Baseball, Day 3

Last night, we were in the reigning world champion’s home ballpark. Today, we made the long drive to Comerica Park, home of last year’s runner up, the Detroit Tigers. And while traveling between last year’s World Series participants, we saw hallowed football ground:

South Bend Indiana is the home of Notre Dame, so we peeked at the famous stadium, and saw Touchdown Jesus, too:

Detroit is one of those baseball teams for me that just sort of gets overlooked. But they have a very long history, and Ty Cobb is the most famous Tiger, a “genius in spikes”:

I’m most disappointed in the following picture, one of the entrances to the stadium. These newer ballparks are just amazing. Detroit took the prize for the best outside, with cool tigers in lots of places and other decorations. Unfortunately, my shot doesn’t give you a good look at it:

They’re very much oriented toward families. There was a merry-go-round in the middle of a huge food court, and in the next picture, you can see a sort of ferris wheel in the distance with baseballs for the carts you sit in; also, notice the bushes shaped to look like baseball players:

It was a beautiful night, between two first place teams who were playing well. The Detroit skyline made an interesting backdrop, and they had a cool fountain out in center field. Here’s a shot of the field and the scoreboard a little bit more toward the first base side from where we were sitting:

The Red Sox struck first, with a David Ortiz two-run home run in the top of the first inning. But then, we settled in for a pitching and defensive gem. Detroit tied it in the fifth or sixth inning on a double over the head of Manny Ramirez in left. Evening settled in, and the skyline looked great from our seats:

We got our money’s worth! After the first inning, the Tigers held the Red Sox scoreless for 12 inning, getting out of some unbelievable jams. Boston did their own escaping, keeping the Tigers from scoring when they loaded the bases with 1 out in the eleventh. Finally, in the bottom of the 13th, the Tigers won as Pudge Rodriguez hit a shot to the power alley in right, just out of reach of the diving Coco Crisp. A great game for baseball lovers! (Elaine and the girls? Not sure they would have made it!)

So far, I give the award for the best club level to Cincinnati; the award for the best exterior to Detroit; and the overall favorite to St. Louis.