There aren’t many kids out there that can say they safely stole second in front of 27,000-plus cheering fans at Safeco Field, or any other major league field for that matter, but Parksville’s Ryan Blonski did just that at a recent Seattle Mariner’s game.
The way the story goes, the spirited 10-year-old was in the Emerald City July 11 to take in an M’s game with his mom Rhonda and some friends. He and his mom where field level taking in some of the pre-game warm up when one of the event staff approached them and asked if Ryan would like to be part of their Steal-A-Base event, a periodic promo involving randomly selected fans.
It’s not the first time they’ve taken in an M’s game, but “definitely” the most memorable.
Ryan and his mom were taken below and given a tour of the facility, and he was introduced over the PA system as he waited by an opening in the fence at centre field.
“It was awesome,” Ryan, a student at Winchelsea Elemenatry School said with a big smile when The NEWS caught up with him last week (he’d been away on holidays).
His stolen base came between the fourth and fifth innings, when, given the signal, he ran as hard as he could across the field to second base, picked up the bag, and hightailed it back to where he started with the Mariner Moose mascot hot on his heels — the steal was also shown up on the jumbo-tron.
He got to keep the base, and was also given a keepsake t-shirt that reads ‘I stole a base at Safeco Field!’
At one point after some businessmen said they would be happy to make an offer on buying the base, but Ryan passed.
The base, made out of a high tech rubber, has some weight to it.
A big scoop to be sure, Ryan is a big M’s fan, and there is talk of having the base mounted to be put on display in his room.
“He’s played soccer since kindergarten but he’s a total sports fan, it doesn’t matter what he plays, he loves it. It was very cool,” confirmed mom.