Tiger Geist

You don’t want too get to crazy about Detroit’s 4-3 start to the season, but a sweep against Texas in a very exciting fashion gets the blood pumping.  Today’s game was a treat to watch (assuming you started watching after the fifth inning).  The bullpen has been outstanding for two games;  it really seems that Fernando Rodney wants the closer job and is willing to fight for it.  And as much as I’ve hated Brandon Inge over the years, 2009 seems to be his year.  Solid hitting in the eighth followed by another great play on an attempted bunt single in the ninth makes Inge the Easter day player of the game.

So what else was interesting about tonight?  I went to a late easter dinner at a small San Francisco restaurant with friends and five Boston Red Sox showed up.  It appears they flew up after their game in the LA area… and Kevin Youkilis’ brother is the head chef at the restaurant.  And I will say that the restaurant is one of the FINEST in san francisco, so that family has some very outstanding yet diverse talent.

My friend goes to this restaurant maybe four times per week, and the owner let us know about the possibility of the Sox showing up after we got our appetizers.  Sure enough, as we’re sitting near the door I recognize Kevin Youkilis walk in.  Initial impressions?  The camera definitely adds 15 pounds;  he is not nearly as large as he appears on TV.  Actually, none of the Sox even appear to be baseball players — they look like well dressed men in a city of… well dressed men.  You would never pick these guys out of a crowd.  I didn’t recognize anyone else in the group, but the owner was introduced to “Chris” and “Rocco”, which I assume was Chris Carter and Rocco Baldelli.  I didn’t catch the other names, and I was shocked at the lack of size of the group.  Not taking anything away from the Sox players, its just you forget how normal sized baseball players are versus Basketball or Football players.

The players seemed very nice and respectfully reserved (we had 6 in our party, they had 5, and the restaurant is small enough that you could have fit maybe another 15 in there).  My biggest surprise?  They ordered bottled water.  I don’t know if it was just expected due to the number of drug testing that happens in the league (and therefore don’t trust tap water) or if its just habit, but it surprised me.

Due to the nature of their size, no one in the restaurant knew who they were.  My table did, but (besides myself) they were all hockey fans, and would have been much happier if the Boston Bruins showed up.  And I will have to say, while Kevin seems to be an excellent baseball player… his brother Scott knows his way around a kitchen.