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Ticket to Toledo Mudhens vs. Indianapolis Indians game: $8 Convenience fee for buying ticket online: $1 Parking: $3 Sheyboygan Bratwurst with sauerkraut and brown mustard: $5 Souvenir cup soda: $4 Erin’s first minor league experience: Priceless

Last night I had the urge to get out of the house and go to a ballgame, but alas, the Tigers are in Pittsburgh this weekend, so I needed a back-up plan. Enter Toledo — only an hour away and home of the 2005 International League (AAA) Champion Toledo Mudhens, farm team for the Detroit Tigers (and formerly for the Minnesota Twins). The tickets are significantly cheaper and the seats were better than anything I could afford at a major league ballpark (I was pretty much right behind home plate). They still price gouge you with the food, but my sum total was still cheaper than the cost of any ticket at Fenway.
Of course, I had to deal with the fact that I didn’t recognize the names of any of the players, save for Dustan Mohr, who once upon a time got some big league play with the Twins. But I did get a look at the possible superstars of tomorrow. Craig Stansberry went 2 for 4 with a homerun for the Indians (farm team for the Pittsburgh Pirates) and Ryan Ludwick, who homered for Toledo with a man on base to put the Mudhens into the win category.
But there’s more to a minor league game than just the game — there’s also the between inning entertainment. We had Jamie Farr (aka Corporal Klinger on M*A*S*H), Toledo’s local celebrity, giving us the rules of the ballpark (via Jumbotron) — “Those embarassing their mothers will be escorted out.” We had giant mud hens, Muddy and Mudonna, doing the macarena. We had fans dressed up in giant mattress costumes trying to catch little foam pillows for a chance to win… I don’t remember what. And there was another guy who won a year’s supply of potato chips for accurately tossing three baseballs into a “strike zone” from a distance of approximately 20 feet. We had a polka band playing the German national anthem (because apparently it was German-American Heritage Day). We had a high school homerun derby and to close it all up, we had fireworks. All in all, a highly enjoyable day at the ballpark.

Mauer’s stats last night: 4 hits (including a triple and a double), 5 RBI
Mauer’s current batting average: .377
Mauer’s current ranking in the All Star votes: 3rd
While this is two places better than he was ranked last week, he still has a ways to go to catch up to Pudge and Tek. I mean, I get it — Pudge is probably the greatest American League catcher of the past 20 years or so, and Tek is, well, the captain of the Red Sox. But c’mon people — this is absurd. And it’s not just Twins fans who are making the case for Joe these days. MLB.com has an article up and Yahoo! sports is featuring Mauer on their MLB splash page, linking to this column (which reports that Mauer is currently dating Miss USA — sorry, Lisa).
Seriously, even if you’re not a baseball fan… click the button and vote. If you’ve already voted, get another gmail account and vote again.
And for a Joe M. that children should not strive to emulate, check out this clip of minor league manager Joe Mikulik flipping his lid on the field.

Before I get to the game, I’d like you to all note the new graphic along my sidebar as I ponder the following question: Why isn’t Joe Mauer leading the All-Star ballot for catchers? Going into tonight’s game, his .377 BA leads the majors. He also leads all catchers in runs (37), hits (89), doubles (19), and stolen bases (7). By comparison, Varitek, who is leading the vote, is hitting a paltry .262. (I realize that the bulk of the people who read this who are so inclined to vote would never vote against Tek, but it’s worth trying.) So click on the button over to your right, get your 25 votes in (or more if you care to use multiple e-mail addresses), and vote Joe! (And if Joe Mauer himself should read this, call me.)
Onto to tonight’s game… the return of The Rocket (which means that it was broadcast on ESPN, so I had a chance to watch myself some Twins baseball). Clemens had a quirky start — first pitch strike followed by what looked like was about to be excellent fielding to stop a Luis Castillo single from making it up the middle… only he bobbled it and Castillo reached on an error. After such an odd beginning, the game turned into a solid pitcher’s duel between Roger Clemens and Francisco Liriano… that is until the 3rd inning.
After Liriano did his duty as a pitcher-at-bat and struck out, Luis Castillo came up to face Clemens for a second time, this time hitting a legitimate infield single followed by a stolen base to put him on second. Chairman Mauer grounded out (but it’s okay, he’s still my favorite), to bring up Jason Kubel, who hit a long double to deep left center to score Castillo. Kubel came around himself on a 3-2 single by Michael Cuddyer, bringing the Twins up 2-0.
Clemens lasted a few more innings, but was relieved in the fifth, trailing the Twins by two runs. The most the Rocket could hope for in his big comeback was a no-decision. But the Twins did their best to serve Clemens the loss. Justin Morneau was the first batter up after Roger hit the bench, and he jacked a homer to right-center field, putting the Twins up 3-0. In the eighth, my boy Joe finally demonstrated his sweetness by singling to left and later scoring on a Torii Hunter single to bring the Twins to 4 runs.
In the meantime, Liriano demonstrated what a pitcher in his prime can really do, taking a shutout into the eighth before giving up a short two run homer to Jason Lane. Rumor has it that the left field fence at Enron Field isn’t actually legal distance from the plate anyway. Joe Nathan, touted as one of the best closers in baseball, came in in the bottom of the ninth, striking out two on his way to retiring the side and earning the save.
Nice try there, Roger… wasn’t quite enough though.

