I was back in Tacoma for ABF Freight last week. So, I took the opportunity after work Tuesday night to revisit Cheney Stadium, home of the Tacoma Rainiers. The Rainiers are the AAA affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, who play just a short ride north of Cheney Stadium. Tuesday night, the Rainiers would take on the El Paso Chihuahuas (San Diego Padres), game time 6:05 PST. From my hotel downtown, I took a 15 minute Lyft ride to the stadium, grabbed a lawn seat, and headed into the game at roughly the bottom of the 1st inning mark. It was so awesome to be back at Cheney.
As I took my seat in the upper deck area behind the third base area seats, I couldn’t help but notice Mt. Rainier in the background. Mt. Rainier is especially beautiful to view on clear Tacoma days, like Tuesday night. The mountain would wind up in a number of photos I took of Tacoma during my stays, like a giant monster too big to hide behind the trees in a kid’s game of hide and seek. “Found you,” I kept saying to myself as I reviewed photos of Cheney Stadium, the Port of Tacoma, Foos Waterfront, and on the bridge heading over the railroad tracks to work every day.
With this being my second trip to Cheney, I paid a bit more attention to the game then exploring the stadium. My first visit was awesome, I learned so much about the history of the Rainiers and previous Tacoma minor league clubs. This game, I grabbed a great chicken sandwich, some fries, a Mountain Dew (in honor of Mountain Rainier), and chilled out for several innings in left/3rd base upper deck. It was awesome and I took my time with every bite watching every pitch.
As the sun was setting, I thought about all of my photography friends who make night photos look amazing, even at dusk. The shadows started to envelope the field, so I decided to move around a little to get some crisper photos. I parked myself in spots behind home plate, right field upper deck, closer to home plate, and around the edges of the stadium seating. General admission has its advantages, I keep telling you this!!!
I found a very useful trick on my phone when taking dusk/night photos. There is a locking spot in the photo that you can touch to zero in on the field. It makes the field the focus of the shot, thus drawing in the lights of the stadium in the photo. If you just take a general photo, the stadium lights are equi-focused with the field, giving you a slightly darker photo. Pretty cool trick and I will use it going forward when the time, dusk comes along.
One thing I was curious about at Cheney was whether or not they had a POW/MIA special seat. I have seen these special reserved seats at a number of MLB and MILB parks in my journeys and asked an attendant at the stadium if Cheney had one. He wasn’t sure at first but called in another attendant who mentioned it was in Section J, behind home plate. I looked around Section J, but was unsuccessful finding the seat. No matter, as long as they have one in place, I am happy with that.
A fantastic spicy chicken sandwich, a memorable Mountain Dew, great seats, awesome game, beautiful weather for late April in Tacoma, and bonus bonus – no rain. I had a better time on my second trip to Cheney, being slightly more familiar with the park, the seating, the overall vibe of a Tacoma Rainiers game. It was another awesome Tacoma baseball experience.
The Rhiter 
Leave a Reply