In the 1980s, the Seattle Mariners used to have, from what I remember it being called, an annual Picture Day. People could bring their cameras to the Kingdome and take photos of the Mariners.
In 1989, Ken Griffey Jr. was in his first year with the Mariners, and I wanted to get his picture. My wife, Lisa, and I went to the Kingdome. Everyone who came was able to go onto the field.
The rules were simple. Velvet ropes, like what you see in movie theaters, were set up from home plate, going along the left- and right-field foul lines all the way to the outfield wall. Players were standing in fair territory, about 20 feet apart, along both lines. People were to take pictures from the foul territory.
All went well until we came to Omar Vizquel, Mariners shortstop. Lisa was a huge fan of Omar and happy to see him up close. I told her she should go under the rope, stand next to him, and I would get a picture of them.
She reacted as if I had asked her to break all Ten Commandments at once.
“No,” she responded vehemently. “I won’t do it, it’s breaking the rules.”
“Come on, it’s no big deal,” I said. “This is a great opportunity, and we may never be this close to him again. It will only take a few seconds.”
Again she said, “No, it’s not right.”
I turned to Omar, who was about 7 feet away, and asked, “Mr. Vizquel, would you mind if my wife stood next to you so I could get a picture of the two of you? You are her favorite Mariner.”
I am sure that my wife being very beautiful played a part in Omar being agreeable.
Grudgingly, Lisa surrendered to my wishes. She slipped under the rope, I got a great picture of the two of them, and she came back.
OK, that’s done, I thought, and all’s well that ends well.
Not quite. Seeing what we had done, people on both sides of us started crossing into fair territory also, which caused others next to them to do so also. Within a minute, hundreds and hundreds of fans were going over, under and around the rope barriers in order to get their pictures taken with the players.
Lisa was mortified. “Oh no,” she moaned, “we are going to get in big trouble.”
“Not me,” I replied, “I didn’t cross the line.”
Luckily, nobody with the Mariners staff saw who started this. To the best of my knowledge, that was the last year that the Mariners held a Picture Day.
It has been over 30 years, but now and then I will still share with friends how Lisa stopped Picture Day from being an annual event with the Mariners.
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