As most of you know, this is the one series a year in which I am not a Red Sox fan, so as the rest of the Sox fans wallow in the pain of their Minnesota sweep, I’m actually quite content…
SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!!!
(Oh, give me a break… I had to watch the Twins lose 18-1 back in April. They have a lot more ground to make up if they want to win their division than the Red Sox do. Six of the last seven is a good start, even if three of them did come at the Sox expense.)
I only caught the last two innings of tonight’s game, so it sounds like I missed an outstanding pitching performance by Carlos Silva. But I did get to watch David Ortiz’s opportunity to prove whether or not he’s the best clutch player in baseball. If we go by just tonight (how’s that for misinterpretting statistics, Jeff?), his RBI single in ninth demonstrates that he’s good… but not good enough. And Manny, who followed Ortiz by striking out to end the game and also struck out in the eighth with the bases loaded, is definitely not my pick for a clutch situation and never has been.
Edit: Checking the recap online, it sounds like I missed a speaker ball in the sixth — Ortiz maybe should have been the game’s hero, but his potential homerun bounced off the speakers and landed on the field for nothing more than a single. Ah, the joys (or horrors, if you will) of indoor baseball.

I finally got around to recharging the batteries on my camera and was able to liberate the pictures from my trip to San Francisco… which was now over two months ago. Without further ado (because you all care), they’re here. I am most pleased with the picture of me and Willy Mays (at right), but I also like the shot from my 27th floor hotel room in which you can see a cable car going by. And of course, there are also the requisite pictures of Anand and Breath looking like the dorks that they are, and a few close ups of the Wizard I cross-stitched for Breath <insert old maid joke here>.

What I failed to mention in my last entry was that I almost decided to go to tonight’s game with the MIT Club of Southeastern Michigan. But because Detroit is a good 45 minutes away (with no traffic) and I was already going last night with the housemates, I opted against it. This morning as I woke up, I was thinking that I made a mistake.
However, since the game is currently delayed due to rain, I’ve decided I made the right choice. On the upside, the WB is instead playing an episode of Cheers, “Now Pitching, Sam Malone” in which Sam relives his former Red Sox days by acting in a commercial. It almost makes up for the lack of baseball.
Only not at all.

Yoooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuukilis!
But I get ahead of myself.
Yesterday five housemates (including three Red Sox fans) and I headed out to Comerica Park to catch the first game of this weekend’s Boston Red Sox-Detroit “Best Record in Baseball” Tigers series. Given the group’s desire to sit in cheap ($15) seats, we were up in the upper deck. As a side note, I’ve decided that my dislike of upper deck seats comes from growing up with the Metrodome — the higher you are, the closer you are to the ceiling, and the more you are reminded that you are inside. However, at an outdoor park, the higher you are… well, you’re just higher and with a more bird’s eye view of the field. But it’s not at all stifling like it is in the dome.
And then there was the game. It’s started bleak for the boys from Beantown, with the Tigers scoring a quick run in the first on two doubles. The Sox finally answered back in the fourth when the cereal beat out the chicken, as Coco Crisp got a single off of Kenny “Roasters” Rogers and later scored on a Manny “not named for a popular food brand” Ramirez single to tie the game at one a piece. But the even score didn’t last long as the Tigers came back with a run in the bottom of the fifth on a handful of singles to put the Tigers in the lead.
At this point, the Windsor Canadians behind us and the Toledo natives in front of us began to get ruthless. I at least gained some sympathy from the Toledoens (?) when I told them that I was also a Twins fan who had been at the 18-1 clobbering. They proceeded to attempt to “out do” my suffering by explaining the torture that is being a Mud Hens fan. The Canadians, however, would have none of it. But they did have plenty of beer.
And so it came down to the top of the ninth, with Manny and TeK due up. (And by the way, no one gets the VariTeK/LaTeX jokes here.) Yet Manny grounded out to short and Varitek popped out foul to third base and suddenly there were two outs and things were really looking bleak. It was all up to third baseman Mike Lowell, who won his World Series ring with the Marlins in 2003. Lowell kept the game alive with a sharp single to center, bringing up Kevin Youkilis.
Youkilis started the at bat with a first pitch strike, and the Canadians started getting really obnoxious. “Two more!” they screamed. But there would be no more — Youkilis shut them up by hitting a homerun just over the left field wall, pulling the Sox ahead for the first time in the game. Suddenly we became the obnoxious fans and the Toledoens turned their caps inside out in the hopes of a Tigers rally, which was not to be. Jon Papelbon came in in the ninth to quickly mow the Tigers down one-two-three, including two strikeouts, and get the save.

