Well, this morning I had some idea for a long post, but sometime between eating lunch and now, I’ve forgotten what it was. If I remember it at some point, I’ll post it, but I get the feeling that it was a “sooner-the-better” type post. In the meantime, the Tigers just look…tired, for some reason. At least, more tired than they should be. And I don’t know why. Especially the pitching staff. Well, I guess in the case of the rookie Armando Galarraga, it’s at least understandable. Minor League seasons end in August, so he’s in uncharted waters and he’s never pitched this much before. From what I can tell, it’s only natural for rookie starting pitchers to run into a wall in about late August/early September, and for that reason. The same thing happened to Justin Verlander in ’06. Still, it’s hard to watch him struggle, and I’d like to see him finish strong in his final three starts, which, as it stands right now, would be Texas (very good offense), Kansas City (not a good offense), and Tampa Bay (not-especially-prolific-but-good-enough offense). Speaking of rookies, the Tigers are embarking on their final road trip of the season, which means at some point there’s gonna be that hazing ritual where they make the rookies wear stupid outfits. I’m not sure how it “usually” works (other than knowing that it happens on getaway day and the veteran players steal the rookies’ clothes from the locker room and put the stupid outfits in their place), but apparently last year was somewhat unorthodox and because of that, the FSN camera crew was not there. And judging by their tone last year, I get the feeling that they are there most years. I don’t know when it will happen this year, but I’d just as soon the camera crews NOT be there, because I don’t especially want to see Matt Joyce in drag or Jeff Larish in a Teletubbies costume or anything like that (though, given his dubious position as unofficial team barber, someone with a good sense of humor should make Freddy Dolsi dress up as Sweeney Todd).

I was reading MLB.com today, and I came across their press statement which described their postseason coverage campaign:

Happy birthday, Laura!

Thought I’d check in again. Outside of the top of the fifth inning, I actually enjoyed last night’s game a lot, mostly cuz it’s been a while since I’d seen the Tigers beat up on someone. Also, a couple of the Tigers made their way into the history books for some usual things. Mike Hessman became only the fifth player in Major League history (and only the second in AL history) to be hit by the pitch twice in the same inning (what I find even more astounding is that it did not happen in the American League until 1999; it took THAT long), and Gary Sheffield hit the 250,000^th home run in Major League history (and that stat stretches from the inception of the National League until now, and includes all the defunct leagues that I’ve never really heard of). I’m undecided on whether or not I want Sheffield to hit his 500^th home run this year or early next year. I really want him to hit it as a Tiger, cuz no Tiger has ever gotten to 500 before. If you listen to the folks over at Yahoo Sports, you would think that the Tigers are going to try their hardest to trade him away in the offseason. Since that is the only place I have heard that, I’m going to remain skeptical for now. Along that line, it would be nice to get 2009 off on a good note with a milestone such as that. If, however, Yahoo Sports turns out to be right, well, then it’d be a good idea for him to hit it this year.

There are about five girls in this lab who are very loud and will not shut up. They keep yakking about scrubs,  stethoscopes, and not being able to find parking spaces. It’s getting annoying.

Now for the obligatory “Not-very-well-informed” update on Pudge (because it is my prerogative to do so, though one would assume these would become more and more infrequent as time wears on) I saw an article on MLB.com entitled “Pudge reflects on struggles in pinstripes.” I thought about reading it, but eventually I decided against it because I can pretty much guess what he said ("That's baseball," "Just keep playing hard," etc). I would imagine he’s rather frustrated with his current situation, both with the lack of hitting and with the fact that he’s not catching as much as he’d like (okay, that’s conjecture on my part, but you have to admit it’s very well-educated conjecture). This morning, I read an article on last night's Yankees-Angels game. Evidently, Pudge decided to take his frustration out on Torii Hunter. Sigh. Boys.

And now, these girls are absolutely driving me crazy and I can’t take any more of this, so I’m going to leave now.

