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"In Honor Of my Friend, Mr. Dave Niehaus, The Voice of the Seattle Mariners" I will truly miss you house"

"Gone to Post Season"

"Dave Niehaus"    "Turn up your volume!"

My Oh My! - "He would'ha loved It!"

Mariners unveil Dave Niehaus statue at Safeco Field

Here's your first peek at the Dave Niehaus Statue;

Mariners broadcaster Rick Rizzs gets his first look at the statue of Dave Niehaus that is being constructed at the Rotblatt Amrany studio outside Chicago. (Photo by Greg Johns/MLB.com)

While we’re in Chicago for the White Sox series, a group from the Mariners headed to nearby Highwood, Ill., on Monday to meet with sculptor Lou Cella and see how his work was going on the Dave Niehaus statue that will be installed in Safeco Field late this season.

Turns out, Cella is well underway on the project , which is stunning. Rick Rizzs, Niehaus’ longtime broadcast partner, was blown away when he walked into the room where the sculpture is being worked on.

At this point, the statue has been done in clay. That mold will then be used to cast the bronze piece that ultimately will go into the outfield concourse in Safeco sometime in September.

I’ll have more details on all this later today on Mariners.com, but thought people would be interested in seeing how the sculpture looks at this point.

The piece has Niehaus sitting at a broadcast desk with his scorebook opened to the game of Oct. 8, 1995. You might recall that as “The Double” game by Edgar Martinez. Cella used Niehaus’ actual scorebook and the engraving is a clear reproduction of his actual notes and scoring from that memorable day.

The detail on the piece is stunning, right down to one of Niehaus’ favorite “baseball” ties. Fans will be able to sit next to Niehaus on the bench on the sculpture, as the Mariners want it to be an interactive piece given Niehaus’ open relationship with fans around the Pacific Northwest.

Check link for interview with artist, sculpter.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=15660795&topic_id=8877490&c_id=sea&tcid=vpp_copy_15660795

Joining Marilyn Niehaus at the corner of Dave Niehaus Way South and Royal Brougham on Friday afternoon, several hundred baseball fans voiced their love for her late husband.

They chanted his name and cheered replays of some of his radio calls of famed Mariners moments, and screamed “My, Oh, My” when the section of First Avenue South officially took on his name.

By being there, they accomplished something far more personal for Marilyn.

“The fans are really filling this big hole in my heart,” she said.

After having broadcast 5,284 Mariners games, starting with their franchise opener on April 8, 1977, Niehaus died last November at age 75.

For 33 seasons, he was not just the voice of the franchise but also the identity, and the one immutable constant example of quality and class regardless of the team’s performance.

A gaggle of politicians tossed out a half-dozen “whereas” and “therefores” while proclaiming it Dave Niehaus Day, and christening the block in front of Safeco Field in his honor.

Seattle City Council member Sally Clark said, “Street renaming is not something we do a lot of in Seattle.” Apparently, renaming is even rarer than repaving. But so well-deserved in this case.

After the politicians were finished, Marilyn did not speak to the gathering. But they spoke very clearly to her with their presence.

“It’s such an emotional day,” she said. “All the fans are so overwhelming, and he would be so proud.”

But daughter Greta Niehaus Dunn added an equally telling comment about her father: “He would want to know what all the fuss was about,” she said.

The “fuss” continued in the stadium before the game. There were the usual home-opener bunting-draped facades and red-carpet and smoke-machine player introductions. And a sold-out Safeco Field crowd enthusiastically cheered the presentations of Felix Hernandez’s Cy Young Award and Gold Gloves to Ichiro Suzuki – his 10th – and Franklin Gutierrez.

But they rose and cheered louder when the ceremony for Niehaus started. Pictures of him through the decades flashed on the big screen as Seattle rapper Macklemore sang a tribute. Jay Buhner helped unveil a sign on the press box “Dave Niehaus 1977-2010.”

Marilyn and the Niehaus family took the field. She said before the game that she was a little daunted by the idea of throwing out the first pitch. But she was composed and focused when they handed her the ball.

She lobbed a commendable pitch to “catcher” Felix Hernandez, who rewarded her with a warm hug.

She grinned and pointed up toward the press box, and blinked quite a few times on her way off the field, waving to the fans and mouthing the words, “Thank you.”

We are left to wonder how Dave might have called this, capturing the poignant qualities of the moment. But, like so many things about this season and future seasons, Niehaus will not be here to make the call.

Marilyn noted before the game that she has been on hand for every home opener in franchise history. So sad to think that she was solo for this one.

Former Mariners player and broadcaster Dave Henderson started with the team in ’77 along with Niehaus. As far as he’s concerned, every honor for Niehaus is warranted.

“He was No. 1,” Henderson said of Niehaus. “For any organization to have a history ... you have to start somewhere.

“That was Dave Niehaus. I don’t think anybody is trying to replace him, and you can’t replace him.

“But with the street being named for him, and the ceremony tonight, it marks his place with this organization. That lets everybody know – for all time – how important he was to this organization.”

      Dave Boling: 253-597-8440 dave.boling@thenewstribune.com

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I will be adding my personal house story's, I have a lot of them. I will say, he was a very Honorable Family man, funny, addictive personally. I do remember one time having lunch with Dave, Rick Rizz, Kevin Cremen, and a host of other's, anyway the only thing me & house where doing is practising are signature's on napkins for signing all my prints of him!

Everybody always asked me, Why do you call him house? because Hendu (Dave Henderson) told me too.....everyone has a nick name in baseball... 

Check out the New Dave Niehaus Tribute Video by Local Artist Jason Koeing!! Very Cool Jason!! (to the right)

 Above is Dave's actual hand writting, I was smart enough to have him write all his saying's on paper for me & know I'm sure glad I did!

After that a few day's later we where signing the prints, Mariner Trunks & Baseballs. During the signing witch took about 3 hours, Dave was talking about baseball, the Ted Williams story, the Jr. Sr. Griffey story's & several other's, any way as he was talking my head was down, so naturelly I though we had the radio on, but when I look up it's house sitting ther chating away! how wonderful!

below is the poster for the Costco weekend show with Dave, Hendu, & several Mariner players that weekend.

Hey Friends, I added the facebook Comment Box, I think we are going to need it as the season go's a long!

http://www.mariners.com

The Strike year!

"My Heart, Thought's & Prayer's are with his wife Marilyn, their kids Andy, Matt & Greta & 5 Grandkids.

" Thank you for letting us have him for a while"

Above is the poster for the Super Mall show in Auburn,WA. this was a fun weekend for me & Dave, he loved meeting the fans!

Another thing about this apperance was that's when house smoked & me too, we had to have a cig we had to go outside, so here we where, me & Dave standing behide the Mall, in the ally like too teenagers during school! Friends..... The Seattle Mariners will be wearing this patch on their sleeve this 2011 Baseball Season.

Another story, hanging out with him in the booth before the game, it always had to be a hour before the game starts. because he had to get ready.

That was very fun, hanging with Dave & Rick watching them do there prep work & going over stats. lunch at The FX McCroys was fun, he could not shower me enought with compliments about the Artwork piece, he actully picked me to do his piece.

I could not tell him enought, how much I enjoyed his company & friendship, as my maneger was taking pictures.

Ok, here's another story, ground breaking day for the new stadium called Safeco Field. House was the MC of corse, who else, Jr.!

We meet up that day, indroduced him to the friends I was with, and they gave out Ground Breaking Posters, so everyone had House sign them! we talked for a while, and set up another lunch date. "Baseball as we know it in the NW Seattle,WA. area, will be forever changed."