IdahoBert

Gleyber flubs a possible DP

That is Zach‘s sixth triple. What does he think he is, Granderson or something?

Wenceel SF 1-0

Triple Zach?

The art of pitch framing…

But he’s good enough and he’s smart enough…

10 Pitch walk for Riley Greene and he didn’t strike out.

I’m going to be disappointed if the Tigers don’t win at least two of these games. I probably shouldn’t be because they’re road games and few teams do well on the road, but we have Mize and Skubal pitching two of them. Hopefully Casey gets back to form tomorrow. And I will not waste any time worrying about Tarik. The Orioles, though, have been on the up-tick lately and they are at home and you have to play the games and nothing is for certain. Winning tonight‘s game would be truly spectacular because it’s the one we’re technically least like to win. If the bats awake from the doldrums, it could be a special series.

I don’t know. It may just be coincidental. I enjoy complaining. The suggestion was never made when we scored 30 runs against the Red Sox.

The pregame begins at 6 PM for all of you in the eastern time zone but for me 4 PM in mountain time. No chance for a collaborative two team FanDuel pregame show which was farcical during the series with St. Louis, because Baltimore is not FanDuel, but which I’d love to see again just for the awkward entertainment value involved. Wonder if there’ll be a Todd Jones sighting. He’s fallen off the radar for quite a while here.

I enjoyed seeing the Red Sox lose last night on my phone just before I fell asleep and of course as my iPhone spies on my activity, it informed Facebook of what I was doing and this is what came up on Facebook just now. All it took was one time, once, for Facebook to think I had forsaken the motherland and fatherland of baseball for me — the Detroit Tigers — for the algorithmically approved Boston Red Sox. It’s never thought of doing this for the Rockies or the Rays when I’ve watched those games, but when it comes to a “real team” like the Red Sox oh boy howdy, that’s red meat.

I necessarily share a certain terrain with other fans as equally infected by their team as we are by ours and maintain a certain sympathy for them, but that doesn’t make me any less hopeful that their doom and gloom in the next three games is affirmed. In baseball not only is there no crying there’s no win/win.

Olson experienced soreness in his right ring finger, specifically affecting his ability to grip his changeup. Treatment: He received an injection to address the inflammation and hopes it will resolve the issue. Rehab: He is currently working his way back through a throwing program, including bullpen sessions and throwing off flat ground. Return Timeline: Olson is optimistic about his return but acknowledges that the recovery may take longer than initially anticipated.

I hope you’re right.

I just watched the two extra innings in the Rays Boston game and the umpire handed the victory to the Rays by calling a strike on a pitch that was maybe three or 4 inches below the strike zone. Joey‘s brother got tossed and even the Rays announcers were rolling their eyes about what a bad call it was. So it goes ask Kurt Vonnegut would say. At least it’s not as bad as the fire bombing Dresden.

I think they should use mannequins or crash test dummies. And they should be looking at their phones the whole time for realism.

I was watching that and when I watch other teams, which is rare, it feels like they’re living in the last century. They’re always talking about how it’s “hard for a guy to come off the bench after six or seven days without swinging the bat” and that doesn’t happen with the Tigers. Nobody seems to be going from 1st to 3rd the way the Tigers do. The Tigers play a different brand of baseball. And a lot of the broadcast teams seem like stuffy old fogies in suits and if I’m 73 years old and I think they’re old fogies they are. I like our broadcast crews on both TV and radio both a lot more than what I hear on other broadcasts.

Actually, a year and a half ago or so they jumped mine up from $12.99 a month or something to $29.99. And there’s almost no local news. They never sent me an email letting me know this was going to happen so maybe they have lowered their prices locally I don’t know, but I’ve learned to live without it

I watch some “art house“ films, not a lot but some, and I just watched the independent 2017 film Columbus shot entirely on location in Columbus, Indiana. This southern Indiana town is recognized worldwide for its stunning modernist architecture, a fact of supreme indifference to most of its citizens. In fact, this was entirely lost on me when I visited Columbus several times when I lived in nearby Bloomington. Now 50 years too late I get it. Would’ve could’ve should’ve… Casey, a 19 year-old librarian who is going nowhere and whose mom is a recovering meth addict, finds solace in architecture when she looks at a building in her hometown for the hundredth time and finally senses its serene healing beauty. It sounds overwrought and painfully sensitive, but the film makes you a believer. She befriends Jin, played by Korean actor John Cho, who is in town standing watch at the hospital over his dying father, a famous architecture scholar. The story of their friendship is not sentimental or cloying, but honest and authentic. They bond over this common passion for architecture and help each other move on to the next stage in their lives. It’s very believable and nothing at all like a schmaltzy Hallmark film. The queen of Indie films Parker Posey is in it too. Every shot in the film is magnificent and breathtakingly composed.

Even Keith Law doesn’t hate us anymore or so I’ve heard it rumored.

