Ooh, baby, baby,/ Where did (y)our love go?: Game 19 of 22+

Summary:
Score: Kansas City 9 Detroit 6
Temperature: 56o
Attendance: 40,071
Beach balls released: 1
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: Biggie Bagel

Tonight Comerica Park was absolutely pumped. The Tigers had the potential to win their division and people came expecting a victory. While Wednesday’s game reminded me of seasons past, tonight was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. After a fairly lengthy rain delay, the crowd were in a mood to go insane. They went nuts for the grounds crew, the tarp guys, the national anthem. They cheered for the game time temperature like it was a double play and the players came out amidst a deafening roar. The first Royals hitter got a single and then it all started to fall apart: by the end of the first half inning, the Tigers were down by 7 runs. The crowd got quieter and quieter; by the end of the game, the crowd that had been crazy for a victory was half as big and shuffled silently out of the ballpark. The lengthy rain delay had allowed me to write my blog entry (by hand) and also re-watch the rain delay video that I’ve mentioned before. Again, I was intrigued by this video because it outlined the sheer drama of this deceptively simple game. Commentator after commentator kept saying that the thing that made baseball amazing was the fact that anything can happen and nothing is ever certain. I kept thinking about these comments as the Tigers managed to scrape together 6 runs. Coming back from 7-0 is difficult, but it’s not beyond the realm of the possible. People kept pouring out of the park despite the fact that anything can happen. Many people, it seemed, came expecting to see a fairly certain victory but didn’t quite seem prepared to see a loss. I’m still mulling over this fanhood thing, when you commit yourself to a team, aren’t you committing yourself to a team in sickness and in health, for better or for worse?
Over this past season, I’ve come to see the person who selects the end of game music as a genius so I was intrigued to see what he or she would select for this game. At first I thought The Supreme’s “Baby, Baby, Where Did Our Love Go” as an odd selection, but the more I thought about it, the more apt it seemed. I wondered if the song was meant for those who left when the team was losing. I too wondered, “Hey, where did your love go?”