Somewhere In Time, Day #1 “Play Ball”

Today Patrice and I started a vacation to Mackinac Island in Lake Huron (yes, Michigan) for a celebration of my *** birthday. Why go all the way there to celebrate? Good question but I am not sure I have a good answer. In 1980 there was a romantic movie entitled “Somewhere in Time” starring Christopher Reeve (aka Superman) and Jane Seymour (aka Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman). The movie was filmed at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island and the location looked like the perfect retreat for a loving couple.

So we decided to make a visit to the island but due to flight schedules, we needed to spend a night in Detroit before heading to our final destination. Once I realized we needed a stop in Detroit I immediately started to think about baseball. As luck would have it the Tigers are in town and we got to add ballpark #22 to our list (just 8 more to go). Patrice and I couldn’t be happier about this bonus. Let me rephrase that, I couldn’t be happier about this bonus.

In order to include the ballgame we needed to take the early 7:15 AM flight from LAX to Detroit. So we headed to the airport at 5:30 only to find out that our flight was delayed and departure time was moved to 8:45 (eventually leaving at 9:02). The flight to Detroit was smooth but we had to hustle to check into our hotel, get the rental car and drive to the stadium. We thought we still had plenty of time to get to the stadium but the wait at Avis Rent A car was absurd. There were about 15 people lined up at the “Preferred Member” counter. It took us about 40 minutes to get a car and then we were off to the stadium. Traffic was light so we entered the ballpark just in time to see the first pitch.

The game was amazing and heartbreaking. The Houston pitcher, Framber Valdez, had a no-hitter going through 7 innings. Earlier this month (August 1st to be exact) Valdez no-hit the Cleveland Guardians. I was really excited about the game. It reminded me of when I took my son, David to watch Fernando Valenzuela pitch a no-hitter against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1990. David was so excited he didn’t want to go to the bathroom even though he was hopping around in discomfort. I explained to David that Fernando couldn’t give up a hit when the Dodgers were batting so we took a break at that time. Similarly, tonight I headed to the bathroom in the 8th when the Astros were batting (Patrice didn’t have to explain that to me). I returned in time to see that the Astro manager had pulled his pitcher. I tapped the guy next to me to help me understand this. He simply replied “Pitch count”. Well, the relievers let the game slip away, giving up 4 runs in the bottom of the ninth, sending the Astros to defeat. I am a huge baseball fan but if you are not going to let us see a no-hitter how do you expect fans to get excited about a game. I have gone to hundreds of baseball games in my life and have only seen one no-hitter. That was a very special night with my boy. Tonight could have also been very special except…….

I am unclear why this pitch count nonsense has taken hold. I don’t know any specific statistics but seems to me like pitchers are still getting injured with great frequency. Shohei Ohtani just torn his ulnar collateral ligament. Clayton Kershaw seems to always be missing games because of injuries. When pitch count discussions come up I like to remind people of the 16-inning game between the San Francisco Giants and the Milwaukee (now Atlanta) Braves in 1963. The Giants pitcher (25-year-old Juan Marichal) threw 227 pitches and his opponent from the Braves was the 42-year-old Warren Spahn who threw 201 pitches. Tonight’s pitcher (29-year-old Framber Valdez) threw 114 pitches.

I might have been disappointed tonight but Patrice was very pleased. She read a good portion of her book and the game ended in 2 hours and 35 minutes.

My apologies to my blog followers. I like to make the blog humorous but tonight I just had to rant. Sorry, I will try to do better tomorrow.