I want to start off with a couple more observations concerning Monday’s debacle against the Yankees. First off, I wish to discuss Justin Verlander a bit (I’ve got a more lengthy feature on him in the works, but I’m gonna hold off on that for a couple more weeks). Suffice it to say he struggled at the beginning of the year and he’s struggling now. But there is a difference. When the season started, he wasn’t pitching spectacularly for the most part, but there were several instances where he ran into a lot of bad luck and he actually pitched better than his line indicated. That’s not really true this time around. He’s getting hit hard. I’m not sure what he can do about that. Second, our newspaper had a really nice picture of Pudge on the front of the sports page. That’s not THAT noteworthy except for the fact that good pictures of him are few and far between. But I liked this one (well, except for the fact that he was wearing the “wrong” uniform). And maybe this is a step, in that I can look at the picture without…I don’t know, feeling sick or something. And the next big step will probably come whenever the Tigers start to lose more of their “2006 players.” And I’m not talking about the supporting cast like Sean Casey or Todd Jones. I’m talking about guys like Kenny Rogers, Polanco, and Magglio.

Speaking of which, over the last two days or so, I’ve found myself being very nostalgic about 2006. Not necessarily in terms of “Gee, I wish we played this year like we did in 2006,” although that’s definitely true. It’s more in terms of wishing I could relive it (or, to be more accurate, live through it, since admittedly I did not see that many games from the 2006 season until after the fact).

In Other News: There is a girl in my class who is the spitting image of Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter movies, except her hair is brown instead of blonde. It's kinda creepy.

Therein lies the danger of trading your catcher to a team you’ll be facing later in the year. I mean, who better to provide that team with a top-notch scouting report on all your pitchers? That’s another reason why I would rather Chris Lambert have started this game. Basically, it came down to the Yankee’s bullpen doing a better job of quieting things down than the Tigers’ bullpen, but at least it was a proper slugfest. True to my word, I did not watch, but my dad told me they gave Pudge a standing ovation. I did find the video clip of that online, so it is there for me to watch whenever I am ready. It would’ve been a real conflict of emotions had I watched this game, because I would’ve wanted the Tigers to win (which they didn’t), but whenever Pudge was up, I would’ve wanted him to get a hit (He DID go 2-for-5, which is pretty good considering his recent offensive struggles) and I would not have wanted the Tigers to steal any bases against him (Unfortunately, Brandon Inge did…there’s a metaphor there, but I’m not touching it). By the way, I’m getting a really nasty gut feeling that Pudge will end up with the Red Sox next year. If he’s not going to be with the Tigers (and, like those elimination numbers, despite all sense of reason telling you it won’t happen, there’s a little glimmer of hope in the back of your mind that you can’t extinguish until he signs on the dotted line somewhere else), I would rather he sign with a National League team, because then I wouldn’t have to deal with him for more than three games (if at all), but if he must go to an American League team, there are two teams that I particularly dislike that I would most definitely not want him signing with (as it would generate such a conflict of interest that my head might explode). Those two teams are Cleveland and Boston. Cleveland will almost certainly not be an issue, since they’re already facing a dilemma between Victor Martinez and Kelly Shoppach and don’t need another catcher, but Boston is a different story altogether. Follow the logic along with me. Pudge will only want to sign with a contending ballclub, and there are very few contending clubs that A) will need a catcher in 2009, and B) would be able to afford him. Boston is one of those teams. Jason Varitek (who has had an awful year at the plate) is a free agent, and the Red Sox have one of the highest payrolls in all of baseball. I seriously hope that doesn’t happen, but I just can’t get “Boston” out of my head.

By the way, as part of their September roster expansion, the Seattle Mariners called up a left-handed pitcher by the name of Justin Thomas today. I went to high school with Justin, so I’ll be cheering for him (and all of a sudden, my six degrees of separation stock just went up several more notches). In case you were wondering, I had maybe one class with him and we did not know each other exceptionally well (as he was in the graduating class below mine and he transferred to another school the year after I graduated), but he seemed like a real nice kid and he was in my mom’s art classes, so he would definitely remember her.

