First thanks to those of you who are still coming by despite the lack of content. Work and a vacation to Indianapolis kept me from seeing much of the Tigers, much less writing about them. During my trip, I did have the opportunity to take in the Tigers doubleheader against the Indianapolis Indians at Victory Field.

Now let me preface my review of Victory Field by saying that it is the only minor league park I’ve been to. With that out of the way, let me just say what a great facility it is. It has all the amenities and conveniences of a modern ballpark, only it’s a fraction of the size. The result is a very intimate yet comfortable baseball experience.

As for seeing the Mud Hens, that was just more a matter of good luck. I sat with my family on the berm in right center so any sort of player judgement is pretty limited. However, Zach Miner looked pretty impressive and kept the Indians off balance in the first game. The offense was pretty nonexistent in general so there wasn’t much to report on that end.

My wife and son did their best to make friends with Curtis Granderson. Curtis, who seemed a little surprised to have a cheering section on the road, made a point to look over and wave each inning, even the ones where my group wasn’t yelling to him.

My son, who is 4, has become a tremendous Tiger fan this year. Watching him learn the game, and learning to embrace a team has been one of the best parts of this season for me. He’s extended his fandom to the Mud Hens, and the players he’s familiar with including Granderson – and surprisingly Kevin Hooper. In any case, when Toledo dropped the first game he took the loss very hard – breaking down into tears. After explaining that they had tried their best, and that’s what’s most important he seemed to recover okay.

We had planned to watch both games – or at least a decent portion of the 2nd game. That was before the first game went 11 innings. We did stick around between games, and Marcus Thames broke off his warm up running to come over and sign a ball for my son – which pretty much made his night (and in turn mine).