Death Cab for Cutie, Randy Johnson Star Today in Mariners Opening Day

We've come a long way, baby. I can remember when the Mariners' opening day musical guest was Kenny G, and the first pitch honoree was Morganna, the Kissing Bandit.

Today's Mariners opening day festivities, which begin at 3 p.m. at Safeco Field, will feature Death Cab for Cutie; the local boys will sing two unannounced "classic baseball" songs. Randy Johnson, the best pitcher in team history, will throw out the first pitch. And Ichiro will get his Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards. If you aren't going to be at Safeco, you can watch the event live on the M's website.

Death Cab practicing their Opening Day set (@therealmariners via Twitter)

Also new to fans this year: A renovated menu, including more options for vegans, gluten-haters, foodies, and the frugal. For example: A Dungeness crab sandwich served on garlic artisan French bread from Essential Baking Company. (That's at the "Sound Seafood" stand in section 248.) A new stand called "The Natural," in section 132, will feature vegetarian, vegan, and organic foods. Like fresh fruit! What a revelation! As someone who'll hit probably 25 M's games this year, I'm delighted, as I would prefer not to end the summer weighing 275. Another improvement: a new LED scoreboard in left field.

Parking is always a nightmare on opening day; when you combine a near-sellout crowd with the normal commuter crowd, it gets gross. Happily there are some traffic improvements. The new Royal Brougham way overpass opens today (map in pdf), it provides direct access to the Qwest Field parking lot, and will also put cars, bikes and pedestrians over the train tracks. Other good news: There are now two turn lanes from 1st Avenue S. onto Edgar Martinez Way and the entrance to the Safeco Field lot. Bad news: The northbound I-5 exit onto 4th Avenue S. won't be open until later this month.

Oh! And there will be a baseball game played! Game time is 3:40. The M's Ryan Rowland-Smith and the A's Justin Duchscherer will pitch, the same matchup as we had last Wednesday in Oakland. Neither pitched well, nor did they figure in the decision, a 6-5 A's win. Let's go Hyphen!