The Friendly Confines: 1st Wrigley Field Experience

 On Monday I was in Chicago for a work visit, and I was able to go to Wrigley Field to catch my first Cubs game.  It was an interesting experience, but I am glad I was able to check another stadium off the list. 

The beginning of the night started with terrible traffic and a rush to get to the stadium.  Since Wrigley is in the middle of a neighborhood, the streets are not made for the game crowd.  It took us almost 2 hours to go 4 miles, but we finally got to 1060 West Addison 5 minutes before the first pitch. But the view from our seats was pretty cool. 

It was a blast from the past as soon as our ticket was scanned.  There were no Ferris wheels, batting cages, hot tubs, restaurants, etc.  Wrigley Field offered Old Style Beer and baseball.  It was refreshing.  While Comerica is still my favorite because I know everything about the park, the nostalgia of the Friendly Confines cannot be denied.  After grabbing a brew and a stadium dog, we settled into our seats to watch the Cubs take on the Braves.

The game featured a great start by converted receiver Jeff Samardzija, back-to-back home runs by the Cubs, Chipper Jones still producing at 40 years old, “Take me out to the ball game” led by Pat Fitzgerald, a rough 8^th inning from Marmol, and ultimately a Cubs win. 

The park might not have had the most up to date technologies (no LCD screens or scoreboard) or been the cleanest place I have ever been, but it was special. Watching a game played on the same field since 1916 was pretty cool.  I can see why there are more Cubs fans than Sox in Chicago, there is more flavor and tradition with the stadium alone. 

I will continue to update you guys on my stadium explorations as I will add Fenway to the list at the end of the month, and then hopefully Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati and PNC Park in Pittsburgh in June. 

Verlander & Schlereth of Series (White Sox)

The Tigers finally won a series, some fans were wondering if it would happen again.  Detroit also managed to avoid going below .500 for a little while longer.  Every game against the Southsiders was a close game, and the Tigers got 3 more quality starts (5 in a row).  Peralta was one pitch away from recording the final out on Friday night, but then thought it was a good time to launch his first homerun of the season resulting in a walkoff win.  Baseball has a funny way of equalizing the amazing comebacks, so on Saturday Tigers fans got a taste of the opposite side.  The twice baked potato walked onto the mound and began throwing his standard arrow straight 94 mph fastball, and after the leadoff guy got to 3^rd base with 1 out Shrek hit one of the longest homeruns Comerica has ever seen (man I love a closer with a +6.00 ERA).  Sunday, pretty Ricky came back with another gem against the Sox and the Tigers managed to win the rubber match.  Now lets get to the awards.. drumroll please…

Verlander of the Series has to go the starting pitchers (Smyly, Scherzer, and Procello), and specifically Max.  He rebounded extremely well from New York by allowing only 1 run and adding to his K’s per 9 IP lead amongst starting pitchers, but the most important part for me was the zero walks.  The tv broadcasts focused a lot on Kid Rick and Maxi-pad’s alterations to their windup, and they seemed to have worked (if only for the weekend).  I am just asking Max to become consistent.  I don’t expect him to have this same stat line each start, but is 6-8 IP with 3 earned runs too much to ask for?  It will be interesting to see how Max’s next start goes down when he gets to pitch against an inept offense (the last time he faced an offense in the bottom tier he made them look like All-stars). 

Schlereth of the Series:  Well the bats continued to sport a box score resembling the Pittsburgh Pirates offense, but I want to mix up the loser award this week.  The rotten spud continues to struggle in every outing he stands on the mound.  It is becoming inexcusable.  Yes, he was not going to go 49/49 this season, but when your closer has more decisions (4) than your ace (3) something is seriously wrong.  He is struggling to have any fastball control, which leaves him unable to throw the splitter as much as we would like.  One good thing that happened over the weekend is Valverde stopped doing his ridiculous dances on the mound after saving Sunday’s game, maybe he is realizing you actually have to get results to act like an idiot.

Looking forward, the Tigers get to play their kryptonite in a 3 game series then head to Oakland where the Inge phenomenon is sweeping the bay. The Tigers have their 3 best pitchers scheduled to start against the worst offensive team in the AL.  The series shapes up in Detroit’s favor, but after seeing the result from last night, on-paper matchups don’t seem to matter much in baseball.

Kentucky Derby week... and nobody cares...

