I went to the game tonight and the Tigers won. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the last time I saw the Tigers win was when Damion Easley hit for the cycle sometime in 2001. That’s 9 or 10 games. Some interesting notes on the game, but first I wanted to talk about something distressing that I heard.

A lot of you don’t know him by his first name, but it’s Charley. You’ve probably heard him on the radio, and some of you have even heard him on EA Sports MVP Baseball 2004 if you’ve played games in Detroit. Most of you know him as the singing hotdog guy. Charley sold us four hotdogs, and normally he’d sing in his opera style. But, he diplomatically told that he wasn’t allowed anymore.

Why would management want to mute Charley? I have no idea. Charley was true to his employer and nicely told everyone who asked that he wasn’t allowed to sing. Hopefully management will find the folly in this decision, and let Charley do his job the way he enjoys doing it.

We sat in a light rain from the fifth inning on, but three homers set the tone for this one. Back to back jacks by Infante and Inge, and then a two run shot by Pudge gave the Tigers a nice lead. Knotts had a no-hitter through four, but finally gave up a double to Teixeira. Yan finished the game out with four shutout innings to earn his second save.

Probably the strangest play took place in the eigth. Pudge hit a tough grounder to Blalock, who misplayed it and made a weird falling throw which took three bounces to get to Teixeira. Teixeira couldn’t get his glove on it and made a fumbling trap of the ball. The ump couldn’t see the fumble, so he called Pudge out. Tram came out, disputed the call, and after an appeal to the home plate umpire, the call was overturned and I-Rod got the single, and eventually scored.

I’ve never seen a call like that overturned. Good game though. The Tigers took the lead in the first, and never looked back.

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