Tigers On Top

With the exception of World Series Game 2 in 2006, the All-Star Game was probably the most amazing baseball game I’ve been to. Man, what a game. And where do you start?

I guess I’ll start at the beginning … My dad and I went to FanFest at the Moscone Center, where we got to see Cal and Billy Ripken giving a hitting clinic (and needling each other mercilessly, as you would expect brothers to do) and also participated in the Hall of Fame Trivia Contest, where we defended our title from 2003 admirably by thumping our opponents. The Hall of Fame guys knew we were crazy fanatics when we immediately answered, “1908!” when asked when Take Me Out to the Ballgame was published.

We got to the ballpark a little before the gates opened. We couldn’t walk 20 feet without bumping into more Tigers fans. I’ve never seen so many outside Detroit at a game where the Tigers as a team weren’t playing. It was marvelous! Dad and I were of course decked out in our Tigers finery–I even got my old Sparks jersey out so I’d match the Boys (it’s my only away jersey).

During BP, there was a huge gang of Tigers kids hanging out along the right field line. The ringleader was Dereck Rodriguez, who seemed to be making sure everyone had someone to play catch with, etc. When all the players were going out to do team pictures, Victor Martinez dropped his son off with Dereck. This kid was so tiny, he was drowning in the absolute tiniest baseball uniform I’ve ever seen. Dereck was so good with him, gently tossing him the ball for him to trap gleefully under his miniscule glove. He had a pretty good arm, actually!

The pregame fluff was just that, fluff, until the Willie Mays tribute. We knew something cool had to be hidden behind that green cloth out in center, but we didn’t know just how cool. It was a gigantic blowup of The Catch, and Willie entered the field from center through a double line of All-Stars who then trailed behind him like kids. Not to offend any Red Sox fans, but it was kind of like Ted Williams in 1999. Willie threw out the ceremonial first pitch, flapping his hand at the catcher to back up, then was helped into a gorgeous Caddy with fins by his godson, Barry Bonds. He made a slow victory lap around the field, chucking baseballs into the crowd. It was amazing.

The ovation Bonds got was wonderful too. The intros were pure San Francisco. Bonds got a delightfully long and loud ovation during which he was obliged to tip his cap numerous times. Every Dodger All-Star was roundly booed, and each one grinned good-naturedly through it. Even the Angels got pretty well booed (for beating SF in 2002), along with the Yankees, of course.

And then, oh yeah, the game. Every single Tiger got to play, as you’d expect when Leyland is the manager. Pudge got a hit but A-Rod stupidly tried to score from second on it, and Griffey’s throw had him out at the plate by a mile for the third out of the inning. Stupid Yankee!! Carlos Guillen eventually replaced Jeter at short and was so smooth that you could almost believe it was Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel out there. Polly got lifted early because of his back issues; Maggs made a good catch at the wall in left.

Watching Verlander though, even when he gave up a run, was probably the biggest Tigers pleasure of all. We kept looking up at the radar in disbelief–”Another one at 100? You gotta be kidding me.” And it seemed like if it wasn’t 100, it was 99–or 87. Dad, listening to the radio, reported that the broadcasters declared this change of speeds patently unfair.

The coolest moment of the whole game has to go to Ichiro’s inside-the-park homer, the first in All-Star history. He blasted a ball to Triples Alley, so naturally I was thinking triple. But I failed to factor in that the outfielders were unfamiliar with PacBell Park’s absurdly screwy right field, and the way the ball bounces off the various surfaces–brick, chain link, padding–and numerous archways and other jutting … things. Ichiro was motoring out of the box, and suddenly I realized he was at third and he wasn’t stopping.  Pretty much everyone just screamed in delight at what they were seeing, NL fan or AL. He scored standing up–the throw didn’t even have a chance!

And this game really felt like a game. The commissioner can say This One Counts as much as he wants, but that doesn’t prevent the All-Star Game from still feeling like more of an event than an actual game sometimes. But man, in the ninth when the NL loaded the bases with two outs, and Putz had screwed up so majorly and it looked like K-Rod might also … The intensity in the ballpark was just like when the Giants are trying not to lose a tight game in the ninth. Everyone was on their feet, yelling and screaming even though half of them by then were completely conflicted about who to root for. It didn’t matter–this was just baseball at its finest, taut and tense and brilliant.

I’m hella glad the AL won, of course–home field advantage, should our Tygs make it to the World Series!