America's Pastime

Nic LOVES baseball. Lucky for him, I love going to baseball games. Although I am definitely a sports fan, it's not the actual game of baseball that I think is the most fun. I grew up outside of Milwaukee, and as a kid our family would go to Brewers games every once in awhile. I recall loving the tailgating part before (and sometimes after) the games, but not really liking the baseball part at all. I'm sure people who call other states home will disagree with me, but I really must say Wisconsinites are the best tailgaters. The food is often much more than just hot dogs and burgers, and the atmosphere is even better. I'd be content to go just to tailgate and not even make it to the actual game. 

The fun is not limited to the tailgating at Brewers games. First, there's Bernie the Brewer.  At the old County Stadium, whenever the Brewers got a home run, he'd slide down from his little house into a mug of beer.  At the new stadium, he has a dugout and a slide, but sadly, no mug of beer.

What I used to think was the best thing in baseball is the Sausage Races.  As you can see below, guys dressed up as various types of sausage [Brat, Polish, Italian, Hot Dog, (Chorizo is new, and not pictured below as I've never seen him either)] race around the field at the bottom of the sixth inning.  The sausage races make me so happy!!!

You may wonder how this relates to my life now. Well...the Washington Nationals have something similar that I think is even better than the sausages....the Presidents Race!!!  

Your favorite faces from Mount Rushmore run from center field down the first base line  every home game.   Silly antics occur with each running of the presidents.   On Sunday, we saw George hip-check Teddy into the wall...hilarious.  Also, in the 2+ years of these races, Teddy has never won.  He appears to be the laziest and most easily distracted, but entertaining all around.   Even though the Nationals are TERRIBLE, the games are always fun.  

Here are some pics from our latest trip to Nationals Park:

Extra Innings

Nic and I went to another Tigers' game last night against the White Sox. Yet again, the game went into extra innings. I'm not a regular at CoPa or anything, but I have been to my fair share of games....and only one of those games ended after 9 innings. Normally, I'm all for getting an extra bang for my buck, but with baseball, I only pay for 9 innings and that's just plenty for me.

Also on the subject of streaks and Tigers baseball...I HATE Todd Jones. I don't care what anybody says or what his statistics show. I have NEVER (and this is no exaggeration) watched a games where he came in and didn't completely mess things up. He has always either lost the lead (or the game) for the Tigers and somebody else has had to come in and clean up his mess. Plus, he's not so nice to look at.


Luckily, even though Jones didn't get a save for the game, a double from Inge followed by a double from Timo Perez gave the Tigers the win.

Way to go, Timo!

That was probably my final game for the season. I honestly enjoy watching baseball better on TV. I can actually see everything that's going on, there's lots of replays, and the beverages are much cheaper. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the Tigers can pull their season together and make it to the play offs.