They are people worried about optics because they themselves are kind of shallow and in search of things to gab about. It’s hard to believe, though, that this is cause for any serious consternation. I think it’s interesting that 80% of the seats are sold, and most of them are sold to corporations. I’m curious as to why they’re not selling single seat tickets probably because people complained that the amenities they were paying for are not available which is a fair complaint.

The Tigers Have a Problem Behind Home Plate It’s not the catcher, it’s the rows of empty seats visible on all broadcasts for the best team in baseball By Jay Murray The Detroit Tigers are the best team in baseball, and confidence about their team is oozing out of Metro Detroit. “Even when they’re down a run late in a game, I know they’re going to come back and win,” said Jerry Yatooma, a former college baseball player and current coach for Livonia Stevenson High School’s baseball program. But one nagging question has plagued the Tigers through the first 57 games: Why can’t the Tigers fill the seats behind home plate? Burning up the call lines on talk radio and getting considerable engagement on social media is the glaring sight of empty seats directly behind home plate, and within clear view of every Tigers home broadcast. Newly constructed for the 2025 season, the home plate seating mirrors the corporate-tier high ticket box seats most MLB teams now have in their ballparks. The New York Yankees ignited the trend over a decade ago when they installed first-class seating behind home plate and began drawing celebrities to nationally televised games. Most teams followed suit, and prior to this season, the Tigers were one of only three teams without a Home Plate Club seating level. However, the Tigers have seemingly been unable to fill those seats, even for the sacred home opener when the entire downtown was ablaze with excitement and hope that the late 2024 playoff run wasn’t a fluke. I reached out to the team for answers. According to my source—a Detroit Tigers official asking not to be named—the Tigers front office is well aware of the controversy around the empty home plate seats. The team has apparently been less than happy with its coverage—particularly on FM 97.1 The Ticket. My source stated 80% of the Home Plate Club seats have been sold for the season, but the team has run into a secondary issue: The private and all-inclusive dining area for those with Club seating tickets is not yet open. The dining area located behind and under the Home Plate seating area is completed, but not yet operational. Currently, Home Plate Club members must walk up to the concourse to a reserved area located along the right field line, a decent walk. My source assured me the permanent Home Plate Club could open any day and will be operational before the All-Star Break. But the empty seats seen on local and national telecasts is creating embarrassing optics for the team at the top of the league. Acknowledging the the optics of empty seats, my source stated that often-floated immediate fixes—such as allowing young families to sit in the seats on a game-by-game basis—are not feasible. “We can’t hand-pick families or individuals to come down and sit in those seats only to have the club members show up in the fifth or sixth inning and demand their seats back,” the official said. The seats are exorbitantly priced for even upper-middle-class Tigers fans. Seat packages range in price from $10,500 to $40,000, and are sold in quarter-, half-, or full-season packages. Single-game tickets in the Home Plate Club, sold individually at the start of the season, are no longer for sale, according to my source. No explanation for that switch was given. With an eye on charitable giving and public relations, the Detroit Tigers do control an unspecified number of seats in the Home Plate Club they use to seat low-income families, wounded veterans, and other charity groups, and in collaboration with the State of Michigan. My source stated those initiatives will continue and expand in the future. Currently, the bulk of the Home Plate Seats are owned by several unnamed corporations and businesses, but suggestions for how to fill them abound. One possibility floated by multiple Tigers fans I spoke with was putting local celebrities into those seats to draw out the corporate and CEO class for games. The notion assumes that it wouldn’t be hard to induce any number of Detroit Lions, Red Wings, or Pistons into those seats, creating a pull for club members to get their asses into the seats they paid for. Famous Tigers fans span the country and echelons of the upper crust: Jack White, Bob Seger, Kid Rock, Eminem, J.K. Simmons, Tim Allen. Hell, they could even stick Tom Selleck in a Hawaiian shirt and do a Magnum PI night. This can’t be that hard, and our pride over the best team in baseball is on the line. Mark Nold, COO of Ambulatory Anesthesia Solutions headquartered in Metro Detroit, a lifelong Detroiter and Tigers fan from birth, was beyond excited by the team’s recent success. He purchased a suite for himself and close personal friends this season. “When the Tigers are winning, this city is electric,” Nold said. “This could be the year we’ve all been waiting for.”

I should maybe look into it but my hometown pay per which is a McClatchy paper charges $30 a month. That’s what it will be. It’s not worth it to me.

I get it, hardcopy newspapers are going away and they have to be able to pay the bills somehow, but I can’t justify subscribing to even one let alone two Detroit area newspapers online when all I want to do is read an occasional story about the Detroit Tigers. I miss just being able to click on a link.

I’m just glad I got to see Gleyber 11 years ago when he was 17 playing for the Boise Hawks when they were a Cubs short season team in the Northwest League. He looked as good as a major leaguer in the infield. He was promoted to Boise for the last week of the season.