This afternoon a friend and I are heading to a rare double-header between the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians. Last night in extra innings the Mariners were mathematically eliminated from any playoff chances, so today they’ll be playing for pride and to spoil the Indians record. The Indians have already clinched a playoff spot and are playing for the best record, so the M’s can’t play spoiler for playoffs. The first of two games has an interesting twist: the Mariners are actually the away team at home, but there is something even more interesting for technophiles that I’ve been wanting to try firsthand:

Nintendo DS interaction during the game.

I’m charging the DS as this is written and looking forward to checking out The Nintendo Fan Network which was made available for free during the September 15th game:

The Nintendo Fan Network (NFN) was offered exclusively during the 2007 season at Safeco Field. NFN delivers interactive baseball-related content to subscribers using their Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite portable game systems and accessing an exclusive Wi-Fi network connection. For a fee of $5 per game (or $30 for 10 games), NFN users can access a menu of interactive options including: a live video feed of the game, scores from other MLB games in progress, player stats and team standings, trivia and word search games against other fans and the ability to communicate with other fans via Nintendo Fan Network Messaging.

More importantly, you can also use the network to order food and drinks without leaving your seat. Mmmm, garlic fries!

It’s too bad the Mariners couldn’t make it to the playoffs this year, but they are over .500 which is an improvement over the last few years. If manager Johnny Mac doesn’t get axed in the offseason, I’d like to see what he can do with a full season next year. How is your favorite MLB team doing this year?

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