`Room With A View' Has New Meaning -- Skydome Hotel Room Nice Option To Press Box

TORONTO - As the tenor slowly rolled into `O, Canada' I was stretched out on the bed, talking on the phone. It would have looked silly for me to stand.

It has nothing to do with a lack of respect for the Canadian national anthem. I didn't stand for the U.S. anthem either. Do you stand up at home?

Where I was, it's the same feeling. I was in Room 428 of the SkyDome Hotel watching the Seattle-Toronto baseball game.

Now there are stories passed down through journalism lore of newspaper guys covering games off TV or radio while downing a fifth of Chivas or a case of beer in their hotel rooms or a bar miles away.

This was not the case, but I didn't have to go to the game. The game came to me, played live just outside my window.

My room overlooked the SkyDome's left-field bullpen, at least 100 feet behind Mariners left-fielder Tracy Jones and about 500 feet from home plate. It's like being in a blimp with a bed, phone, liquor bar and a toilet. It gave new meaning to the term ``room with a view.''

This view costs $400, although the charge once was $800 and most people get it now for a package rate of $199. The hotel is part of the $500 million SkyDome stadium/hotel/restaurant project completed last year.

The perspective is a contrast to my usual game view, in the press box generally behind home plate. For one thing, I've never had to sign a waiver in any of the 14 American League ballparks, including the Kingdome, to promise to keep my clothes on.

Provision B in the hotel waiver form each guest must sign, states: ``The guest acknowledges that the room is on public view and shall accordingly not carry on any activity which is not normally considered appropriate. . . . This includes (but not limited to) being in a state of partial or complete undress.''

It seems the last time the Mariners were in town one couple performed an act ``not normally considered appropriate'' and the crowd in the third-deck ``view seats'' responded accordingly. The incident also spread across both nations' newspapers, gaining wide publicity for the year-old hotel.

Earlier this year, a man acted inappropriately while standing in front of his window. When hotel security people came to his room he told them he was under the mistaken impression that he was protected from view by one-way glass.

Both incidents have traumatized management enough to issue the waiver. I probably was in strict violation of the code with my socks and shoes off.

The pie-shaped room is about 12 feet wide at the window and 20 feet wide as you enter. It has a monitor TV that provides the game feed, a mini-bar with everything from chocolate to champagne, a king-sized bed and four chairs lined up near the window.

My room had a semiobstructed view of right field because of another room jutting out. It's tough to cover a game you can only half see.

I also could barely see the batter. In fact, when Jeffrey Leonard hit his two-run, first-inning home run that landed about 80 feet below me in the second deck, the sound of the bat followed a second after the sight of it.

But you couldn't beat the food. In the Kingdome press box the highlight is the yogurt ice cream. Some games they get daring with raspberry or peach. Here you can get something called foie de veau Provimi (calves' liver). Or you could you have a lait frappe (milk shake).

You also could take a short walk down to the dozens of McDonald's outlets inside the park or take out a burger from the Hard Rock Cafe.

Between innings, I strolled over to another writer's room, which had cheese, crackers, pate and refreshment. It was Yuppie heaven.

Perhaps one could feel a little guilty amid all this opulence while the Mariners were going down to a 4-2 defeat. Perhaps.