UPDATE: Justin Thomas made his major league debut tonight, pitching a 1-2-3 ninth inning in a 12-6 Seattle win over the Texas Rangers, including a strikeout of Marlon Byrd.

EXTRA UPDATE: It is now Tuesday morning. Our local newspaper spelled "Rodriguez" wrong in their headline.

Though I may not post much anymore, rest assured that I am not neglecting my Total Amateur Analysis duties. For the most part. I have been watching all the games this past week (due to being “on vacation” from work), even though most did not produce desirable results. Justin Verlander still can’t figure out the Indians, who spent three days at Comerica Park looking like how they did last year (they then proceeded to get swept by Seattle at Progressive Field). Meanwhile, Kenny Rogers just looks like he’s running out of steam (Although…ever since he took the loss in that extra-innings game on the last day of the 2006 season when the Tigers were swept by the Royals, he has made a bunch of starts against Kansas City and he’s only pitched well in one of them). However, we got another real good start from Galarraga today and it’s only a shame that he couldn’t get the win (Although I think the chances of him winning Rookie of the Year are exceptionally slim, a win WOULD have helped his case). And unfortunately, his next start will be against Minnesota, and he has yet to figure them out. Three of his four losses have come against the Twins. By the way, I would've actually been willing to post a photo, but the AP or Yahoo seems to have not posted any since Chris Lambert's start against the Indians. On an unrelated note, the Tigers have announced their September call-ups. I’m very surprised that Clete Thomas is not on the list, but I guess after Leyland criticized him (and Michael Hollimon) for not producing after being sent down, I could see his point. I AM just a little curious about seeing Dusty Ryan, despite my general disinterest in American catchers (at least, I think he’s American). Speaking of catchers, tomorrow is that makeup game against the Yankees, and, after careful deliberation, I have decided that I will not watch (nor will I listen to the radio). This’ll mark the first time that I have intentionally avoided an entire game without having some sort of schedule conflict, but I’ve reached the conclusion that it’s better just to let some things die. No sense reopening old wounds, right? It’s a shame to waste a Justin Verlander start that way, but I’ll have to make sure I see him next time (By the way, Justin was probably the LAST pitcher I wanted to face the Yankees; I would much rather it have been Chris Lambert, who is a complete and total stranger to them). Oddly enough, I had a dream last night that I had this particular game on TV, but I was trying to not watch or listen to it (I always make things real difficult for myself like that). Also, for some reason, the game was at Yankee Stadium instead of Comerica Park (marking the first time that Yankee Stadium has made an appearance in my dreams) and Nate Robertson was the starting pitcher. Despite my best efforts to not pay attention, I heard that they were going to interview Miguel Cabrera, and I left the room to tell my dad this (I don’t know why). Then I woke up.

By the way, did anyone see the CC Sabathia one-hitter? That guy has become a complete-game machine since moving to the National League. And what did you make of the one “hit?” Now, since I am neither a Brewers fan nor a Pirates fan, believe me when I say I can give a neutral judgment on this, but I think Sabathia would’ve been able to throw LaRoche out had he fielded the ball cleanly. It probably should have been ruled an error. However, it would’ve been a Catch-22 for the scorekeeper to change it later, because it would have looked like he only changed it to make it a no-hitter.     

I’m currently using the pharmacy student lab, which I’m not real fond of because it’s usually very crowded and because, well, the other students here actually tend to do work and I feel awkward going somewhere like Xanga (though I did catch someone looking at ESPN’s website, so I feel a bit less conspicuous). The only “work” I have to do that is relevant to a computer merely involves printing out lecture notes, and since I still have about half an hour before any of the lunch places open, that’s really not quite enough. I’m also stuck using Office 2007 on this computer, and I’m definitely not loving it. At least this computer uses XP and not Vista. I have used Vista once, and essentially Vista features pretty much everything I hate about Mac OS or Macs in general (bouncing icons, “shrinking” windows, etc). But I digress.

