Tiger Geist

Actually I think the pictures will look quite nice.  Game 1 vs Oakland, Detroit did not look that nice.

Detroit made Oakland’s Brett Anderson work, but failed to convert on too many chances.  Rick Porcello looked solid, not great, but suddenly Oakland put together a string of hits that ended his game in the bottom of the fifth.  Fu-Te Ni baffled Jason Giambi in his first major league action (Giambi didn’t know what to make of his delivery);  Ryan Sweeney was not as easily fooled.

I got great seats (first row) next to Detroit’s bullpen, and I’ll give a run-down of what I enjoyed during the game:

Gerald Laird:  After warming up Porcello, he came next to us with a catcher’s mitt full of baseballs for the kids leaning over the railing; this got a round of applause from the Tiger fans sitting there.  As he walked away, i asked “Laird, how’s the back?” and Laird turned around to me and said, “much better, thanks!” and flashed me a thumbs-up.  My wife quickly kicked me in the knee.  Quickly becoming my Tiger.

Fu-Te Ni and Freddy Dolsi:  In the beginning of the game, they were the only two in the bullpen.  They seemed to try to talk it up quite bit, but with a lot of hand signals.  Dolsi seemed to like Ni’s red mitt.  Eventually it looked like Ni called for a curve ball down low and they stopped talking for a while.

Pitchers / bullpen:  They slowly stroll out to the mound as the game goes on.  Some of them go back and forth (Zumaya and Lyon).  Bobby Seay is one cool customer as he walks through.  Upon their first visit to the dugout, they fist pump everyone who’s out there.  Right before leaving to start the game, Rick Knapp, Jeff Jones, Laird, Porcello, Dolsi and Ni did a quick group fist pump.  Fernando Rodney had it down though;  he strolled to the bullpen in the early innings (the last to arrive) and glanced through the crowd as he walked.  Right next to the bullpen was the kid they dress up in an A’s uniform to take care of ground balls;  Rodney stopped and shook the kid’s hand to say hello (the only one to do this move), and then slowly slapped hands and hugged everyone around the bullpen. It was also interesting to see Jeff Jones watch Dolsi warm up, and then show him a clipboard of what you’d assume was the plan of action on the upcoming batters.

Crowd:  The attendance was listed at 10,500-ish.  I think that’s probably exaggerated by about 89%.  I’ve been to bigger crowds in spring training.

Magglio:  Hard to say his bat speed has diminished, as he swung at bad pitches and let a lot of strikes go by.  I’d have to say he’s either sitting on off-speed pitches exclusivly in tonight’s game, or maybe he should have his eye’s checked.

Cabrera:  His glove work continues to impress me; lots of bad/short hops he nailed tonight.  He also seems like quite the clown when they warm up;  while doing some light running, once in a while he’d grab his hamstring and fake an injury, just to look around to see if anyone noticed.

Last, Female point of view:  My wife went with me, and it was a cold night with swirling winds in Oaktown.  Not being a huge fan of baseball, I was surprised she didn’t complain about the weather;  instead, she actively enjoyed being so close to the action (though she feared for her life due to foul balls).  Her statement as we walked home “… so, there was a lot of cup play out there.  Yeah.  A lot of ball scratching.”