Day 26

After a tasty meal with Andrew’s family, we left The Garden State for The Great Lakes State. The drive was fairly uneventful. Megan and Tim got very excited when we passed Scranton and played 30,000 pounds of Bananas by Harry Chapin. 

We got to the Doubletree in Detriot, our first night of back-to-back hotels, checked in, dropped our bags and went to the game. We just a little pressed for time. We had purchased parking months ago, before we realized how close the hotel would be to the park. It might have saved us time to just walk, because the parking signs were severely lacking in providing direction. Lots of teams could work on improving that. Eventually, with the assistance of a very helpful parking attendant, we found Lot Y (why? Because we needed to park) and went into the game. We were joined by Cristina, a Marquette friend and Detroit local for the game. 
    Comerica Park was pretty cool. We got a nice view of the city from our seats including Whale Tower, painted by Robert Wyland, Megan is a big fan. The park doesn’t just have a baseball diamond in it, it also has a baseball Ferris wheel, and a tiger themed carousel. While we didn’t ride on either attraction, we appreciated both for their unique qualities. 
  We could definitely tell we were in The Motor City, Ford Field was right across the street, and Comerica had a huge advertising display for Chevrolet. 
The Tigers took on the Reds for game 22. This was the first time we have seen back-to-back home runs, hit by Reds players Todd Fraiser and Jay Bruce. We saw Aroldis Chapman pitch for the Reds, and watched him throw a 103 mph fast ball. In the middle of the game, Anthony Gose, a Detroit runner, was trying to run from third, which is a very regular occurrence in the game. He had a bit of an obstacle though, as there was a bat laying in his running path. He cleared the bat by maybe an inch and appeared to score his run. However, the ump called him out. We have been seeing a lot of over turned calls these last few days, and sometimes they are just a little hard to believe. In the end, the Reds beat the Tigers 5-2. 
  After the game we were serenaded by some local musicians, including one of the most impressive brass groups we have heard (their projection and range was phenomenal) and a really powerful saxophone player. The music was a great way to end the day.