Then it got good.

It was boring until it got good.

My first live baseball game in two years at Comerica Park last night was a dull one. Aside from an over the fence catch by Tiger centerfielder Derek Hill which robbed visiting Toronto of a home run, nothing much had happened.

Then Victor Reyes pinch hit leading off the Eighth.

He hit a line drive which centerfielder Josh Palacios dove for. Yet he missed, and the ball bounded all the way to the fence. I think everyone in the stadium thought it could be an inside the park home run, given Reyes' speed. I mean, he has wheels. Sure enough, he turned it on and scored rather easily with a head first slide. I had never seen an inside the park home run live, so that was a treat. It gave the Tigers a 2-1 win.

The fact is that I almost missed it. I had had a long day on the road and was very tired. I never leave games early - I've done it twice and once missed a great comeback - but was considering doing exactly that last night. I was that tired. But that little voice in my head urged me to stay. 

I'm glad I listened. Inside the parkers are rare, especially game winning ones. It was worth the fatigue I still feel this morning.

Go Tigers!

Well, in this summer infested with almost everything which is wrong with the world, I at least finally get to watch the Detroit Tigers play baseball tonight. And they are playing...the Detroit Tigers.

With 2020 being as weird as it has so far been, why not? It actually is an intrasquad exhibition game, not unlike what major league teams play during normal spring training (and even occasionally during the regular season). Because of the corona virus, teams are gearing up for an abbreviated baseball season by training in their home parks and playing games against themselves. In today's case, the local Fox Sports channel with air tonight's match live.

It's better than nothing. While I have been enjoying Korean League baseball on ESPN it's just not the same as watching your favorite team of all time. Even if they are facing each other. Or themselves. Or, or, I'm not really sure how to say it.

So, I guess, go Tigers! And, well, I suppose go Tigers!

Karen Carpenter and the Detroit Tigers

You know how one song can often get stuck in your head for it seems like days on end? For me lately that song has been Close to You, sung by Karen Carpenter. It really is a nice little soft rock song, and I genuinely like it. Usually. But not after hearing it over and over in my mind during my waking hours of the last several days. Even at that, I used to hate it even more.

While it's almost certainly only my childhood psychology of the time at work, back when most major league baseball games were on the radio rather than television it seemed as though every time my beloved Detroit Tigers were in a rain delay the first song the emergency deejay played was Close to You. I came to despise that song, because when I heard it meant that I was trying to listen to baseball and the game was under a weather suspension.

It's nothing against Karen Carpenter, who had a lovely voice. It's surely one of those things which just stick in your mind for whatever odd reason. Karen Carpenter singing meant the Tigers weren't playing. I realize that that isn't even her fault. She had no control over what some radio station in Detroit played when it couldn't air sports.

Still, even right now, even about 46 years later, even three months before the next baseball season, I'm mad hearing the song solely in my own mind because it's means no Tiger baseball. I suppose that's little more than self imposed Pavlovianism. But man, I can't wait til the tarp's off the field.