Since the Kentucky Derby is right around the corner, I figured I would mention it a bit today.  The Derby is one of sport’s greatest spectacles.  Even if you aren’t a horse racing person, you probably have seen Churchill Downs, at least once, during the first weekend in May.  The women wearing hats that are the size of a 3 person inner tube, everyone walking around with a gallon of mint juleps, and the infield looking like a mud wrestling moshpit at Woodstock.  I am not sure why I care so much, but growing up we always made a point to watch the Derby as a family.  Every opening weekend in May there was a small steer show in Hudsonville, Michigan all day on Saturday, then we would head home and walk in the door just in time to watch the race.  Every year I had the hope that maybe it was the year we would see a Triple Crown winner.  Anyways, moving on, it got me thinking today that it would be pretty cool to experience the craziness of Kentucky Derby week in Louisville at least once.  Expanding off of that thought, if money wasn’t an issue, what is the one sports event that you would like to attend?

This is a tough choice for me, since I love almost all sports.  Being on the grounds for the final round of the Masters would definitely make the top 5 list.  It is amazing how beautiful the course is just on tv, I couldn’t imagine seeing it in person.  And it is the Masters, the final round is always magical.  What about tennis?  Visiting the US Open could be pretty special, or Wimbledon, or Roland Garros.   Then there is the World Cup.  It would be amazing to see some of the group play games, be in a foreign country and see the passion from the locals.  Of course this would be a little higher on my list if the USA soccer team would make a deep run, but seeing Messi in person would be pretty special.  Some people might want to go to a Super Bowl, but I enjoy watching the commercials and spending the night with friends too much to be sitting in the crowd.  A few people I know have been lucky enough to make the trip out to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl, this is really high on my list.  To see one end zone painted dark blue with maize lettering spelling out Michigan, the mountains overlooking the stadium, the Rose parade.  It truly is the Grandaddy of em all, and I would trade being at all of the remaining Super Bowls for one trip to California to see my Maize and Blue run onto the field.  Staying with college sports, it would be a lot of fun to be at one of the arenas for an opening weekend to see 6 games live especially if Michigan was there. Or making a trip to the Final Four could be pretty special as well. 

When I was growing up I was lucky enough to visit Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  For those of you who have no idea why that is special to a young boy, it is the home of the Little League World Series.  I wish I could say that I was there to play in the tournament, but I guess it was close enough.  One of our family friends played there 2 years in a row for Saudi Arabia.  So in 1997 we headed out for a family trip to watch some of the games.  When I got there it felt like I was a part of the team, I was able to hang out with most of the players (not only from Saudi but from every team there).  A big part of the tradition is trading pins (all of the players get pins for winning regionals to make the World Series), and I was able to take home a hat full of pins from all over the world.  Then we watched the championship game of California vs Mexico right behind a dugout.  Life couldn’t get much better for a 10 year old kid.  I even got an autograph from Charles White (Heisman trophy winner at USC), because his son played on the California team. 

Looking forward, it would be cool to take my son there someday, but for me personally the event that I would choose to attend would be a summer Olympics.  For some reason I find myself liking every sport during the Olympics, even weightlifting and badminton.  It would be really cool seeing an American standing on the tallest podium receiving a gold medal while the Star Spangled Banner was playing. It might be just as fun interacting with people from all over the world when you weren’t at an event.  What a cool idea.  Maybe the games will come back to the United States at some point and I can catch a few events. 

What about you?

Did baseball just lose a legend?

Last night in a freak accident, Mariano Rivera tore his ACL last night before a matchup against the Royals. At 42 years old, the recovery time will likely be longer than most.  It is almost a sure thing that Sandman will not play the rest of this season. 

During batting practice, most of the pitchers are on the field to shag fly balls.  Apparently, Bob Gibson back in the day played 3rd base in BP to work on his defense and his reaction time.  In today's game the pitchers are usually forced to be in the outfield.  They use this time as a fun way to get loose and get the legs stretched out before the game. According to teammates, Rivera does this before every game and has for his entire 20 year career.

It was painful to listen to his press conference after the game to announce the ACL has torn, with all of his teammates around him trying to put on a strong face.  Inside, though, they were wondering what everyone else was, would this be Mo's last time on a baseball field as a player? The odds are definitely against a comeback, especially since it was likely this would be his last year anyways, but how can the greatest closer the game has ever seen go out like that.  Will his last appearance as a big leaguer be in front of about 1,000 Royal fans during batting practice when half of the team was still in the dugout? I certainly hope not. 

