Baseball Journal 4-27-13 Where’s the D?

Today’s Fox game featured the Detroit Stars versus the Atlanta Black Crackers. I didn’t make up the names, don’t blame me. It also wasn’t my idea to do Negro League tribute games in throwback uniforms. There’s some irony to the fact that you can’t use the word “Negro” in any context in modern society, but here they are using it prominently.

Then there’s MLB’s continuous tribute to Jackie Robinson, especially this month with the new movie out. When we put this in context of the current general dearth of African-American baseball players (there’s plenty of Black guys in the league, but they’re not from this country), we are left with a profoundly hollow message. 42’s biggest impact on his community seems to have been paving the way for Black men to make lots of money in sports, while nobody else there seems to have really benefited from it in the long run.

Oh, wait. I was supposed to be talking about baseball.

Even without the Olde English D or the tomahawk, it was still the Tigers against the Braves. (The Tigers actually do have several African-American players on their team, but they are the exception, just to close the loop on that subject.) And there’s Rick Porcello out to pitch for the kitties. . . Argh! Repressed memory flashback to last week against the hated Angels, 2/3 of an inning, 9 runs. Argh!

Whew! Okay, I’m better now. And so is Rick apparently. He goes 6 1/3, gives up 3 runs, and gets the 7 - 4 win. Some guy impersonating Jose Valverde trotted out in the 9th and pitched a perfect inning to get the save. Certainly he didn’t pitch like Jose the last time I saw him. On the subject of the disguises, what was up with that guy in the stands behind home plate? He was covering up his face for the entire game. Did he forget the sunscreen? Is he a die-hard Tigers fan in the witness protection program?

The on-field highlight of the game for me was Austin Jackson getting picked off of first by Kris Medlen in a move so quick, the cameras missed it. They had to reconstruct incident afterward in slo-mo instant replay with a CSI team. My favorite moment of the broadcast was actually a bit of trivia. They mentioned Prince Fielder hitting a home run in old Tiger Stadium as a 12-year-old taking batting practice with his dad. Who was the pitcher? Tito. Terry Francona, the current Indians manager, himself. (Oh, and that Prince is named after Prince, the singer. Perhaps he should consider changing it to an unpronounceable symbol at some point in his career.)

I also learned one other thing during the game, I had totally missed the significance of last night’s game between these two teams. I watched about one, highly interrupted inning of the game, wherein the Tigers took a 4 – 0 lead to 10 – 0. I didn’t even see the start of the inning or the end of it, I just made note of the final score. Little did I realize Anibal Sanchez was racking up 17 strikeouts in that blowout.