Motown

Needed an early start today to drive the 287 miles from Pittsburgh to Detroit - the Tigers and Orioles started their slugfest at 1 pm. Escaped from Pittsburgh without incident at 6:30 am. The Ohio Turnpike featured farm after farm and almost NO billboards, certainly nothing that was noteworthy. Don't they know they could make some dough by allowing advertisements? Maybe improve the condition of the highways and make my trip more entertaining.

The driving hasn't been bad at all. I've got almost 6000 songs on my iPod and I'm pretty sure I won't make it through all of them on the trip. One particular album is Join The Band by Little Feat and a bunch of other musicians "Joining the Band"...get it?? People like Dave Matthews, Bob Seger, Jimmy Buffett, Brooks and Dunn, Vince Gill, Bela Fleck, and Inara George. But the best is Emmylou Harris' version of Sailin' Shoes. Check it out. Little Feat is great music for a road trip!

I'm staying at the Hilton Garden Inn, only a few blocks from Comerica Park. Nice place, but $20 to "valet" park. For a broke city, things aren't that cheap here. Aren't they giving away homes here? The area around the ballpark is like a ghost town. I actually walked into the Detroit Beer Company at 7:15 and the kitchen was already closed.

I got to the ballpark and asked for the best seat that was not in the sun, but there were no good seats that were in the shade. So I wound up 20 rows from the field, just off of home plate. Another great seat, but this one cost $45. Still a bargain!

I grabbed a local brew from Kalamazoo's Bell's Brewery - an Amber called Oberon Ale. Not bad, but it was so hot I also downed three bottles of water. I asked the beer girl for a suggestion of some food I'd find nowhere else and she suggested Jalapeño Cheese Stuffed Hot Dogs. I opted for a Brat with onions. Not bad.

Speaking of bad....the Orioles and Tigers combined to score 14 runs in only two innings, which lasted an hour and twenty minutes with the pitchers combining to throw 145 pitches. Did I mention it was 92 degrees? Brutal. In the end, the Tigers barely held on and won 12-9....31 hits, 11 pitchers, 3 hrs and 44 min. Just like a Yankee/Red Sox game.

Since I'm not going to see the Yankees on this month long trek, I can at least see some former Yanks - Johnny Damon

Austin Jackson (a AAA guy traded for Granderson)

and Phil Coke.

All played well. Jackson even had a triple.

Comerica Park is another nice, relatively new ball park. Though it holds over 41,000, only about 28,000 showed up today. They have statues of former Tiger greats like Al Kaline, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, and Ty Cobb. There's also a statue remembering their longtime announcer Ernie Harwell, who died earlier this year. He was good, but he was no John Sterling! I bet he never said "The Grandy Man Can!"

Finally, thought I'm not a hockey fan, I should note that Bob Probert died today. He played 16 years, 9 here in Detroit for the Red Wings. He was basically a goon, holding 5th place in NHL history in penalty minutes. Guess he's heading for that big penalty box in the sky...well, maybe he's headed in the other direction!

Tomorrow on to Milwaukee's Miller Park for the Brewers and Giants at 7 pm CT.