2007 Mariners Schedule announced

And it's a pretty interesting setup, at least to me.

Press Release, with PDF links to the schedules

For example, we play 7 games against the Devil Rays, 3 away and 4 here (and knowing my luck, I will still not get to see Scott Kazmir pitch in person).

We play 9 games against the White Sox, with 5 of them at Safeco, split into a 2-game series in May and 3 games in August.

We play 10 games against Detroit, but only 4 are in Safeco, right after the ASG.

We play in Cleveland as the second series of the year, and we play the Indians at home as the second-to-last series of the year.

Only one Yankees series yet again, and it's the second weekend in May, so if you want to see the Yankees, you'll need to lock down tickets early, as I think the only reason the Yankees didn't sell out quickly this year was because it was a weekday series.

Since the Mariners aren't actually in town on my birthday (May 7th), I'll either have to choose May 11th against the Yankees or May 2nd against the White Sox as my "birthday game", probably. Looks like the Phillies are in San Francisco the 4-6 weekend, too...

Amazingly, yet again, we get the first and last series of the year as home games. I think that's been the case every year I've lived here. Crazy.

Oh, and I forgot the best part! In interleague, THE PITTSBURGH PIRATES ARE COMING HERE!!!!!!!! Weekday series, June 19-21. I'll be at all the games unless something tragic happens. I went to college in Pittsburgh, so the Pirates are one of my "other home teams", though below the Phillies and Mariners. And there's a pretty good chance I won't get to see the Pirates when I visit Pittsburgh in April this time. Plus, I'm a huuuuuge Jason Bay fan (you know, there are a ton of awesome players from British Columbia, and none of them are on the Mariners...), though most of the other players I liked on the Pirates in recent years were traded elsewhere. Though one of them (David Ross) will also come here with the Cincinnati Reds, assuming he still plays for them next year. Yeah, I might be the only person out here who sees "The Reds are coming" and thinks, "Yay! David Ross! Scott Hatteberg!"

And on a last note, no, unlike the rest of you blogizens, I don't think the whole "Bavasi and Hargrove Return in 2007" thing is worth fussing over, which is why this is about the only mention of it I'm going to make for quite a while.

I'll be at Fan Appreciation Night tonight, up in section 334 as per usual. Look for the Phillies hat -- Jamie Moyer needs my karma...