Well, the Olympics are now over, and regrettably, I didn’t talk much about them. I mentioned the U.S. softball team, which went on to only lose one game, but unfortunately, it was the one that counted the most. Then there was the Japanese pitcher, who threw three complete games (two of which were extra-innings affairs) and over 400 pitches in the span of two days. Now, I know pitching in softball is not as hard on the arm as it is in baseball, but that still strikes me as a lot. On a different subject, I was amazed as to how well my mom was able to follow volleyball. She was actually sort of getting into it, as a matter of fact. She was also kinda into watching Michael Phelps, but mostly cuz she was hoping Mark Spitz would turn up, which he eventually did.

Well, if the Tigers aren’t gonna get into the playoffs, could they at least manage to hang on to third place? If they’re gonna do that, though, they can’t waste Galarraga outings like they did last night, especially since Cleveland has been playing a whole lot better recently and we’re stuck facing Cliff Lee and Fausto Carmona for the next two days. By the way, I got a bone to pick with Leyland over Brandon Inge (and though this is gonna sound like sour grapes, I assure you it is not). Brandon has now caught about 7 or 8 games in a row, including Sunday’s day game after the night game. In fact, Leyland did that deliberately, saying that Brandon had to learn to “get into that mode.” I have a couple problems with that statement. First of all, I’m sure Inge did some of that back in his first go-round as a catcher. If you want to take this a step further, ever since the trade, they’re acting as if Brandon Inge never caught a pitch in his life prior to July 30^th, which is obviously not true (and really, that attitude is actually a little insulting). Second, Leyland would do almost anything to avoid having Pudge catch day games after night games. Seems to me there is a bit of a double standard. Now, you may cite the difference in age as an excuse, but consider this: I was kind of oblivious to what the Tigers were doing in 2004, so I’m not all that familiar with the specifics of what was going on when Pudge first signed with the Tigers, but I do know that there was a small minority of fans who objected to the signing, and they cited Pudge’s age as one of their chief concerns. Pudge would’ve been 32 when he first signed. Brandon Inge is 31. Again, why the double standard? Speaking of Pudge, I’ve been trying to keep tabs on him as much as I can shy of actually watching a Yankees game (I still can’t bring myself to see him in a Yankees uniform. All right, I did happen to look up at a TV at school just when they were showing highlights from a Yankees game on Sportscenter, but that doesn’t really count cuz the TV was so far away that all I could see was a big black and white catcher-shaped blur). Unfortunately, this pretty much limits me to looking at box scores, which makes it difficult for me to track trends and that sort of thing, but I was getting the impression that Pudge has not been real good from an offensive standpoint since joining the Yankees, and yesterday there was an article on MLB.com that sized up all the big trades, and it pretty much confirmed my suspicisons (also, apparently neither Andy Pettitte nor Mike Mussina want to throw to him, which is also a bad mix; when two-fifths of your rotation doesn’t get along with the starting catcher, you’re most likely not gonna have a successful team). I already knew that Farnsworth wasn’t pitching very well. Now I know that Pudge hasn’t been hitting. Basically, this trade didn’t work out for either team (though I still say the Yankees got the better deal, if for nothing else than the fact that Pudge’s impending free agency will give them extra draft picks).

