Safeco Field matches Seattle as a favorite t-shirt matches a pair of jeans. Like the city, it is green on the outside and humming with diversity on the inside. As I approached it in the Yankee bus, it felt nice to know Game Four of the 2000 A.L.C.S. wouldn't be rained or fogged out. The retractable roof ensures that, a must in moist Seattle. The crowd that piled into the stadium that evening was well-behaved. The khaki faction pervades, Microsoft-inspired professionals keeping the city's overpopulation of Starbuck's Shops thriving. Old hippies sport tyedyed headbands which suggest that if one goes far enough west and then north, he can still find himself in the Emerald City of this country.

One of the largest advertisements in the stadium reads, "24 HOUR FITNESS". An appropriate label. If you can't fit in in Seattle, well . . . One teenage fan sported a Kurt Cobain t-shirt. His girlfriend wore a "Trust Jesus" t-shirt and both had chains on their wallet. How many stadiums host a Chinese restaurant called INTENTIONAL WOK, with good sesame noodles? In the outfield, a train pulled up behind right field. Standing in the mezzanine as the train clanged, I looked down at my feet. Safeco is all ballpark but part art gallery too. A tile fresco on the floor has an inscription from Somerset Maugham, "Without heroes we are all plain people . . ."

Even though the postseason atmosphere was exhilarating, A-Rod smashed one, Jeter homered, and Justice crunched a pitch 500 feet over the centerfield wall into orbit, I got antsy. I wouldn't see everything in just one trip to Safeco, but I needed to explore.

In right-center, where the homeruns seemed to be flying, I found a beautiful area called Children's Play Field. It is supervised by staff and offers kiddie rides, games, etc. . . A beautiful fountain surrounds a sculpture of a ballplayer at its entrance near an enormous mural. People can identify past heroes of baseball sketched in black and charcoal, encircled by colorful baseball mitts. Cleanliness rules in Safeco as workers clean during the games. One custodian has a culturally sensitive floor sign that warns fans of the wet floor in four different languages. Closed, Cerrado, Geschlossen, Ferme.

The idea of democracy abounded everywhere in the park. There seemed to be room in walkways and short lines at the restrooms even on this sold-out date of forty thousand plus fans. The connection to baseball's rich history is not obliterated by the industrial modernity of the stadium with exposed steel beams painted green everywhere. Near a certain wiener establishment, I noticed a sign that showed Babe Ruth once barnstormed here thirty years before big league baseball hit the west coast. "Bambino Babe Poles Homers for Seattle Fans Over Park Fences". He'd love Safeco's designer hot dogs but hate its long fences.

One of the few problems at Safeco, especially for those over forty, is feeling old. Youth abounds here. And if the temperature changes suddenly, which it did, there is a great clothes store underneath the memorabilia store where convenient but overpriced sweatshirts can be purchased.

Seattle has one of the best stadiums in the world. One of the best teams also, but a squad a couple pitchers short of competing with the Yankees' greatness, especially in the postseason. In three consecutive years, the Mariners had and failed to sign the best pitcher (the Unit), the greatest centerfielder (Griffey) and second best shortstop in baseball (forget statistics, Jeter has four rings). Mysterious why a player wouldn't want to spend his career here, unless Seattle, as a city, is just too far from everything else, or just too far out in general. Peace, love, and many double mocha lattes. Now who will stay and play?