He might have to play for yen then

La Velle Neal of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that Jarrod Washburn, through his agent, Scott Boras has rejected a one year, $5 million dollar offer from the Twins.

Let's get this straight.

Jarrod Washburn turned down a $5 million offer?!

From a major league team?!

Guaranteed employment?!

My lord!

Twins, stick to your guns. You have nothing to lose here.

If he doesn't come to his senses and sign, all the better. You will have a chance to win every fifth day and you won't be running your outfielders ragged all around the field on those days. Think about team morale.

The guy turned down a $5 million offer!

Twins, go sign someone else or give someone in AAA a shot and consider this a bullet dodged.

Jarrod Washburn turned down a $5 million offer from a major league team!

Never saw that before

Computer Boy and I went to the Tigers game today against the Minnesota Twins. Frankly, I was a little distracted by the 92 degree weather (maybe if they used celsius here it would not feel as hot) and I was watching the game of course, but it occurred to me that I was not watching the game with the "Never saw that before" segment in mind for this website and I panicked a little. When I realized this, I quickly asked Computer Boy who is an experienced game watcher if he had seen anything so far in this game that he had never seen before in a game. He thought about it and then said "No". I definitely did not want to get shut out on this and told him that we were going to have to watch the rest of the game very closely so that we could faithfully complete the "Never saw that before" segment on this site. He agreed to watch and help in any way that he could.

This will not be the greatest "Never saw that before" segment ever (though it will hold up) but we did come up with two examples today of things we have never seen before at a baseball game. Here they are:

1. The Twins are up with runners on base. The batter hits a hot shot right over third base which rolls near the ball boy sitting in his chair in the left field foul area. The ball boy gets out of the way and does not try to field the ball (Yea, ball boy! Talk to the Washington Nationals girl.). Tigers left fielder, Clete Thomas runs over to field the ball near the ball boy's chair and frankly makes what appears to be a half-hearted effort at backhanding it and misses it awkwardly. The ball then slowly rolls to the outfield wall. Clete was running alongside it and I think he could have picked it up but I believe he was afraid to look silly twice on the same play so he just ran next to the slow-moving ball all the way to the fence. Now Clete is a popular player, especially with the ladies (above photo of Clete's Cougars fan club courtesy of the detroittigers.weblog.com) but after that play, there were plenty of boos directed his way. (For the record, I would never boo a Tiger unless they gave the crowd the finger or something) I have never see an outfielder escort a slow-rolling ball to the wall. Never seen that before.

2. Sunday is "Kid's Day" at Comerica Park and between innings they give bikes away to kids on the field. I have talked about this before so will not rehash all the details of the bike giveaway. Today, the Tigers mascot "Paws" and the Tiger Girls escorted a girl about 3 years old and her parents to the field to give her a snazzy bike. The bike has training wheels and they got her on the bike for a picture with her parents, Paws and the Tiger Girls. As they were leaning in for the picture, Paws leaned his hand on the cross-bar of the handle bars and accidentally (I hope) knocked over the bike with the little girl on it. Of course, they picked her up and dusted her off and got her back on the bike. Paws tried to apologize but the little girl would not look at him. Even when he stepped in front of her to apologize, she turned her head. I guess Paws will hear next from her attorney. I never saw Paws hurt anybody before. Never saw that. That goes to show you that you can take these Tigers and defang them and put them in a Tiger uniform with a hat and big shoes and everything but in the end, they are still wild animals and we have to remember that.*

*Once I was at a Tiger game sitting in my seat and Paws snuck up from behind and took off my hat and started waiving it around to the crowd. I don't remember what hat it was but it was not a Tiger hat and I think that is why he did it; to mock my hat. I smiled and played along and did not confront him and eventually just accepted my hat back. Not messing with a wild animal.

Never saw that before

Last night, Skate Kid and I went to Comerica Park to see the Tigers play the Twins. I have said before that if you watch any given baseball game, no matter how many games you have seen in the past, you will see something you have never seen before.

In keeping with that theme, here are some things that I saw at last night's game which I have never seen before.

1. Curtis Granderson is caught in a rundown between third base and home. He is eventually tagged near third base but keeps running anyway (why not?). The umpire makes no call and Granderson runs to the plate and "scores". The run counted. After the game, Granderson admitted the obvious; that he was tagged. Never saw that before.

2. Our seats are in the section behind the plate; the last regular row before the mini-walkway around the park. I say "regular" row because there is an elevated area for wheelchairs and handicapped fans directly behind us and then the walkway. We get a lot of foul balls. Skate Kid never forgets his mitt. Anyway, a foul ball hit the facing of the press box and came down and was bouncing down the walkway behind us. Many able-bodied adults were chasing it and running into each other as the ball was essentially leaving carnage in it's wake. The ball continued on and eventually slowly bounced to......a lady in a wheelchair. Never saw that before.

3. Last night was fireworks night at the park. Just as the game ended, it started to rain. I told Skate Kid that I didn't know if there would be fireworks but if he didn't mind getting wet, we could stay and see what we got. They wheeled out the fireworks to the field and we watched them in the rain. Never saw that before.

4. Added bonus at no extra charge. Memo to the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). If you are going to close a freeway down in the middle of the city for bridge repairs, give us a workable* detour so we are not forced to exit the freeway and then have to find our way out of the "hood" at midnight. Never drove through those neighborhoods at that time before. Unfortunately, the rain had stopped by then and the "hood" was back alive. Saw some interesting stuff though.

*I say "workable" detour as the detour road they gave us could not possibly handle the traffic from the freeway and it was a parking lot with traffic lights. I think this was MDOT's way of telling us we were SOL.