Hey all

I've had the pleasure of visiting 20 ballparks since my first game at in 1986.  Today, I finally had a chance to go to Fenway Park.  Fenway was different than any of the others I've been to in about 10 years.   Fenway offered a unique experience where baseball and it's traditions were the focus.  I think it's something that you can only experience at one of the historic parks; where even if the management was want to hype the show for the non-fan, the surroundings prevent it.  I felt something at Fenway that reminded me of the best baseball experiences I've ever had.  Maybe it was the way that the park melted in with the neighborhood.  Maybe it was the lack of a bunch of silly games.  Maybe it was just the old pictures hanging on the walls in the hallways as we walked to our seats, nothing felt fake, it was something I'd missed. 

I tried to figure out where the feeling of nostalgia was coming from, I'd never been to Fenway before.  I thought immediately of Wrigley, classic old park that it is, but the fan atmosphere is all wrong.  They just don't care that much on the north side.  I thought of Comiskey, the old one that I remember better than US cellular field, but it never had the personality of either Fenway or Wrigley.  Finally I thought of the old white exterior of Tiger Stadium and the first game I saw there.  I thought of my family and some of it's crazier members that used to listen to every game on FM 98.3 out of South Haven MI, and I thought of Ernie Harwell calling the games.  I thought of Tram, Lou, and Jack Morris.  I thought of the stories that people told me of Al Kaline and Hank Greenberg before him.  I thought of how great it was to stop at White Castle before and after a game.  Mostly I just thought of Tiger Stadium and all the great memories I have of the place and how the players who patrolled it's infield helped me develop a love for their game that has lasted regardless of the current trends.

I miss Tiger Stadium, I haven't been back to the D in a few years now and I know there are plans to tear it down this year.  In my mind it's been gone for a long time, when I drove by it the last time I was in Detroit it didn't even look familiar to me.  It's a shame that its been allowed to waste away, but people much smarter than myself have said as much more eloquently than I ever could.  I'm glad I went to Fenway, somehow it took me back to Tiger Stadium.

My wife's gone tonight, visiting the parents about 400 miles away.  What do you have planned you may ask?  Well, I've been in my pajamas for 3 hours already, I'm watching the Celts/Cavs and getting ready for another action packed Tigers game.  So what the D-bags have beaten just about everybody they've played so far, they haven't played the Tigers...

I guess I'm delusional, but aside from being in my PJ's, I must admit that I had a baconator for dinner and have had beer flowing for a bit as well.  What does that mean?  I guess nothing, oh well, I just can't help thinking at any moment we'll turn things around and wake up from this nightmare (exaggeration with current events in Burma/China) and play like we all hoped we would at the start of the season..

I should likely stop typing now, not that I'm embarrassing myself, that no longer phases me, but I really have nothing of interest to say.  I think that goes for most of the folks in the Tigers organization as well.  Terrible teams shouldn't have much to say.  Hopefully, next week we can all get online and rant about how folks thought we were dead on the highway like that unfortunate ferret my buddy parker had in college, but we swept the D-bags, righted the ship and are steamrolling ourselves back to respectability... 

I guess I can dream right, anyways, Go Tiges...  Win one for Higgy...