Well, while you were sitting there pondering my absence, school started again. Today marks the beginning of the so-called “Professional” division classes (and believe you me, “professional” is a HUGE buzzword around these parts). I am now known as either a third-year pharmacy student (old terminology, which I like better) or a P1 student (new terminology). Here is my schedule, which doesn’t exactly sound scintillating, but it is what it is:

Monday

Pharmaceutical Dimensions of Health Care   8:00-8:50

Pharmaceutics I   9:00-9:50

Medicinal Chemistry I   12:00-12:50

Pharmacology I   2:00-2:50

Physiological Chemistry I   3:00-3:50

Tuesday

Pharmaceutics I   9:00-9:50

Pharmaceutics Lab   1:00-2:50

Wednesday

Pharmaceutical Dimensions of Health Care   8:00-8:50

Pharmaceutical Calculations   9:00-9:50

Medicinal Chemistry I   12:00-12:50

Pharmacology I   2:00-2:50

Physiological Chemistry I   3:00-3:50

Thursday

Pharmaceutical Calculations   9:00-9:50

Friday

Pharmaceutical Dimensions of Health Care   8:00-8:50

Pharmaceutics I   9:00-9:50

Introduction to Pharmacy Practice I   12:00-12:50

Pharmacology I   2:00-2:50

Physiological Chemistry I   3:00-3:50

As you can see, I have to get up insanely early and my schedule is different every day. My current plan is to just take a cereal bar with me to school and eat breakfast in my first class, which I can probably get away with, since I’ve got a two-hour break before my noon class and I can just get lunch then. The other thing is that in the labs, you have to dress “professionally” (there’s that word again), which basically means business attire. I’m not really a fan of “professional” dress, but my big problem is that my dress pants don’t have pockets, so I’m still trying to figure out where I’m gonna put my wallet, cell phone, and keys.

I know it’s been a while, but I’ve got a brief report on both the Olympics and baseball in a nutshell. First, the Olympics. It was a very entertaining first week. I, like everyone else, kept track of Michael Phelps and his eight gold medals. However, I don’t really think I totally get the significance of the feat. I mean, when Mark Spitz won seven gold medals, I hadn’t been born yet, and I saw Phelps win six gold medals in Athens. Some of those races were downright incredible, though, particularly the first relay (when Jason Lezak ran down the French) and the 100m Butterfly (where Phelps literally just got in). However, Katie Hoff, who was kind of the female version of Michael Phelps, was kinda disappointing. I mean, she was the gold-medal favorite in a bunch of events, and I don’t think she won any. Of course, the other big event of the first week is gymnastics, where the Chinese have just been downright dominant. If not for the fact that they didn’t qualify any athletes into the men’s vault finals, they probably would’ve swept all the men’s events (I have not seen the finals for parallel bars or high bar, as they won’t be aired until tonight and I don’t feel like looking up the results). The U.S. women kinda did the same thing they did in the team final four years ago and made some dumb mistakes, which gave China the gold. Yay for Nastia Liukin for winning the All-Around, though. And I really don’t understand this new scoring system. The “perfect 10” system was a lot easier. And I also don’t understand why you can’t just give two golds in the event of a tie. They do that in track and swimming. I’ve also been watching some softball, which I’ve never seen before. The American softball team is really dominant, even more so than the Chinese gymnasts. The Americans have got a couple of really big women on their team. And I know this is mean, but their catcher (whom I would kinda have a tendency to naturally gravitate towards, anyways, just like in baseball) bears a strange resemblance to Jim Thome. Women should not look like Jim Thome. However, she seems to do a really good job behind the plate, and that’s the important part. I still don’t like their uniforms, though. Softball uniforms should look like baseball uniforms, NOT soccer uniforms (or in the case of the Australian team, basketball uniforms with knee socks).

Through all this Olympic coverage, I have been keeping an eye on the Tigers as well, though perhaps not as much at work due to the fact that Ross has gotten rather bitter about the whole thing and is nowhere near as even-keeled about it as I am (I tend to aim MY bitterness at the Pudge trade, not at the Tigers' bad record), so there are some nights where I won’t bring it up. But, suffice it to say, it was not a very good homestand. They did win last night, despite Kyle Farnsworth not pitching very well. And he pretty much hasn’t pitched well since joining the Tigers. However, tonight is a game I have looked forward to for a long time. I have really wanted Armando Galarraga to have a chance to pitch against Texas, and I really hope he pitches well and gets a win out of it. He’ll have to earn it, though, because Texas has a really good offense and they have a LOT of left-handed bats in their lineup.

