Detroit 7, Colorado 6!

Would you like to hear about the great time we had yesterday seeing the Tigers tromp on the Rockies?! I thought you would!

Dylan and I and Shane left Grand Rapids at about 12:30 yesterday afternoon and drove to Detroit to meet my sister, Ruthanne, and her husband, Terry, who were so immensely kind as to treat all of us to a Tiger game. We met at their house, where we got to spend some time with my niece, Shelley, her husband, Bob, and my grand-nephew (who also happens to be their son), Matthew. It was so good to see them!
Shelley and Bob are expecting baby #2 right around December 1. I'm so excited for them. They have enjoyed Matthew so much ... and he is such a cutie!
Matthew had been awakened from a very sound sleep and so he wasn't his usual enthusiastic self, but we still had a good time visiting with him. He has the most amazing little voice and just huge eyes, a great sense of humor and fun ... and it's difficult not to focus each and every moment around him!
We ordered pizza and enjoyed dinner together, but then Bob, Shelley and Matthew had to go to his other grandparent's house ... and the rest of us had to scoot downtown to see the game!

It was such a beautiful night at Comerica Park. I love this place! Look at those beautiful clouds ~ it was a perfect evening to be here. Rain had been predicted all week for this night, but it certainly didn't look possible with skies like this! We had great seats! Section 122, row 20, right by first base.
Ruthanne and I were sitting next to each other and since it had been a few months since we had seen each other, we proceeded to talk nonstop through the first three innings. Terry was sitting in the row behind us. Lots of foul balls were being popped up and were flying over our heads and way behind us. But during the fourth inning, one of our guys popped one up and ... oh my goodness ... it was right on top of us! The ball took a bounce, grazed off my back (I'm not kidding!) and then Terry reached for it and got it!
But that wasn't all to the story ... no way! See the young fellow down the row from Terry (in the picture below) in the blue shirt and hat? He wanted this ball! He tackled Terry (practically) and the two of them had quite a rumble ... and I'm talking on the ground, struggling for possession of this one baseball that rightfully belonged to Terry!

You would have thought that since I had my camera with me, I would have snapped some pictures of this most amazing brawl, but I was so caught up in it, that I didn't think to take any pictures of it! And just as the blue hat guy finally gave up, the crowd stood to their feet with wild screams and cheers ... and all of us were still focused on Terry on the ground gripping this baseball ... so we all totally missed Ryan Raburn slugging his first career grand-slam homerun!

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This picture of Dylan, Terry and Shane was taken shortly after this whole exciting incident with the ball. The Tigers were leading the Rockies 5 to 1 at this point (I think). I love to be at a ball game with Shane. He keeps up with our team really well and knows all of the important statistics and information about our players. If I had a question about what was going on, he knew the answer.

Our starting pitcher, Justin Verlander, stayed in the game until the sixth inning and then the Tiger coach took him out and put in relief pitcher, Todd Jones. The crowd didn't seem very happy with that decision, and Ruthanne reminded me that oftentimes the Tigers start out strong and end up losing the game because their relief pitchers aren't very good. This Todd Jones guy, though, had converted 19 consecutive save opportunities, so why worry? Oh my! My Mr. Jones (remember, he is from Ohio and has no loyalities to Michigan!) has a favorite saying about any Detroit team, whether it is baseball or football. He says they, like no other teams, can "snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory." This poor Todd Jones fellow had a bad ninth inning and Colorado, who had never had the lead throughout the entire game, was suddenly ahead 6 to 5! Jones was taken out of the game admidst very loud boos from the crowd ~ poor guy! And then it began to rain! Could such a perfect evening come to such a bad end?!!!!
Absolutely NOT! Thankfully, it rained only briefly, and Todd Jones was rescued by Miguel Cabrera, whose one-out double in the bottom of the ninth inning scored two runs. (I'm cheating ... I have the Grand Rapids Press article in front of me, so that I could tell you these interesting details!) What a great game. I screamed so loud when Cabrera hit that ball, that I hardly have a voice today! Poor Ruthanne was standing right next to me, and already had an earache to begin with!

We stayed and enjoyed fabulous fireworks following the game. They were SO beautiful and SO loud!

What a game! It was great to be with Ruthanne and Terry. Ruthanne was quite sick with a cold, and I felt badly for her but I think she enjoyed the game as much as she possibly could. Dylan, Shane and I left Detroit at about 11:30 last night and drove on home. We stopped in Brighton to "wake up", catch a bite, and then had a safe and very uneventful drive back to Grand Rapids. I can't remember a nicer time spent with everyone. As I dove into bed at 3:15 this morning, I was just so thankful for this truly wonderful day!