In honor of the VH1 series that I happen to have caught an episode of tonight, I give you Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, Nintendo style. It’s one of the odder baseball related things that I’ve seen…
And should anyone find their way to my corner of the world this summer, you should join me in checking this out — Amrys, I’m thinking it would be right up your alley. (That would be an 1880s reference, to keep in theme with the post title.)

Okay, so that wasn’t the score of one game, but rather the whole weekend series. But the game I went to (Saturday afternoon) was nearly as bad — 18-1. (By comparison, Friday was 9-0, Sunday was 6-0.) At least we went to the one game where the Twins actually scored. I have pretty much nothing good to say about the game itself, so I’ll just leave you with the box score:

And with that out of the way, onto the positives…
My parents were in town to help me move and the Twins were also in town, so we drove into Detroit straight from the airport to catch the 1:05 PM game on Saturday. As it happens, this was the day of Tigers On-Field Clinic #1 before the game, and since we were there early, my mom and I wandered the field listening to various bits of advice about how to be a better ballplayer. Some key lessons learned:

• “You hold the bat like you’d hold a dove. Think about holding a dove — if you squeeze too tight, you’ll kill it. Now, if you’re holding a pigeon, go ahead and squeeze the little sucker all you want, I don’t care.” — Andy Van Slyke (Tigers First Base Coach) during the batting clinic
• “If you want to be a catcher, then I think you should try being a catcher. If you don’t, then that’s okay. Just find another position.” — Gene Lamont (Tigers Third Base Coach) during the catching clinic, which featured Vance Wilson, not Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez (which would have been cooler)
• “Parents need to let the kids be kids. Because let’s face it, when the game ends, they don’t care if they won or not. They just want pizza and ice cream.” — Unknown dude in a Tigers uniform during an unknown clinic that we caught the tail end of

Besides the clinic, we also wandered around the stadium a bit and took a ride on the Foul Ball Ferris Wheel. Have you ever ridden inside a baseball? Because now I have.
And as an added bonus on the day, my scorebook now has two signatures in it: Juan Rincon, pitcher for the Twins, and Mike Redman, back-up catcher who signed right under his name in the line-up of the August 21, 2005 game. Now here’s to hoping that at least one of them as a break-out year and becomes a star sometime soon.
And then there was that massacre of a ballgame… blech.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking… the season started yesterday and I’m blogging about Sunday’s exhibition game between the two Bay Area teams. What?

Well, thanks to the generosity of Google and Microsoft, I was in San Francisco for the weekend at the CRA-W Grad Cohort for Women. And being who I am, I stuck around an extra day to drag some people to a baseball game. As it turns out, the weather wasn’t the greatest and as such, I spent much of the game hunched over my scorebook, trying not to get it wet. (We tried to use reverse psychology on the weather — “Gee, we really love the rain” — to no avail.) But overall, the company was pleasant and the game itself was pretty good.

The game was held at AT&T Park in San Francisco (known last season as SBC Park, but then SBC got bought out — just another reason I hate stadiums named after corporations). I was there last year, but didn’t get a chance to see most of the stadium. This year we went a little early and checked out the Coca Cola slide (which was sadly under construction) and the “Little Giants Field” behind left field, as well as the outfield deck overlooking the bay. I ranked this stadium third last season — having now seen what it actually has to offer, I think it might actually be ahead of Comerica. I’ve got pictures, but unfortunately the batteries in my camera are dead, so they’re stuck there for a little while.

Being in a national league park, I was a little confused to see Barry Bonds (and Frank Thomas) playing DH — and I still don’t know why. Bonds, as was probably to be expected, got a mixed reaction from the fans. Those wearing orange (Giants fans) cheered wildly, while those wearing green (and Breath) booed and heckled him. (“You’re killing your father, Barry!” For those who haven’t seen him in a while, Breath is still a dork.) Still, he managed to get a single and an RBI sac fly during his two at bats — and apparently he got his juice from Anand’s parents’ neighbor. It’s a small world, after all.

As for the rest of the game, the A’s scored first in the 3rd and then broke away with a four run 4th to go up 5-0. After that, they only managed one hit for the rest of the game. (But it was an exhibition game, so most of the starters were gone after the sixth — scorecards get complicated with that many substitutions!) The Giants managed to “leak in” a few “points” by performing well in the “hitting box,”* but it wasn’t enough to overcome the A’s initial lead. The game ended on a 3U-6 double play, and we all went back to Breath’s place, just in time for the rain to really start coming down.

* Look, at least I managed to get these goons to the game. Can I really expect them to know the correct terminology? At least they seemed to be enjoying annoying me.