Safeco Field Roof Won`t Open (11/11/99) The retractable roof at Safeco Field is misbehaving again. Mariners' spokeswoman Rebecca Hale says it was working just fine yesterday. It was closed overnight, but it wouldn't budge when someone tried to open it this morning. The groundsman wanted to let the rain and daylight onto the natural grass. Hale says no one knows what the problem is or how to fix it. It's not the first time the roof has had glitches. Another problem is the 128 wheels that the roof rolls on. Hale says a mysterious sideways pressure is causing them to come out of alignment. The contractor that designed the retracting mechanism says it wants to fix 118 of the wheels at a cost of between 200-thousand dollars and 400-thousand dollars. It also says it'll take at least one day per wheel. There are only 140 calendar days left until the Mariners play their first exhibition game in 2000 at Safeco Field.

-- Mark Stilson (mark842@hotmail.com), November 12, 1999

Answers

It seems that the control circuits somehow became unpluged from the system. Hmmmm....

-- Curious George (---@.---.---), November 12, 1999.