Tiger Geist

Well, i’ve had an interesting season attending Tiger games.  I attended the Nationals no-hitter against Detroit in spring training;  also during spring training I watched Brandon Lyon get bombed (four home runs in a row vs Boston).  Porcello’s loss on Monday, and today’s struggles against Oakland.  Joe D wrote about it and then talked about it on the podcast yesterday.  SO I BLAME JOE D FOR BRINGING IT UP.

Its hard to recap a game I attend, since you rarely see replays, and the screens in the Colesium in Oakland were described as “maybe from 1985?” by the person next to me.  Tix were 30 rows behind home plate.  So here’s my memories:

• Granderson’s bunt was a horrible idea.  Either Granderson or the coaching staff thought the best idea, following a lead off double early in the game, was to have the team’s lead off hitter AND leading home run hitter sacrifice the runner to third.  I disliked this move greatly.
• Verlander was starting to warm up, and was pitching pretty well (albeit with a high pitch count).  He got pissed off at the call on an infield single.  Then, he got more pissed about the balk call.  After dominating Giambi all game, he lost his concentration and Giambi killed one.  Giambi’s batting under .200.  Just saying.
• Not sure why Miner only pitched to one batter.  I guess he had to get some work in?
• Brandon Lyon came back to earth.  I have had thoughts that Lyon might be trade bait back to an NL team that needs a closer (Marlins?).  “Sell High”.
• Gerald Laird is swinging the bat very well.  With some rest that hopefully Dusty Ryan can help provide, I think Laird may be poised to have a better offensive second half.
• I seem to remember the first base umpire calling most balks;  I could be wrong.  But today, it was the home plate ump, who then danced a little jig with his leg (showing Verlander’s movement) after he called the balk.  An interesting move
• At one point, Brad Ziegler was warming up in the bullpen and shot a pitch into left field, on the warning track, behind Raburn.  No one on the field seemed to notice, making the crowd excited that a double into the corner might confuse the left fielder about which pitch to throw in.  While a foul drive did head down the line, nothing came out of the excitement.
• Forgot to mention before, but Monday night’s game featured a recording of Huey Lewis and the News singing “the star spangled banner”.  A Cappella.  Probably the only stadium with that recording;  tearfully, didn’t play it today.