Felix’s Fans

Last weekend, my wife and I along with some friends, attended the Seattle Mariners game as they hosted the Milwaukee Brewers.

I’ll still never understand why Major League Baseball felt it was necessary to send the Milwaukee Brewers over to the National League, only to send the Houston Astros to the American League years later.  First getting picked last in kickball and now this.

But I digress.

While sitting there in Safeco Field, we were able to watch one of the game’s best pitchers, Felix Hernandez, throw some of his best stuff.  A while ago, the Mariners decided it would be great to create a “King’s Corner”, to honor “King” Felix.  So, whenever he pitches, you can pay extra to get a yellow shirt and sit out with other crazy fans in the left field corner.  Each fan is given a sign with a “K” on it, to hold up.  (The letter K, for whatever reason, is the scorekeeping code for a strikeout)

The way it works is, when Felix gets two strikes on a batter, his fans stand up and chant “K! K! K! K! K!” while holding up their yellow K’s.

It didn’t dawn on me until I was actually at a game what was going on.  Felix is from South America.  Spanish is his native language.  The letter K in English has the same name as the Spanish word, “Que”, which means “what.”

How distracting must that be for Felix to be trying to throw a strike, while a bunch of crazies in the corner of the stadium are chanting, “What? What? What? What? What?”

Just thought I would point that out. You’re welcome.

Tim Hunter