Mariano Rivera deserves his last outing to be in New York, at Yankee Stadium.  As much as I hate the Yankees, he deserves to be on the mound for a save opportunity in the post season one last time.  He deserves to get 3 easy outs with the pitch that he invented, and walk off the mound as a warrior, a winner, a Yankee great, with 50,000 appreciative fans and the teammates that he saved so many victories for. 

Please don't let this be exit Sandman.

Tigers Week 4 Recap (12-12)

The Detroit Tigers had another average week in the win/loss column by going 2-3 with the rain winning on one day.  This was their 2^nd straight week of under .500 ball.  The one encouraging note from this though, is the 2011 Tigers were 12-12 to start the year and then fell to 12-17.  This year’s version can still outdo the effort.  I think it is important for the Tigers to win another series here soon, and hopefully put together a streak of series wins.  The May schedule is drastically easier than the opening month, so I think we can expect (or some fans might want to demand) the Tigers to push for a 20 win month.  If the Tigers are not in first place after this month, my concerns about this team will continue to rise.

Looking back on this past week, the offense increased productivity (averaged 5.2 runs/game), Max continued to struggle, Smyly recorded his first career win, Rick got back into good form, and JV continues to cruise along racking up more No Decisions. I am still the most concerned about Max Scherzer.  I expect him to piece together a gem soon, but his calling card continues this season.  It seems like he just isn’t maturing as a pitcher, and if this is the best he has in him, he is a 4A player and doesn’t deserve a rotation spot reserved for him past this season.  Drew Smyly is making his case to be the AL Rookie of the Year by leading in ERA after 4 starts.  I think we should expect his effectiveness to decline in the month of May, but if he can keep going 6 strong innings with an ERA around 3.00 he will be the best 5^th starter in the AL.  Maybe I just have my homer blinders on, but I think Rick has made the next step with improving as a pitcher.  I don’t think going 7 or 8 innings and giving up 3 ER’s is out of the norm for what we should see from him for the most part this season.  Verlander will continue to be the best pitcher in baseball, but it will be important to limit his innings and pitches as much as possible to keep him fresh for the postseason.  But, the most exciting part of May is that Doug Fister threw a rehab start in Toledo last night and was fine afterwards.  We should get our 2^nd best pitcher back next week on our west coast trip! 

The offense seemed to improve over this week.  Maybe this was due to the guys feeling more comfortable at the plate, or Austin Jackson having 2 good series.  I just hope it continues this next week.  It was nice to see Prince bomb a ball to the moon in New York, but it would be nice if he can do it in Comerica soon.  Brennan Boesch seems to be having more quality at bats, and with him on base more the Tigers will score more runs.  Even though the White Sox pitchers have been very tough to hit so far, I think the Tigers will have a good weekend at the plate. 

Looking forward to week 5, the Tigers get to head out west for the first time this year.  While out there they will get to avenge their losses to Seattle and reunite with Brandon Inge.  I expect the Tigers to win 2 of the next 3 series.  I am excited to see the White Sox get dominated in Detroit, for Fister’s first start, and for Brandon Inge to strike out against Tiger pitchers.

Verlander & Schlereth of Series (Royals)

Another series complete means another Verlander/ Schlereth to award.  This series was rain shortened, and kept Duane Below from making his first start this season.  It also meant that Detroit had a great shot of sweeping the 2 game series with Verlander on the mound yesterday.  Some things are just not meant to be, and apparently scoring runs for Verlander is one of them.  It was the real MVP’s 6^th start of the season, and it was the 5^th time that the Detroit bats couldn’t score more than 3 runs for him.  Luckily, Brenann Boesch hit a game tying 2 run home run in the bottom of the 8^th to keep JV from the loss.  He still is 2-1 with a sub 2.50 ERA.  Anyways, let’s move on to awarding some guys from the series.

Verlander: This award goes to Austin Jackson.  He is the second Tiger, EVER, to have 3 four hit games in the first month of the season.  He finished with 5 hits in the 2 game series, and continues to be the Tiger’s most important offensive weapon.  In the 12 victories this season, Austin has an OBP of greater than .400.  In the 12 losses the Tigers have already suffered, his OBP is less than .300.  

