A Night In Salt Lake. . .And Seattle
I don’t drink and I don’t party. . .unless you count the occasional birthday parties for kids and grandkids and I live in quiet, even boring Utah county. So, what was I doing in a bar in Salt Lake City at 10:00 pm on a Thursday night?
Well, I was watching the Seattle Mariners but that was happy accident. I was really there for a karaoke contest. I wasn’t in it. But that wouldn’t have bothered me.
I recently spoke in church. It’s a peculiarity of the Mormon church that members of the congregation are asked to deliver the messages each week. The people I attend church with are no more interested in speaking in public than you and your friends are. Most people begin their remarks with some form of “I wish I wasn’t up here.” Instead I said,
I wish I could tell you I’m not happy to be here. Or that I wish the hymn or the other speaker’s went longer. I can’t. I’m absolutely delighted to be speaking to you today.
And it was true. I have other insecurities, but getting up in front of people isn’t one of them. But, I was there to support my friend Rory.
It’s about a 45 minute drive from my house to Salt Lake City. My radio is broken in my truck. So, my phone was streaming the Mariners broadcast. Yes, I’m that big of a baseball geek. Last week the Ms were eliminated from the playoff picture. They’ll finish with a winning record but, they will be sitting home in October.
They are hosting the Texas Rangers. Texas was out of playoff contention weeks ago. So, why was I listening? Because I couldn’t see the video stream. Seriously. It’s $15 to buy the audio stream for all MLB teams for the year. Getting to watch a game is a rare treat.
The venue, The Green Pig Pub in Salt Lake City is a fairly typical bar. Lots of neon, a beautiful wooden bar, a stage area, lots of tables and plenty of TVs. Every single one was tuned to the Thursday night football game.
I knew exactly one person in the mass of humanity. I said hello and then headed to a quiet corner of the bar to nurse my Coke and wait for the competition to start.
And there I discovered the one TV not tuned to football. It was showing a baseball game between two teams who were out of the playoffs and simply playing out the season.
Yup, I walked into a bar in Salt Lake City and found a live broadcast of my favorite team, the Seattle Mariners.
Don’t mind me, I’ll just be over here in the corner watching baseball.
There’s something about live music that I really enjoy. Karaoke gets a bad rap because many of the singers are . . .bad. Fortunately this was the second round of the competition. The singers were passable to exceptional.
My friend Rory didn’t move on to the next round. . .and the Mariners lost. . .again.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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