8 days, 4 ballgames, 3 parks.

I am indeed behind in my baseball blogs and I'm not sure I'm going to get caught up. But,
baseball wise, it's been a pretty interesting week. On Saturday, D, our friend SI, and I went to see the Brewers at Miller Park in Milwaukee. Miller Park is a very new park that is far from most things and surrounded by expressways. I'm not sure if it was the park, the blowout game, the partly covered ballpark or that S and I hadn't seen each other for 4 years but I found myself becoming less interested in the game and more intrigued by Bernie Brewer and his giant slide, the giant sausage race and the tofu dogs. I left feeling a little underwhelmed. I started wondering if, perhaps, it was not baseball I enjoyed but my Tigers. Can one love a team but not a sport? I was a little worried. By the time D and I arrived at our second game at Wrigley Field, I'd forgotten all about the previous night's game and realized how much the aesthetics of a park can affect the experience of a game . If one believes in the Church of Baseball, Wrigley Field is a veritable temple. There were no mascots or giant slides or racing sausages. Just baseball in its quintessence. It was one of the most perfect afternoons I've ever had.
Two evenings later, we were back in Comerica watching our Tigers. Early last week, the Detroit Free Press ran a story with the headline "Comerica Park's attendance dwindling like Tigers playoff hopes." The story begins, "Comerica Park on Tuesday night reflected a growing sentiment through town that the race was over before it even began. The Tigers' Den had the feel of a mausoleum. The massive pockets of empty seats were more an expression of postseason surrender than kids returning to school." I won't say anything about the playoff hopes since nothing's over until it's over. But I will say that I've been saddened the number of empty seats and by the number of fans who leave part way through. I've not seen so many empty seats since 2005. Yesterday, it was pretty thrilling to see Curtis get the final stolen base he needed to make him the second player in Major League history to collect at least 30 doubles, 20 triples, 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a single season. Other than that, yesterday's game was particularly unpleasant. The park was almost deserted by the eighth inning. Still, there were those who stayed despite the 14-7 score. In the final inning, a kid a few rows back cheered on Carlos Guillen and Marcus Thames like we were one hit away from winning the World Series. Then the guy I wrote about before and his friends put on their rally caps and stood and cheered: one of them hopped up and down like the ten-year-old behind us. And then, slowly, we all stood and cheered. We cheered because it is September and because nothing is over until it's over and because they are our Tigers.
Postscript: just after I finished that last sentence, the Tigers were down 4-3 with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth. Magglio hit a lovely little pop into right field and then Curtis and Placido scored runs to give them a 5-4 victory. See, it's never over til its over.