
I told them about my past adventures out there.
In addition, I mentioned that I was going to Seattle, Portland and Eugene to see the Oregon Ducks play football.
Furthermore, I told them I booked a hotel that day in Wilsonville, Oregon.
Jessica told me that her father works in Wilsonville which is around 15 miles south of Portland.
Jessica's family has allegiance to Oregon State.
I told them they weren't home so I can't go and see them play that weekend.
On the other hand, I asked J.J. about going to Mount Rainier National Park since I'm planning to do so before I head to Portland.
He told me it's not far and the road isn't that bad to get to and from.
After the game, we said our goodbyes and I wished Jessica and J.J. the very best on their upcoming wedding.
We also exchanged contact contact information so we can stay in touch.
We were all thankful to be able to enjoy each other's company during the game and the rain delay.
Hopefully they'll follow my blog and utilize the benefits it has to offer them in the future.
I look forward to seeing them again in the future.
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