And we're going to the playoffs!

Once more I quote Blur: "Woo HOOOO!" Check out a lovely article about the celebrations. And see Jeff Daniels' video for Lifelong Tiger Fan Blues

I will tell you from the start, I can't be torn apart from my team: Game 17 of 22+

Summary:
Score: Baltimore 12 Detroit 8
Temperature: 74 o
Attendance: 37,464
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: Biggie Bagel (or, rather, "And Biggie Bagel toasts 'em!")

I'm a bit behind on my blog for Sunday's game but I've been keeping notes on what I wanted to write and have been mulling it all over. I'm still a little confused about what I'm feeling. When we woke up this morning, the Tigers lead over Minnesota was down to half a game. Oddly, this makes me love the team even more. It's easy enough to cheer for a team when they're winning; something happens when you're cheering for a team with huge ups and deep downs. On Sunday, we got to the park quite early, watched batting practice and read the local paper. It was free batting helmet day (for those under 14) and I watched little kids paste white numbers to the shiny blue surface . Some kids were really meticulous and very carefully attached their favourite player's number. Others put their numbers on upside down or decorated the surface randomly chosen numbers. There were a lot of Pudge's, Ordonez's and Inge's and a lot of random numbers too (I don't recall there being a player with the number 659519 but I could see how tempting it would be to fill the blue hat with those white numbers.) I thought kids with #28 showed great taste. As the crowd filled in, I was watching the kids with their helmets and looking at kids and adults with names on their t-shirts or jerseys. I had my Granderson shirt on and I was wondering how it is that someone goes about choosing a favourite player. What makes a 12 year old boy buy a Verlander shirt? Or a 30 year old man buy a Brandon Inge shirt? Or, frankly, me buy a Granderson shirt? Amidst this musing, I was reading a rather long article about Craig Monroe. I was really moved by this article (and the article I referred to in an earlier posting) and I realize I cheer louder for him now because I've read about what motivates him. On Sunday, rather than buying my usual scorecard, I succumbed to buying a program because of a feature article about the Beloved Centerfielder. Perhaps I've been delaying writing this entry because I'm still confused about why I found these articles so impressive and so moving. Further, I'm still confused about how all of this has happened to me this season. I've become very attached to some of these players; I find I'm no longer root root rooting for the home team, I'm cheering for a team of some really cool players. I'm cheering for Craig and Curtis to name only two. I think I bought a Granderson shirt not because of the runs he scored earlier in the season but because he had a rough August and he still keeps heading to the plate. As we were filing out of the park, a few people were grumbling about the Tigers' loss. I was smiling because the Motown song they played as we all filed out summed up all that I could not articulate about my feelings for this team:

I'm stickin to my guy like a stamp to a letter
Like birds of a feather
We..... stick together
I will tell you from the start
I can't be torn apart from my guy

The Quotable Paul Martin

Nothing could make a girl prouder than to see her big brother quoted on the Epicurious.com site.Check it out.

To Quote Blur: "Woo HOO!": Game 16 of 22+

Summary:
Score: Detroit 17 Baltimore 2
Temperature: 65 o
Attendance: 38,261
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: Cuppie Coffee

