Around quarter to 2 this afternoon, the day half of the Indians makeup doubleheader with the Mariners under way, and Tom Hamilton and Mike Hegan, on Indians' radio, felt the Progressive Field press level shake. For several minutes, they said.
I was outside and didn't feel a thing. Their descriptions, however, reminded of the Michigan earthquake I did feel, in the upper bleachers at Tiger Stadium one Sunday afternoon.
Only an earthquake and a Cecil Fielder home run can make a ball park shake, and Cecil's long retired. So it had to be a quake. And there was one today, centered in Virginia and felt all along the east coast.
A little old lady on the ninth floor of a local seniors' high-rise said her china rattled and pictures on the wall shook. I didn't see anything out of place, and returned my attention to where it belonged: the ball game.
The M's got two in their ninth to take a 5-4 lead. Then followed an Ezequiel Cabrera double, a Dustin Ackley error, and a three-run walkoff homer by Shin-Soo Choo. Which could send shock waves through your world, I'm sure, if you're among the handful who still cares about what happens to the Seattle Mariners.
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Your picture came off the wall, Maggie informed me on my return home.
The only framed pic that's "mine" is the one of baseball's Commissioner, that I tore out of a magazine and autographed to myself:"Dear Tom -- four wild card teams sounds just great -- affectionately, Allan H. 'Bud' Selig."
Now the glass is cracked. And none of the other pictures fell.
Hmmmm ...
I called the newspaper while you were gone, she added. In my scared little old lady voice. Told them that plates rattled, and the sky was falling.
Good for you, I said. Anarchist. What's for dinner?
Oh, no cooking .... can we go out tonight? I know it isn't Sunday. Pleeeeese?
So dinner out it was,with just enough time to get back home for the Tigers game. My queen being all worn out from a day of mischief at home alone to take out the cook book.
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Tonight at Tropicana Field, Brad Penny allowed eight hits but only one run in six-plus innings. He stayed in long enough to benefit from two seventh inning Tiger runs, and posted his ninth win.
The D-Rays helped by stranding twelve runners.
Phil Coke pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth to earn his first save of 2011.
A Tigers win and Indians doubleheader split gives the Tigers a six game lead. Last Thursday it was 1 1-2 with the Tribe, who'd just taken two of three from the White Sox, on their way to Comerica.
If not for the Choo walkoff homer today, they'd have a six game losing streak.
Choo, Michael Brantley, Travis Hafner, and star rookie Jason Kipnis have joined Grady Sizemore on the DL. Minus key men for most of the season, the Indians have hung in there but now show signs of running down, like the pink bunny whose batteries have drained.
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Before the Indians were the other home team, there were the Blue Jays. Their games could be had on radio from day one in southeast Michigan, where Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth became our alternate Voices Of Summer. They won pennants in 1992 and 1993, and were in contention in many seasons when the Tigers were buried by June.
Two Blue Jays who've become old friends in the second floor baseball bunker via those games on radio, Aaron Hill and John MacDonald, were traded today, to the D-Backs for Kelly Johnson.
All three are middle infielders, and all become free agents after this season. So they could all end up back where they started after six weeks of rental status.
Johnny Mac played 31 games for the 2005 Tigers. He's never played more than 123 games in a season, but has always been one of those useful guys a winning team can't be without.
That the Tigers sent him back to Toronto might, in its own small way, explain why, after 2006, they had trouble becoming a winning team.
---------------------------------
Your picture came off the wall, Maggie informed me on my return home.
The only framed pic that's "mine" is the one of baseball's Commissioner, that I tore out of a magazine and autographed to myself:"Dear Tom -- four wild card teams sounds just great -- affectionately, Allan H. 'Bud' Selig."
Now the glass is cracked. And none of the other pictures fell.
Hmmmm ...
I called the newspaper while you were gone, she added. In my scared little old lady voice. Told them that plates rattled, and the sky was falling.
Good for you, I said. Anarchist. What's for dinner?
Oh, no cooking .... can we go out tonight? I know it isn't Sunday. Pleeeeese?
So dinner out it was,with just enough time to get back home for the Tigers game. My queen being all worn out from a day of mischief at home alone to take out the cook book.
------------------------------------
Tonight at Tropicana Field, Brad Penny allowed eight hits but only one run in six-plus innings. He stayed in long enough to benefit from two seventh inning Tiger runs, and posted his ninth win.
The D-Rays helped by stranding twelve runners.
Phil Coke pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth to earn his first save of 2011.
A Tigers win and Indians doubleheader split gives the Tigers a six game lead. Last Thursday it was 1 1-2 with the Tribe, who'd just taken two of three from the White Sox, on their way to Comerica.
If not for the Choo walkoff homer today, they'd have a six game losing streak.
Choo, Michael Brantley, Travis Hafner, and star rookie Jason Kipnis have joined Grady Sizemore on the DL. Minus key men for most of the season, the Indians have hung in there but now show signs of running down, like the pink bunny whose batteries have drained.
-----------------------------------
Before the Indians were the other home team, there were the Blue Jays. Their games could be had on radio from day one in southeast Michigan, where Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth became our alternate Voices Of Summer. They won pennants in 1992 and 1993, and were in contention in many seasons when the Tigers were buried by June.
Two Blue Jays who've become old friends in the second floor baseball bunker via those games on radio, Aaron Hill and John MacDonald, were traded today, to the D-Backs for Kelly Johnson.
All three are middle infielders, and all become free agents after this season. So they could all end up back where they started after six weeks of rental status.
Johnny Mac played 31 games for the 2005 Tigers. He's never played more than 123 games in a season, but has always been one of those useful guys a winning team can't be without.
That the Tigers sent him back to Toronto might, in its own small way, explain why, after 2006, they had trouble becoming a winning team.
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