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. 

Florida Weekend

Went to Gainesville this weekend to show a friend's kid the University of Florida.

Got an AirBnB near the University which was very Gator.

A rather comfy place with all that was needed.

We hit some favorite eating spots like Cantina Anejo, Pho Hanoi, and Raisin Canes.

We had signed the kid up for a campus tour on Friday, and it was very well done.  He liked the campus and he's going to apply there.  Friday evening, we found out the Tigers were in Tampa for a series, with a game Saturday at noon, so why not go?

So on Saturday we got up and headed out to Tampa. We managed to get a screaming good deal on some great seats, so we did the two hour drive to the stadium.

The game was held at George Steinbrenner Stadium as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' regular stadium is out of commission.

 This will be the only season they are playing in there.  As a minor-league stadium hosting major-league teams, home runs were definitely on the menu.

It's a nice stadium and they've tried to have as many Rays logos over the Yankee logos as possible.

 

Interestingly enough, there were about as many Detroit fans in the stands as there were Tampa Bay fans and many Detroiters traveled to the stadium to watch the entire series. 

We got great seats, 5 rows back, right behind home plate.

 

Great seats. Real hot and sunny out, so lots of water was consumed.

We unfortunately got to watch the Tigers get eaten by the Devil Rays up close and personal. 

The Tigers in the first inning managed to leave men stranded on the bases without scoring. But, they did manage to load up the bases with Devil Rays and then walk in a run, and after striking the very next player walk in a second run! Then a base hit right after brought in two more runs for an early 4-0 lead for Tampa, with none of the runs counting as earned.  A rather inauspicious start.

The Tigers manged to get in a run in the 4th but by then it was 7-1, with some solo home runs smacked in by the Devil Rays. You knew they were homers just how they sounded coming off the bat - fun to watch it happen.

We got to see the major league debut of Devil Rays' pitcher Paul Gervase, at the top of the seventh inning, and in six pitches he retired the Tigers.  Not a bad welcome to the big leagues.

The game mercifully ended 8-3 for the Devil Rays. The game was still a heckuva lot of fun to watch, and that's a nice little stadium, even as Detroit lost badly. 

I then drove back from Tampa and we got some BBQ for dinner at a great BBQ place in Gainesville, Adam's Rib.

 A solid slab of ribs were rather happy-making.

Got up Sunday morning for breakfast in Gainesville and then drove back to Jacksonville. Flew home yesterday and after over an hour delay departing from Jacksonville, arrived home to find the power had been out for three hours and the place was sweltering.

It had been a great weekend getaway. 

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.