The Tigers scorecard has a section called "This Day in Tigers History" that informed me that on September 15, 1901 Detroit defeated Cleveland 21-0 at home in the most lopsided victory in Tigers history. Last night around the 7th inning, I was wondering whether the Tigers might break that record. They didn't but they did beat the Orioles 17 to 2. To quote Blur's haiku-like simplicity: "Woo HOO!" Today Dale's been keeping me updated the other games and reporting on the various wins and losses that could have an impact on the Tigers' playoff hopes. It's seeming like an inning by inning kind of thing. Despite last night's 17-2 win, I'm still pretty nervous and, even though I'm enjoying this new novel I picked up, I keep getting distracted by checking into the score. As I type this, I have the live scoreboard for tonight's game on in another browser.
Despite the remarkable technological advances that makes this all possible, I am reminded of those old time baseball scoreboards where the game was re-enacted for fans on a large gameboard (if you've seen Eight Men Out, you know what I'm talking about) via telegram. I found a photo of one such scoreboards-- a "Play-O-Graph" set up for the World Series for Chicago fans in 1929 and I'm intrigued by the whole scene. I love that all of these people are standing and watching an abstract re-enactment of the game and I love that they're keeping the road clear. I also love that the men are wearing suits and hats. It all seems so polite. Seeing that crowd of people (men, mostly, if not exclusively) in this photo is a reminder that baseball is often personal but more often than not, it's a very social game. In the past few games, I've been intrigued by the fact that, almost instantly, Dale has a group of friends as soon as we sit down. Last night, the minute we sat down, the two guys in front of us started talking to him like they'd known each other for years. Then another guy sat down and the four of them were sharing thoughts on first basemen, dugout politics and pitching prospects. Last night, the guy in front said to Dale, "You got the wife keeping a scorecard. Cool." I think I get a bit of "guy-cred" because of my scorecard but generally I am politely ignored and I'm perfectly ok with that. I learn a lot about the game by listening each night and I am able to take my nerdy photos and quietly cheer for my beloved centerfielder. I think I've mentioned that baseball allows you time for quiet contemplation but I'm realizing that it also allows people to have conversations with people they would never meet, let alone talk to for 3 hours, in any other context. I'm wondering, looking at the picture from 1929, whether it would be that much different from today. I see from my little web-based Play-o-graph that the Tigers won 2-0. To quote Blur once more, "Woo HOO!"

Fair Weather Fans?: Game 15 of 22+

Summary:
Score: Detroit 3 Rangers 2
Temperature: 65 o
Attendance: 24,196
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: Cuppie Coffee

As we headed toward Detroit, I saw the dark clouds creeping in. I was tired and really wasn't up for being cold and wet and waiting out a rain delay. To make matters worse, I realized while changing out of my work clothes and into my ballpark clothes that I'd left my ball park shoes at home. The only consolation of wearing pointy slingback kitten heels with my jeans and ballcap to a rain soaked ballpark was that I was wearing my UWO t-shirt; it made me smile to imagine people thinking "Oh yeah, trust a Western grad to wear pointy kitten heels to a rainy ballgame. What do they teach them at that university??" Poor footwear choices and bad weather aside, the pull of the Tigers outweighed the fear of getting soaked and commiting such an egregious footwear faux pas (I posted a picture of these shoes at the park on my Flickr site). Thinking there would likely be a downpour, we sat in the highest row where there was some shelter. We were there early and had a panoramic view of Detroit and the ballpark. We watched the crowds trickle in as the dark clouds began to swarm around us. Having seen a few "Tigers Fan From Before 2006" t-shirts, I started thinking about the term "fair weather fan" noticing the attendance for the past few rainy games and hoped it was the rain that was keeping people away not the fact that, within the past month, the Tigers 10 game lead now dances around the one or two games. While I've enjoyed the intensity of the nearly full ballpark, I have to admit I enjoyed having some open space in the stands in recent games: it leads to a more reflective experience. People who endure rain to watch baseball tend to watch baseball; there were very few "can you see me??" phone calls and I was happy to have an evening where no one did the wave. The excitement of the Tigers' mid-season victories was a thrilling ride and like nothing I've experienced before. The past month has been much more tempered and thoughtful. In the low attendance nights, people are watching the game much more carefully and contemplatively and I've liked that. The mood for the past few games has been somewhere between nervous dread and tentative hope. Every at bat is starting to matter and every play has the potential to be read as foreshadowing. If someone were writing a novel about a baseball team like this one, most writers would cringe at the tried and clumsy cliche of victories in sunshine and defeats in rainstorms. However trite the symbolism, I remain ever the student of literature and I find it hard not to notice the parallels between the weather and the Tigers' record. As much as I resist the awkward symbolism, I cling to the final moment of Tuesday's game as a sign of hope.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Tigers and Rangers are tied 2-2. As the Rangers take the field, the rain that poured insistently for the past hour lets up. The rain turns to a light mist as the first Tigers batter approaches the plate. When Carlos Guillen swings, the park goes silent. The sound of rain has vanished and suddenly all you hear is the crack of Guillen's bat and the silence of 20,000 people holding their breath. The ball arcs out of the park and the Tigers have won. Ever hopeful, I have to admit that as much as the above scene reads like a cringe worthy piece of fiction, I can't help but hope it's not a random narrative dot but an omen.

