My motto these last few weeks has been "Sign Naylor YESTERDAY, you fools!!!"
I was away in Puglia during most of the AL Division series (against Detroit), it made for very poor sleep patterns (awake from 1 am to 5 am local time, following the game updates).
Our flight home on October 10 was scheduled to get us back to SEA around the time Game 5 would start. I figured we would get home in time to watch most of it. Alas, our departure from Istanbul was delayed by 3 hours, necessitating me trying to follow game updates (mostly successful) on WiFi via the Seattle Times' game updates, and me exchanging text messages with a friend in the stadium. That was working OK until we began our descent into Seattle. I knew they would switch off the WiFi at some point before we reached the terminal. We flew the approach pattern southbound. We were getting low, I heard the landing gear clunk into position, I looked out the window and looked down as we flew right over the stadium. I could see the crowd in the stands.
As we passed overhead, it was the bottom of the 8th, score tied 2-2. As I feared, the WiFi switched off 30 seconds later, once we had landed started to taxi to the terminal. We still had Italian SIM cards in our phones and we had no cellular connectivity, as we grabbed our bags and went quickly thru global entry. We typically get a ride home from the airport but none of our usual rides were available, and my wife insisted on us riding the light rail to Northgate, then taking a short Uber home to our house in Ballard, rather than blowing $100+ on a ride.
Before we left for Italy, I had programmed our DVR to record every program whose name included "Seattle Mariners" so I figured we could walk in the door, press one button to turn on the TV, and the game would be playing, live - if it wasn't over by then.
We got on the light rail at Seatac. Not many people on the train. No indication of what was happening at the ballpark. I figured the Stadium station would be mobbed with people leaving the game, and we would know the outcome quickly by reading the vibe. We pulled into the Stadium light rail station. It was absolutely deserted. I stepped off the train momentarily and looked towards the stadium. I could see it was still packed - the game was still going on!
I jumped back on the train and it rolled northbound. Passengers started getting on at the International District station, including people who had obviously just come from the game (all dressed in Mariners garb), mostly parents with young kids nodding off. The game was still on. Somebody pulled out a phone and streamed the game, showing the car the live feed. It was the 12th inning, score still tied. I couldn't believe it. More people piled into the train as it went through the downtown and U-District stations. 13th inning, still tied. Roosevelt station, train packed, 14th inning, still tied 2-2.
We got off at Northgate in the top of the 15th inning. I called Lyft, piled in the car, headed for Ballard. As we were driving through North Seattle, we tried peering into the living rooms of houses as we drove by. Looked like everyone was still huddled around TVs. The game was still on. Our ride turned up our street, stopped in front of our house, and piled our bags on the sidewalk. We grabbed two and started climbing up the steps to our porch. My wife was one step ahead of me, she put her key into our front door lock and started to turn it to open the door.
As we stood on the porch, opening the front door, there was a deafening roar from the crowd at the stadium (it's far away, we could hear it clearly and LOUDLY) - and it also came from every house in our neighborhood and across the city - a loud, exuberant, screeching cheer. My wife looked at me. I looked at her. We both said the same words at the same time:
I guess we won!