In Other News: I’ve started re-reading the Harry Potter books cuz it’s been a real long time since I’ve read any of them. I’ve gotten through the first three books fairly quickly, as usual (though I think it’s about time I get a new copy of the first book, as the pages are starting to fall out of mine). However, I’m onto the fourth book, which is my least favorite of the seven, so it’ll probably be a bit more slow-going with this one (However, my copy of the fourth book IS one of the first American editions, which contains a rather large error in it, so much that some fans thought it was an intentional clue left by JK Rowling, which, of course, it wasn’t). I’ve read the first four books several times, but due to the fact that I get slowed down by the fourth book, I don’t always continue on after that. I’ve only read the fifth book twice, and the sixth and seventh books once apiece (well, I tried to re-read the sixth book right before the seventh came out, but I probably only got about a hundred pages into it).

I meant to get this posted BEFORE today’s game, but because I had a massive amount of Olympic footage to sort through this morning, I wasn’t able to get to it. Well, my one trip to Comerica Park this year has come and gone, and considering all the circumstances in recent days, I actually enjoyed myself quite well. Things started off on a strange note. We ate dinner at the Johnny Rocket’s across the street from Comerica Park, and I noticed that Paws was greeting a bunch of fans right outside (Johnny Rocket’s, not Comerica Park, which would make more sense). Also, there were two separate wedding parties having photos taken in front of Comerica Park. At one point, one of the brides, along with about six bridesmaids, came into Johnny Rocket’s and they all went into the restroom together. Later, when I went to use the restroom myself, I could not figure out how they all fit.

This was the scene shortly after we arrived. And you can't see it very well without me making the photo so large it'd kill your Internet, but there is a lot of hail on the ground. A few minutes before I took this picture, we all paid witness to one of the light towers on the scoreboard being struck by lightning (although we did not realize this until I read it on the website this morning). That’s probably the closest I’ve ever been to a lightning strike, and let me tell you, it’s LOUD when it’s that close. The lightning strike also screwed up the screen, as you can probably tell from the picture. This storm was gone before 6:30, and they briefly took the tarp off, but then they put it back on, did not take it back off until around 7:30, and the game didn’t start until 7:55. During that span, it did not rain at all save for one brief shower that lasted less than five minutes. Go figure.

I learned two valuable lessons on this trip as well: 1) Never put a baseball in a cup holder, cuz it will be almost impossible to get out. 2) If your tickets aren’t for the best of seats, hang around the nice seating areas for as long as you can in case you get lucky. We did. Our seats were for the upper deck, but because it was raining when we got there, we initially stood near some of the seats underneath the upper deck down the right field line. Eventually, the usher told us that we could sit there until the actual ticketholders showed up, and we took him up on his offer. Later, he informed us that a lot of those seats are held by season ticket holders, many of whom would probably not come to the game because of the weather. It turns out that he was right and we were able to stay there the whole time. The only drawback was that we ended up on the wrong side of an aisle, and there were people constantly going up and down this aisle and blocking the view somewhat (also, it was a little too far away to get great pictures, as evidenced by the amount of blurriness), but they were still much better seats than we would’ve had otherwise.  

