Rally Fries

Players, fans and even announcers will do anything to to spark a rally for their home team. The Angels have their Rally Monkey, the Steelers wave their Terrible Towels and fans across the country at any arena can be seen with their hats twisted and turned every which way for a Rally Cap. When the Seattle Mariners are in need of some late inning runs or a big hit they turn to RALLY FRIES! The tradition began in 2007 when a fan spilled his fries and tarter sauce onto the field. Announcers Mike Blowers and Dave Sims decided to deliver some new fries to the fan. Later that inning the Mariner rallied to win the game and a tradition was born! Fans find clever ways to ask Blowers and Sims for free fries and one lucky fan or group of fans will get Ivar's fries delivered to their seats! 

On the first day of September in 2009, I went to the Mariners game against the hated Anaheim Angels with my friend Erik Schmidt. Before the game we got a Ken Griffey Jr. bobble-head from an interesting girl in the parking lot and we thought that would be the highlight of our day, but we would be wrong. It happened to be Singles Night at Safeco field so I planned my sign accordingly. My sign read "I just want to meet Lindsey but bring fries for the guys!"  Erik described our situation as poor college students looking for fries rather than our normal Ramen meals. 


In the 7th inning the nice couple sitting next to us got up to get some food and use the bathroom but shortly after came running down and told us to get ready. We weren't really sure what was happening but the fans around us started to murmur. Before we could really figure out what was about to happen Lindsey the Rally Fry girl showed up with two plates of Rally Fries with loads of tarter sauce! It was so much fun, Lindsey was extremely nice and obliged to our hug requests but always made sure we were looking in the direction of the camera. As the story goes Sims and Blowers loved us and we were on camera for an abnormal amount of time. When we finally got to sit down and enjoy our fries we began texting everyone we knew asking if they were watching the game and saw us! We made sure to share our reward with everyone around us, making sure to spoil the nice woman who took my camera and documented the whole thing!

In my opinion the best story of the night is what was happening at my parents house during this whole adventure. In the Mariners at-bats before we got fries they had a runner on 3rd with no outs and were unable to score the run. My Dad got so frustrated with how the team was performing he turned the game off in frustration! Just a few minutes later they got a call from my Aunt asking if they saw me on TV and of course they had not. They still haven't seen the video and neither have I but the experience was awesome! Another fun bonus is the fact that Lindsey has Erik and I as the background to her Twitter Page along with Mason Foster and The Kid himself Ken Griffey Jr.!