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).

The Tigers and Placido Polanco agreed to a 4 year contract extension. I don’t know the terms of the agreement, but the Tigers are set for the forseeable future in the middle infield. And with Infante as the backup the Tigers have depth as well. Of course, Infante could become part of a trade package this offseason, but given his young age I’d like to see him stay a Tiger.

UPDATE: As Luke mentioned in the comments, the deal is for $4.6 million per year for a total contract of $18.4 million.

A great deal for the Tigers (and for Polanco). It’s very reasonable money for a very reasonable time frame. The Ugueth Urbina trade looks even better now. The Tigers gave up a partial season of Urbina, and locked up second base until 2009.

I’m still down about the last week of Tigers’ baseball, plus work has kept me on a computer way too long this weekend. So instead of commentary, I’ll give you Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker on Magnum PI (7MB – sorry dial uppers). The episode is titled “A Sense of Debt” and it originally aired on December 1st, 1983. Now all I have is their cameo appearance, but if you ever come across the show on reruns, also guest starring was a very young Shannon Doherty.

Enjoy!