A Day to Remember

Mt. St. Helens vented some steam and ash this morning, after a week of unrest. The seismic activity settled down for several hours, but the earthquakes have started again, increasing in magnitude much quicker than they did last week. It doesn't sound like we've heard the last of her. I was working from home with Sophie so she and I got to see the footage of it live after getting a phone call from my mom... "Um... how close are you to Mt. St. Helens?"

Sophie's excited comment: "It's erufting!"

***

Ichiro Suzuki got hit number 258, breaking the 84-year-old record set by George Sisler (a fellow Michigan alumnus, and the player once called by Ty Cobb "the nearest thing to a perfect ballplayer." Of course, Ty never saw Ichiro play.). And we were there for the excitement! I bought the tickets for this game back in March and though I would love to say it was with fantastic prescience, in truth I did so not knowing how significant the night would be.

It was amazing; the stadium was full (probably the first time we'd seen anywhere near a capacity crowd all year) and the fans were hungry for it, cheering Ichiro the moment he was announced, chanting his name when he approached the plate. He didn't make us wait, tying the record on his first at-bat, breaking it on the second. Of course, the game came to a full stop while the fireworks went off, the crowd went wild, and his teammates came out to congratulate him. Five members of Sisler's family were there including his daughter and grandson; Ichiro went over to them and received their congratulations, then tipped his hat to a crowd that hadn't stopped standing or cheering the whole time.

No player deserves it more, no player is more focused and dedicated to the game and his team than Ichiro. He's got all that talent - hitting, fielding, throwing, running - and none of the attitude that often accompanies it. I'm SO glad he broke the record it in front of the home-town crowd that adores him. The Mariners won, to boot, beating the Texas Rangers 8-3. It was a magical, wonderful night that took a lot of the sting out of a miserable season.