Schlereth: This is a tough choice between the entire offensive approach and Benoit.  While Benoit has not been pitching like he did in the 2^nd half of the season, he still has been more effective than he was in the first 2 months last year.  It is frustrating to see him come out of the pen and walk people, or even get into 3 ball counts over and over again, but I think him (and Valverde) will begin to pitch better as the season progresses.  That is why I am going with the offensive approach yesterday.  Jonathan Sanchez was on the mound for the Royals, and somehow he carried a no-hitter into the 5^th inning.  This is the same pitcher that walks a batter per inning, yet for some reason the Tiger batters only drew 2 BB’s (in his last inning).  This guy is not pitching well at all right now, yet the aggressiveness really hurt the Tigers yesterday.  They continually swung at bat pitches, and they swung early in the count.  There was no reason why the Tigers shouldn’t have given Verlander his 3^rd win of the season.  One day after the bats exploded for 9 runs, the offense fell back into old habits. Yes, I know Detroit will not score 7+ runs every game, but Verlander had a huge pitching advantage yesterday and yet we needed a 2 run homerun in the 8^th inning to get our first 2 runs of the game.  Another problem I have been seeing lately is the at bats at the end of games.  Yesterday after Boesch took Crow deep, I was less than impressed with Miggy and Biggy’s approach.  It looks like every batter steps in the batter’s box after the 7 inning and just tries to swing for the fence, which usually results in some very bad swings and easy outs.

Hopefully the Tigers can find some offense against the White Sox, even though the Chicago pitchers have been a lot better than Sanchez has been in 3 years.  It will be nice to win a series again, especially against the White Sox.  

April MLB Recap

This is partially because I am bored at work, and partially because a lot has already happened in the baseball season and I love baseball.  I don’t know if I am the only one, but it seems like April just flew by.  At least us Tiger’s fans will not have to hear the April in the D song anymore on FSD.  Detroit closed out an up and down month with an 11-11 record (now 12-11 after destroying KC for the 4^th time this season). Since I keep my finger on the Tiger’s pulse through weekly updates, this will be a more general news and notes of MLB’s first month.

5 impressive starts:

1.       Texas Rangers must have gotten tired of hearing how the Angels and the Tigers were going to run through the AL and were on a season long collision course for the ALCS.  The Rangers have been baseball’s hands down best team in the first month of the season.  They upgraded their pitching staff with Darvish, Holland has continued to develop, and Lewis has walked as many as Brennan Boesch on the season, 1 time.  They almost opened up the first double digit division lead, and it happened to be over the Angels.  This team is for real, and with playing in the AL West they will be able to beat up on the A’s and Mariners.  At this point in the season, I would be surprised if they do not finish with the most wins in baseball. 

2.       Washington Nationals still boast the best team ERA in MLB.  Their pitching staff couldn’t really be hurling any better right now.  Their offseason moves have worked so far, as Gonzalez has made the move to the NL smoothly.  The interesting part here will be how seriously will they stand by their innings limit on Stephen Strasburg, especially if they are leading the NL East in late August when he gets to the 160 IP ceiling. What happens if they make the playoffs?  Just recently the Nats pulled up phenom Bryce Harper to play left field and hopefully add some offense to the injured riddled lineup.  The thing I have been most impressed with his first two games have been his defense.  He seems to be pressing some at the plate to make an immediate impact, but his defense have been making him standout.  This guy has an absolute rocket.  Last night (I know it was May 1^st, but still), he almost threw out a guy tagging at home from left field.  No big deal right, this happens all of the time.  The only difference is most left fielders don’t even try to make the throw from where Harper caught the ball.  He was 300 feet away from home plate.  He got behind the throw and delivered a seed to the catcher.  The ball didn’t bounce and the catcher caught at eye level.  After watching the replay it was clear the runner was out, but the ump called him safe.  If he is making plays like this every series it will be hard to send him back down to the minors. 

3.       Someone forgot to tell Derek Jeter than he is old and is on the decline.  The Captain has the most hits in baseball with 37 already.  He is batting close to .400 still and has been the perfect table setter for the big hitters behind him in the lineup.  Jeter has found the fountain of youth apparently.  He is even running faster to first base than he has in the past 4 seasons.  Since he got his 3,000^th hit last summer, DJ is batting a cool .355.  It will be interesting if this can continue for the rest of the season, and with the way he is using the entire field to collect hits I think it can.  With the Yankees gaping holes in the starting rotation, New Yorkers need Jeter to keep it up.

