Early Baseball

This afternoon the Detroit Tigers will play their second baseball game of the 2024 season. While I love the game and look forward to it every year, March 30 does feel early for the sport.

It used to start later. When they had regular doubleheaders the extra dates weren't needed. Skimming through an old 1971 Tigers yearbook I noticed 18 scheduled twin bills, two games on one ticket. Now they only play them when rain outs force it. 

Doubleheaders were what I lived for as a younger fan. The instant the new schedule appeared I filled out my social calendar with whenever two games would be played at old Tiger Stadium. It was my summer guide; all else was plotted around those twin bills.

Hopefully rain will help me see one sometime this year. It did in 2022; I took a half day off when Detroit played two against Oakland. They actually played three last year, but I was just too busy with work to take advantage of the situation. I almost filed a grievance against my boss though.

Oh well. Play ball! It's the whole point of summer.

Dear Athletics Fan

On a lighter note today, since yesterday's blog was only on attending a couple of baseball games yet had become rather more whiny than I honestly intended it to be, I will tell you of the vaguely humorous aftermath of that doubleheader.

Here's a bit of background which might help you understand things: the first game of yesterday's twin bill (do the Minnesota Twins ever play twin bills?) at Comerica Park in Detroit was technically a make-up game from a postponement from week one of this year's baseball season. The Tigers were supposed to play the Oakland Athletics in Oakland then, but in order to play a full 162 game baseball schedule one game of the postponed three game series was added onto the only trip Oakland was to make to Detroit this year (The Tigers and A's will play a doubleheader in Oakland in July to make up the other two). As such the Tigers, even though the game was in their home stadium, batted first as the visiting team. Oakland was considered to be at home due to the rescheduling, and batted in the bottom of the innings.

It was weird enough to watch the Tigers bat first while wearing their home uniforms, well, at home, as they should. Yet as I had purchased my ticket online apparently Major League Baseball thinks I'm an Oakland fan as it was supposed to be a home game for them. That must be the case, as this morning in my email was a letter addressed, 'Dear Athletics fan'.

You see, MLB wanted to know about what it was like for me to be at an Oakland home game. The email explained that the sender was interested in my experience at the Oakland Coliseum, where they play their honest to goodness home games. It would only take me 9 -11 minutes, I was assured.

I might just answer it. You know, mess with their heads a little. I could sing the praises of the Coliseum even though it is generally considered the worst stadium in the league. After all, the Tigers won. I would have been just as happy about that In Oakland as I was in Detroit.