My three baseball games in three days ended with the one with the least desirable outcome — a walk off homerun by Brandon Inge in the bottom of the ninth to give the Tigers the victory. I did get to see a Torii Hunter homerun and almost a second one (but it’s 420 ft to deep center at Comerica). Plus, this time my parents were with me, which is a plus. And no matter the outcome, it was still my third baseball game in three days. How bad could that have been, really?
(Pictures and perhaps a longer report to follow… When I Have Time.)

Took a break from MLB today and went down to Toledo with my parents to see the Twins AAA team, the Rochester Redwings, beat the Tigers AAA team, the Toledo Mudhens. The scouting report: the Redwings play solid defense and Toledo is prone to mental errors in the field. Mike Venafro, a bullpen pitcher for Rochester, has one of the wackier deliveries I’ve seen. It’s sidearm… but just barely. I’d call it a submarine pitch. He doesn’t have much control over it yet.
Also, it rained and I got wet, but still stayed to score every pitch.

Justin Morneau’s 7th inning homerun

Damn, those seats were good. Longer report to follow.

What a beautiful day for a ball game!
Amrys was in town visiting Paul, so the three of us made plans to catch a baseball game today — and boy, did we luck out in game selection. The weather was fantastic — upper 70s. The seats were in the shade out the sun — but still with a good view of the field. And then there was the game itself…
The first inning started out great for the Tigers, particularly for my fantasy players, Curtis Granderson and Magglio Ordonez. Granderson led off with a double, and scored on a Placido Polanco single, which was followed by an Omar Infante single. Then my other player, Mags, hit a single up the middle and knocked in those two runs. Detroit looked infallible with the 3-0 lead so early on, but the White Sox decided to demonstrate that they were in town to play some baseball too.
It started with a Pierzynski solo shot in the 2nd and was followed by two runs in the 5th to tie it up (including one scored by my only White Sox fantasy player in the field today, Juan Uribe). In the meantime, the Tigers didn’t get another base runner until the 7th when they squandered a walk and a single, leaving Carlos Guillen and Sean Casey stranded. It looked like the White Sox may have sealed the deal in the 8th when Joe Crede hit a two run blast to left center to put the Sox up 5-3. When the Tigers went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning, fairweather fans began to slowly trickle out of the stadium.
But then the top of the ninth ended with a stellar double play and it looked like the big orange cats might try and scratch their way back after all. But the bottom of the ninth didn’t start well when Infante popped up to second and Mags struck out on four pitches. Guillen hit a single up the middle to keep Detroit alive, but with two outs already and Marcus “.125” Thames at the plate, the stands were emptying fast as the crowd was more worried about the impending traffic jam in the parking lot. But then one of those miracle plays that can only happen in baseball happened. The bottom of the ninth, two outs, and a guy who had already struck out twice and hit into a double play once at the plate. And I’m sure you’ve guessed already — Thames hit the ball 395 feet, over the left field wall to tie the game up. All those people who thought they were leaving quickly sat down.
After Sean Casey got on with a single, due up was catcher Mike Rabelo, 0 for 9 on the season. Anyone who was expecting a miracle from Rabelo was a fool and even Jim Leyland knew that. While Pudge Rodriguez thought he was getting a day off today, everyone in the stadium knew they wanted the future hall of famer up there instead of a guy batting .000. And so he put on a helmet, stepped into the batter’s box and the crowd went nuts. The game was on the line. It was one of those moments at a baseball game where you can just feel that you’re about to see something special. And sure enough — Pudge scored the winning run. Tiger victory!
Only that wasn’t until the 12th when Placido Polanco hit him in after he and Granderson walked. At that moment in the bottom of the ninth, Pudge struck out very anticlimactically and the game went to extra innings. But this meant that Pudge actually caught the last three innings, his 1,951st game behind the plate, securing him fourth place all time in games caught.
Other than when my Tiger boyfriend, Brandon Inge, hit a double and was stranded, the 10th and 11th innings were tense but uneventful. (Inge also made two masterful plays at third in the top of the 10th.) Amrys’s scorecard only went to eleven, so she didn’t get to score the 12th inning. (A note to Spinal Tap — sometimes even eleven is not enough.) For her sake, here’s the play by play of the game’s final inning, in excruciating detail:

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Women’s bathroom sign at US Cellular Field in Chicago

The Twins have recently unveiled the plans for their new ballpark, opening in 2010. Besides the obvious goodness that is an outdoor ballpark (even though this late winter weather might imply to some people that occassionally roofs are useful), I was particularly tickled by the comparisons page. Was I excited that they claim the new park will be most similar to PNC and AT&T Parks? Well, yes — I’ve been to both of those parks and thought they were great. But since they’re using the same architects, that’s not that surprising. (Although, my favorite part of those parks was that in both cases, the park is right on a body of water and homeruns can “splashdown” — the Twins stadium will be about six blocks from the Mighty Mississippi. Harmon Killebrew probably couldn’t even launch one that far.)

No, no… the best part for me? The bathroom ratio:

Finally! A major sports facility that gets that women pee more often and take longer to do it. Now as long as they don’t give it some stupid corporate name, this might become my favorite modern stadium.

Prepping for my upcoming prelims has meant that I haven’t had as much chance to watch ballgames as I’d like. Plus, none of the Twins games were broadcast nationally and I don’t yet feel like going out of my way to see the Tigers play. But my fantasy league trekked on without me paying much attention. I went 6-4, earning points for runs, hits, homeruns, RBIs, saves, and WHIP. I lost points for stolen bases, wins, strikeouts, and ERA. I blame Boof Bonser for those last three, and as for stolen bases… well, it appears my players are too honest to steal anything. But overall, I’m holding steady at 2nd place in the league. I have a feeling this can’t last too much longer.
This week I’ll actually get to a game that seven of my players will be in — White Sox at Tigers with Amrys, who will be in town this weekend.