To The Tigers Game

Today I went to Detroit to see the Blue Jays take on the Detroit Tigers.

The Jays went into today leading the series 3-0, and a sweep was expected.

Some fun in traffic, but made it there in good time. 

I had got some decent last minute seats this morning in the 300 level behind home plate. 

Had some fun wandering around the ballpark and getting lunch before the game began.

 

The game started off relatively slowly, when in the first seven innings the Tigers only had three hits, but one of those hits was the Tigers knocking in a 3-run homer.

The Tigers then knocked in more runs in the eighth inning - seven of them - to none by the Jays.

The Jays then woke up at the top of the ninth and knocked in 4 runs before the last out being a strike-out at the plate.

So, no sweep for the Jays. 

While a relativity slow-moving game, it was a very hot game with the temperature in the low 90s and the 300 level was right in the sun.  Even with sunscreen, I managed to catch some sunburn.  I also managed to get dehydrated even after drinking (water and pop) during the game and even taking two sun breaks during the game.

Drank a ton of water when I got back from the game and felt a lot better. 

Still, that was a fun experience to watch some baseball live. 

Take Me Out To The Ballgame!

So my Dad is in town for a few days and we're rather enjoying his visit.

Since he's a baseball fan, last night I took him to the Tigers v Mariners game.

It's the first baseball game I've gone to in person in many years. I splurged for some decent seats on the first base line.

Got there and parking was easy.  The game was delayed for 45 minutes on account of rain, so we walked around the stadium looking at the various Detroit Tiger history and artifacts on display.

The game began at 7:45.

The crowd was very sparse but lively.

 We got a lot of foul balls dropped in our area, with a guy just off to my right catching one in the first inning.  The overcast sky let you pick them out pretty easily as they came down.

The Tigers scored three runs in the first with Eric Haase hitting in a 2-run honer, which was a promising start and a great hit. 

Manuel Cabrera played his 2,500th game which is impressive.  At 38 he's still a rock for the Tigers and hasn't lost a step at first base.  He did get struck when at bat by the Mariner's pitcher which led to some angry boos from the fans.

A rainbow popped out when the score was 4-2 Tigers.

 The Tigers were going through pitchers like most people change their underwear, going through 5 pitchers in the game with 4 of them pitching one inning or even less.   

The pitching staff got into quite a few pickles,  for example by walking the bases full for the Mariners as they struggled to find the plate, and with Jimenez committing two errors that hurt, but they managed to pull it off in the end with a score of 5-3 for the Tigers to win it.

A great and exciting game to watch in person and my dad had a great time.

Tigers under a scorching sun

Today I took the family to a company function in Detroit that featured a picnic lunch and a Detroit Tigers game.

It was sunny and real hot, 95 degrees hot.

Unfortunately the seats that we had were right under the sun without a bit of shade.

So hot that we a new record stay on the stands - one and a half innings.

Leah announced that she was being barbecued, and even being slathered in sunscreen she was looking a little pink.

So we got under some shade and the girls declared we were done so we headed back to the cart and headed for home.

A quick little outing indeed.

The Infield Fly Rule, Law Reviews and Biblical Baseball References

While doing some legal research I happened upon this hilarious law review article, suitable for both lawyers and non-lawyers, and most especially for baseball fans of both groups.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE INFIELD FLY RULE TO WESTERN CIVILIZATION (AND VICE VERSA)
By Professor Anthony D’Amato. (link opens a .pdf version of the article).

Professor D'Amato does make one eggregious error in the article, that of agreeing with previous authors' mistaken conclusion that the Bible does not mention Baseball.

....despite the fact that the authors are technically correct in noting that baseball itself is not mentioned in the Bible, they overlook the more specific biblical reference to the Infield Fly Rule.

In fact, the game of Baseball is the very first thing mentioned in the Bible:

Genesis 1:1 In the Big Inning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Later this event was mistransalated as the Big Bang, instead it should be correctly referred to as it was originally: God throwing out the First Pitch.