It was Fiesta Tigres night, and the Latin players really stepped up (Galarraga pitched well, Cabrera and Renteria both homered, Maggs and Polanco both had RBIs). It was also just a little bittersweet for me, because of what happened with Pudge. The people who wrote the Fiesta Tigres program appeared to be having a tough time of it, judging from the first page. I had to be the one to break the news to Laura as well. However, I unexpectedly got a very brief cameo from him. Before the game, they showed a brief video of a bunch of players talking about the Latin influence in baseball, and Pudge was one of the players featured. It was only about two or three seconds, but he was there in some form. Also, he’s still got a tremendous amount of fan love in Detroit, way more than I realized. I saw a ton of people wearing Rodriguez jerseys and t-shirts. I think the only name I saw more often than “Rodriguez” was “Inge” (You know, I like Brandon Inge despite the fact that I don’t want him catching, but I’ve never been able to understand why he is so enormously popular; on the opposite end of the scale, the media tends to really try to hype up and push Carlos Guillen on the fans, but I don’t think that’s working, cuz I only saw two, maybe three Guillen shirts). There was one woman wearing a Rodriguez jersey with a “broken heart” attached to it. That kinda made me laugh (for the record, I did not wear my jersey, and while I don't exactly regret not wearing it, I've now realized that I totally would not have looked conspicuous at all). At least I’m not alone, and maybe, just maybe, there are those who felt even worse than I did. On a related note, to say that Kyle Farnsworth got a chilly reception in Detroit is a vast understatement. They were downright venomous. Even when he was announced, the public address announcer didn’t say his name with the same amount of enthusiasm as he does all the other Tigers. When he first took the mound, there was almost no reaction whatsoever, but once he threw ball one to the first batter he faced, the chorus of boos started. After he gave up the leadoff double and the subsequent single, the boos were joined by shouts of “You suck” and “Go back to New York.” Farnsworth did get out of the inning without allowing a run by inducing a popup and striking out the last two batters, but even then the cheers seemed first sarcastic, then reluctant. The cheers of happiness did eventually arrive with the final out, but I get the feeling they were in spite of Kyle Farnsworth and not because of him. By the way, with last night and today’s wins, the Tigers have FINALLY broken the pattern from last year.

Other than Kyle Farnsworth, it was a well-pitched game by the Tigers. Galarraga did a fine job right up until the end. I really wish he could’ve gone the full six innings, but I guess he kinda ran out of steam. Bobby Seay was really impressive, but I was thrilled that I got to see Joel Zumaya pitch (he was on the DL during the two games I went to last year). Unfortunately, I kinda forgot that I had the camera with me, and I didn’t get any pictures of him. Joel did a real nice job as well.

I found it interesting that of the four Tigers in the starting lineup that I did not see last year (Thames, Sheffield, Cabrera, and Renteria), three of them hit home runs. The only one who did not was Thames, but Cabrera made up for it by hitting two. One thing I had not seen prior to this game was a lot of Tiger home runs. In fact, in the two games I went to last year, the only Tiger home run in those two games was a solo shot by Sean Casey (probably the least likely of the 2007 Tigers to hit a home run, I might add). As a result, I’ve definitely wanted to see more home runs, and I got my wish. And it looks as though Miguel Cabrera has adjusted to the American League. By the way, I took this picture of Gary Sheffield right before he hit the home run.

I almost didn’t bring the camera, but this made me glad I did. I’ve seen double rainbows before, but I’ve never seen one this bright. It just kept getting brighter and brighter for the longest time. Laura facetiously wondered if there was a pot of gold sitting in Ford Field. Strangely enough, it was barely mentioned on TV. At one point, it seemed like all the fans noticed the rainbow all at the same time, and when that happened, every camera and cell phone in the ballpark was pointed at the sky and no one was paying any attention to the game. In fact, I think I took more pictures of the rainbow than of the game (mostly cuz the rainbow was easier to photograph). By the way, the rainbow first appeared right before the Sheffield homer. Now, I’m not superstitious, but at the very least, that IS rather poetic.

And so ends this year’s trip to Comerica Park. Hopefully I’ll make another pilgrimage next year. On an unrelated note, how sweet is it that the Americans swept in Women’s Sabre? The best part is that they actually televised a great deal of it (although it’s a lot more fun to fence than to watch fencing) And I would comment further on the Olympics, but this post is already long enough, so I’ll wait until tomorrow at least.