Lost in Seattle

We took Ray to the Seattle Mariners’ annual FanFest at Safeco Field yesterday. For two days, they open the field to the general public (well, the $10-paying general public) for base running, fly-ball catching, tee-ball hitting, etc. It’s mostly geared toward kids, though Ray is too little to engage in many of the activites.

He does enjoy, however, the Mariner Moose, and when we learned the Moose was holding court in the center field concourse, we made a bee-line for the event.

Just as we got to the front of the line, the Moose’s handler announced that the Moose had to take a 15-minute break. We patiently waited, but the Moose didn’t return after 15 minutes, or even after 30 minutes. It was cold, and though Ray was being a trooper about the whole thing, he started muttering about wanting to go home, so we left. On the way out, we bought him a stuffed Moose toy, which he loves and which we hope helps to prevent his being disillusioned and bummed out about baseball in general.

At one point while in line, Amy turned to me and said: “You know, this is really a letter-writing offense.” She was reading my mind, as I had already begun to compose the complaint letter which, if my complaint-letter-writing skills don’t fail me, would net us some free baseball tickets or other juicy booty from the Mariners. They disappointed my son, and they must pay!

Click “Continue Reading…” for photos and the complaint letter.

In the dugout

On the field

Ichiro’s locker

Jaime Moyer’s locker and uniform

The Mariners’ weightroom

The Moose, with child who actually got to meet him

And now, the letter. Amy toned down an earlier draft of mine, which I admit was a little over-the-top and which directly stated that Ray “would appreciate some token” to make up for all the waiting in vain.

To Whom It May Concern:

We and our two-year-old son, Ray, were extremely disappointed by our experience trying to meet the Mariners Moose at Mariners FanFest on Sunday, January 30.

Ray is already a big baseball fan. In fact, when we told him we were going to the baseball stadium Sunday, Ray promptly ran to the closet and retrieved his mitt, baseball, and Mariners cap. He also treasures the Mariners lunchbox he received at a game last season, and he is particularly fond of the Mariners Moose. We knew that he’d love a chance to walk on the field and to have his picture taken with the Moose at FanFest.

After running the bases and touring the clubhouse, we got in line to meet the Moose. After about 10 minutes of waiting, we got near the front of the line, but we were told the Moose had to take a 15-minute break. We would have preferred to be told of the Moose’s imminent potty break before we had stood in line for so long, but Ray wanted to continue to wait.

Because this was the only remaining age-appropriate activity for us to do at Fanfest, we hung around the general area so we could be at the front of the line when the Moose returned. The 15 minutes elapsed, but the Moose didn’t come back as scheduled. We asked Ray if he wanted to go home, but he said he wanted to stay and wait for the Moose. After another 20 minutes, the Moose still hadn’t returned and we were getting cold and frustrated. Ray started asking to go home. Finally, after waiting nearly an hour in total, we decided we had had enough and we started the long trek around the stadium to get back to our car.

Ray was understandably disappointed. On our way out, we purchased a $15 stuffed Moose toy for him, which helped mollify his sadness a bit.

We understand the difficulty of managing a large event like FanFest, but I feel that special attention should be given to the activities geared toward your youngest fans – such as meeting the Moose – to ensure that the kids aren’t disappointed. The event could have been handled much better by posting set times that the Moose was to be available, disallowing new people (like us) from joining the line if a scheduled break was imminent, and sticking to the promised time line for event resumption. If the Moose was unavoidably delayed, a staff member could have at least come to give us information so we weren’t waiting indefinitely in the cold.

We appreciate the fact that the Mariners offer such opportunities for fans to explore the stadium and get to know their team better. We hope that our next encounter at a Mariners event will be a happier one for 2-year-old Ray.

Sincerely…