Return of Today on iTunes

In response to a long standing and repeated request from a regular visitor to Heidi's cafe, I have _finally_ got my lovely computer and iTunes set up in my office. Thus, I am pleased to tell you (and you know who you are) that today's favourite album is Gomez's How We Operate. "See the World" is putting a particular spring in my typing. We saw Gomez a year or two ago in Detroit and it was one of the best shows I've seen. If you happen, for example, to live in South Burlington, VT, you might be pleased to know they're playing there on Oct. 3. No Detroit. Sniff.

My first rain delay: Game 14 of 22+

Summary:
Score: Mariners 4 Detroit 3
Temperature: 72 o
Attendance: 23,583
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: Biggie Bagel

I'm a little behind in the blogs and I didn't think anyone would notice. You're a tough crowd sometimes. I've been writing this in spurts over the past few days. It's been a rather chilly week and there have been a few massive rainfalls. Two in particular were really bad and both
coincided with a Tigers game. I was only at one but Dale was at both. Last Tuesday's game was my very first rain delay; it may have been my fault for having said only a few hours earlier, gazing at the then perfectly blue sky, "it's amazing that I've never been rained on in all the games we've been to." Oops. The next day, Dale and Dave had a 3 hour rain delay. So, a few people have asked me what you do during a rain delay. You either leave or you wait. If you wait, you wait. Judging from the number of people falling up the stairs when the game
resumed, quite a few people drank many beers while they waited. You might, as I did, watch this amazing process wherein the grounds crew rolls a giant tarp over the infield in a well-choreographed series of movements. It's sort of like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade except with a giant silver tarp instead of the giant Snoopy. And, well, there's a lot less merriment and mirth. Ok, maybe it's nothing like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade but it still amused me. The other thing you can do-- as I did-- is stand there and think about the game and reflect upon why so many people are standing in the cold waiting for it to resume when there's not a patch of clear sky anywhere. On the screen, they played a long video where various celebrities, players, fans and historians talked about the game. Of particular interest to me were the people who talked about the parallels between baseball and everyday life. Some of these were somewhat cliched but others were incredibly moving. Someone-- whose name I copied down on my scorecard but is now washed away-- said that baseball's a sport where you can give it your all and still come up short. That's the heartbreaking thing about it and I've seen in the players' strides and in their determination. In my own small way, I've felt that too. In the past weeks, I've also been thinking about how, in previous summers, I took comfort in the fact that even though players strike out, mess up, screw up, wipe out, they still go to the plate and give it another stab, inning after inning, day after day. Baseball is a sport where you come back to the park and back to the plate again and again trying to get it right. There's a lot that can be learned from this game and there is, if you want it, a lot of inspiration on the field too. Perhaps I'm feeling so much affection for these players because they remind me of the need to step up to the plate day after day. It's unlikely you'll hit a homerun at every at bat but there's nothing stopping you from trying.

