The Start of a Lot of Baseball Watching

Saturday: Twins 1 - Indians 5
Sunday: Twins 6 - Indians 2

Twins take series 2-1, and thanks to the Royals, move into FIRST PLACE!

So I took j-bro (the teenaged son), mini-bro (the not-yet-teenaged son), and mini-bro's buddy s-man to the game Saturday night. I was surprised by the size of the crowd (over 40,000). It was pretty fun -- as fun as watching a losing proposition can be. Everything was lined up for a perfect evening: we got our hats; we were surprised with free Bizarre Foods t-shirts; I had my cinnamon almonds; the fans sitting around us were fun and knowledgeable but not at all obnoxious; the only time I had to stand to let someone by was during the seventh-inning stretch; and I got to hang out with my favorite kids. But, alas, it fell just short of perfection.

Because the Twins couldn't manage to win for me, I'd have to vote for singing Sweet Caroline as the best part of the game. We were all singing along lustily (by the way, isn't that a Fenway tradition?), and when they had to turn it off to start playing baseball again, we kept singing (by "we" I mean all 40,000 of us - or however many that were left by the end of the seventh). We had to get to the next set of Ba-Ba-Ba's. And then we were so proud of ourselves, we cheered when we were done. I saw that LaVelle put it in his column and did a pretty good job recapping it.

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Despite the fact that the pre-game show treated his return like the second-coming, Liriano's performance was nerve-wracking, but effective. Way too wild for my liking. In fact, I suspect it was way too wild for Redmond's liking, too. But he didn't allow any runs, so that was good. Let's just hope he had a case of the "Welcome Back Jitters" and does even better next time.

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It was nice to see Juanie again. It was nicer to see D-Span hit that homer off him.

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Awww. The Big Sweat shaved off his chin-strap beard. I loved that beard; it made his face look even rounder than it already was, which I thought was adorable.

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Blog Update:

This week, my family and I will be embarking on a super-secret baseball scouting mission. Ok, it's really our annual vacation, but it will be all about baseball. How cool is that? =-)

Tuesday evening, we'll be heading for the The Cell to watch the Tigers take on the White Sox. I'll admit when we bought these tickets back in March, I didn't think the White Sox and the Twins would be battling for first place when this game took place. I figured the Tigers would be running away with the division so it would be easy to root for the White Sox. But now, I'm conflicted -- I want to be a good guest and root for the home team, but I don't really want them to win. Oh well, it's only one game. I've been to this stadium once before, back when it was called New Comisky.

Wednesday afternoon, we're off to Wrigley to watch the Astros visit the Cubbies. I was tickled to even get these tickets; I understand they're hard to get. I'm even more tickled that it's a day game. I hope it's not too hot or raining. It'll be my first time at Wrigley.

Thursday evening, we're travelling to Clinton, IA, to watch a single-A game between the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (and affiliate of the Mariners) and the Clinton Lumberkings (Rangers). Minor league games are always a hoot.

Then Friday and Saturday, we're meeting up with a bunch of our friends to watch our Twins at the Royals. I absolutely love Kauffman stadium. And I'm looking forward to the tailgating.

I don't know, however, if I'll have the Internet access or the time to blog regularly. I'll try, but I can't guarantee anything. I do promise to file a complete report when I return.