Mace’s Place

Last night, Jen and I went to the high scoring affair between the Tigers and White Sox at the Cell. Tigers won 13-9 in a game that included homeruns by unlikely pounders Ryan Raburn, Juan Uribe, and Andy Gonzalez. Games like that are far more fun to see in person than one-hitters and other defensive matchups. There were a lot of highlights personally too. High-fiving fellow Tiger fans on the way out of the park and seeing one fan in particular wear the smallest, tightest pair of white shorts I’ve ever seen at a baseball game (if you’re lucky, I’ll post a photo of that later) - those were just a couple. But the best part of all was the connection I made with Tiger reliever, Tim Byrdak. During batting practice, Tim was shagging balls in left field, somewhat near where we were standing. As he was running toward one of the balls, he looked at me and nodded. He noticed my Tigers jersey and hat, and flipped me the ball. It doesn’t matter how old you are, if a player flips you a used baseball, it’s pretty damn cool. I said a faint “good luck Tim” in return. Fast forward to the 8th inning - who comes in to save the game from the disaster of Jason Grilli? The Byrd Man! Two innings of no-hit baseball to save the game. Thanks for saving the game and thanks for the BP ball, Tim. (more…)

I’ve never been happy with my glove, mainly because it’s not really mine. It was my brother’s and since he was always stationed at 1B or catcher, I took it from him when he wasn’t using it. Then, he ended up getting a new Wilson A2000 fielding glove so his old one (which he may have used twice) became mine. So I’ve been looking at new gloves lately, anytime I head into a Sports Authority or Dicks, and recently fell in love with a black Rawlings. If anyone knows how I am as a shopper, you know I looked at the damn thing on at least three separate occasions before buying it. Well, yesterday, I bought it before our double-header in Bensenville. I liked the thing so much, I even played with it at third in both games error-free (many people wouldn’t use a glove only a couple hours old during a game).

Sadly, I am back from Wilmington. As much as I wanted to miss my flight home, I somehow got back on the plane and came back to Sweet Home Chicago. I’ll have more on the vacation later, but the pictures are all you really care about