What a difference a year makes:Game 13 of 22+

Summary:
Score: Angels 2 Detroit 1
Temperature: 68 o
Attendance: 38,688
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: Biggie Bagel
Number of multicoloured beach balls launched from the top row of section 325 in the 7th inning: none :(

I'll make a minor correction to yesterday's blog. Yesterday I wrote that the game changes day by day. Actually, it appears that it can change almost hour by hour. A few times today, Dale has reported that these Sox were up on those Sox and then described how this team's victory and that team's loss alters the Tigers' standings. This hour by hour, day by day attention to wins and losses is a fascinating thing to watch. To give you a sense of how different this season is from last year, attendance at a Sept 5, 2005 game was 26, 150 and the Tigers' record was 63 wins and 72 losses. Now, they're regularly getting 38-40,000 fans out a game and, as of tonight, their record is 85 wins and 53 losses.
Last night's game was about as exciting as it can get. Undoubtedly, we've seen the Tigers one run down in the bottom of the ninth before but it's getting to the point where every win counts and everyone in the park knows that every win counts (except perhaps the person behind us who thought bat and ball boys were actual players paid millions of dollars to "sit on a chair in the field and watch the game"-- bless her though for coming out, I say). I knew words would fail to capture the buzz and excitment of last night's game so I used my digital camera to capture a bit of video of last night's excitement. I did capture a still image of the crowd in the last inning: but I'm still not sure words, video or images could capture the magic of last night's game. I've spent a while tonight trying to figure out if and how to post quicktime videos but, as you'll note by the absence of a quicktime video, I've not figured it out. Perhaps you can imagine the energy from 38,000 people standing cheering Marcus Thames in what was the final at-bat for the Tigers. It's all pretty amazing: I don't think any of last year's 26,150 fans could have dreamed a season like this would be one year away. I don't think many of last night's 38,688 fans can believe it either.

Who's My Tiger? Tough call: Game 12 of 22+ games

Summary:
Score: Detroit 9 Angels 0
Temperature: 69 o
Attendance: 37,509
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: Cuppie Coffee
Number of multicoloured beach balls launched from the top row of section 325 in the 7th inning: at least 2 dozen (plus a few inflatable killer whales)

On Friday, we were back at the ballpark. It had been almost 10 days since I'd last been and it seemed like forever. As much as I enjoy it, I have to admit liking having more than half an hour of awake time at home during the week. I was mentioning this to a colleague at work who said, "but that's the way to watch baseball. You have to watch it everyday since they play almost everyday. So much can change within a week or two." I'd never really thought about it but he's spot on. I don't quite watch it everyday but watching it as much as I have the past month and a bit has done a few things: not only have I increased my affection for the game and the team but I've found my affection for the players grows with each game. I worry about their slumps, I cheer at their successes, and I laugh at them dancing in the dugout. This year, the Tigers have a "Who's Your Tiger?" campaign. In April, Placido Polanco was my Tiger. Then in June I added Curtis to my list. And Omar Infante. And Magglio Ordonez. And then after reading his Gum Time blog I added Nate Robertson. And, of course, Brandon Inge. And then I read this article about Craig Monroe and now he's one of my Tigers too. The list keeps growing. And then I think about who's not on my list and can't find a reason why they can't be one of my Tigers too. So I add Pudge Rodriguez, Carlos Guillen, Marcus Thames, Joel Zumaya, Justin Verlander and Jeremy Bonderman too. I think that's almost the whole team; if I double checked the roster, I'm sure there would be someone else I'd have to add. Oh my. There are times, like Friday night in the 8th inning, when I had to pause and think, "How did this all happen? When did I become someone who yells "yay yay yay!" and jumps up and down at a baseball game?" I didn't consciously set out to become a Tigers fan when we went to our first games in 2000 but it has happened incrementally and I find myself loving this team and this game. I suppose it's all there in Motown wisdom:
You can't hurry love
No, you'll just have to wait
She said love don't come easy
Well , it's a game of give and take

PS: thanks to all of you who politely inquired about my slump. Thanks to Leyland's advice, I'm back at it as of this morning. Curtis too seems to be rebounding as does Cuppie Coffee. It's all good.