4.       Matt Kemp is a monster.  He took finishing 2^nd in the NL MVP award last season to heart.  He has been quoted in saying he wants to become the first 50-50 player.  In case you don’t know what he is referring to, he wants to hit 50 homeruns and steal 50 bases.  I’m sorry, but if he hits that many bombs, he will need to attempt a steal almost every time he finds himself on the bases.  Kemp is currently leading the NL is every offensive category.  I don’t understand why teams continue to pitch to him.  The Dodgers have two offensive threats and the rest are mediocre at best major leaguers. With the amount of IBB’s he should collect this season, 50 steals might be easier than the dingers.

5.       Phil Humber pitches a perfect game.  Ok, it was against the Mariners so does it really count?  Well, after they played run around the bases off Tiger pitchers last week, maybe I should give Seattle a little more credit.  And regardless of opponent, a perfect game is a once in a lifetime feat.  The White Sox pitchers have started the season very well, and will look to keep the South-siders in contention in the AL Comedy Central.  Now the question will be, can Humber win 10 games this year? 

5 less than impressive starts:

1.        Kansas City was the hot pick to finish 2^nd in the AL Central this season.  They are full of young talent, and seem to have enough offense to win some games this year.  That is still true, and there is a lot of baseball left to play for them to improve in the standings, but the Royals have already had a 12 game losing streak.  Their offense has regressed significantly from last year, and even from spring training.  The one saving grace for them right now is Hosmer has an extremely low BAIBP.  He has been smoking the ball, but every line drive seems to find someone’s mitt.  Baseball is a game of inches, and he is a few away from batting .300+.  instead he is 0 for his last 21.

2.       The Boston Massacre. The Red Sox are starting to turn the season around a bit lately, most due to playing bad teams, but the starting pitching has put together a solid week.  I am still wondering if Valentine was the right hire for this lineup, but I guess that will play out in the next few months.  The Sox have been plagued by injuries and a terrible bullpen.  The AL East domination has seemed to lessen a bit over the past year or so.  The Yanks and Sox are no longer the most feared teams in baseball, their players are getting old or are just injured.  Both teams have glaring issues in the rotation with some bullpen depth problems.  Could the tide have turned westward towards Detroit and Texas?

3.       The Phillies are painful to watch.  Their best two offensive players are out with injuries, and currently they are trying to win each game 2-0.  The NL East should be concerned if they cannot build a big enough cushion to protect when Utley and Howard are back in the 3^rd and 4^th hole.

4.       Everyone keeps talking about Albert Pujols not hitting homeruns and batting sub .220.  I have a hard time thinking that will continue very much longer, but the Angels have a lot more problems.  Their bullpen is a complete mess, and if I was a fan I wouldn’t feel too comfortable about any lead smaller than 5 runs.  They let Fernando Rodney go to Tampa Bay, where he is having a standard Ray reliever’s year (dominant).  They replaced him with the rosen bag.  The Angels built their team on starting pitching and hitting.  They have 4 guys that can play 1^st base or DH, and now they just realized that this is only 2 of the 9 positions. They tried moving Mark Trumbo from first, but the dude is a butcher.  He has terrible footwork, is not agile enough, has less than stellar arm strength, and is basically an all around terrible 3^rd baseman.  They kid is in his early 20s, he cannot be a full time DH at this point.  The Angels just released Bobby Abreu to replace him with another highly touted prospect (Trout), and they immediately inserted him into the lead off role.  This team will need to improve a lot to be able to compete with Texas because if the starting pitching cannot put in 7 solid innings, the bullpen is likely to blow the game.  As we just saw a few weeks ago, the Rangers can knock out good pitchers very early in the game. 

5.       San Diego Padres.  This team is just awful.  I really hope Seattle does not have to play the Padres during an interleague series.  I think San Diego has a very real chance of breaking the record for most losses in a season.  I really don’t understand their situation.  They just built Petco Park for the ball club, and then a few years after the management decides to go into a full rebuild.  Usually that happens before the stadium comes.  Oh well, at least they still have Ron Burgundy.