Do I look like I speak Spanish??

I went to my first game since Milwaukee today.  The boys had been on the road and had a rubber game to play with the division leading Tigers.

I had a couple of things going against me.  First it was day game.  Usually there is no BP during day games since they usually had played a game the night before.  However since they had played the afternoon before I thought BP might be a possiblity.

It was also Carlos Gomez jersey day for the first 5,000 kids under 14.  Not a bad giveaway and a pretty limited number.  That meant that throngs of little shavers would be camped out long before the gates opened destroying any Easter Eggs possibilities and getting in the player's grills begging for balls.

To add insult to injury I also found out that it was armed services appreciation day and current and retired armed forces members and their families could pick up free tickets for the tilt.  That would further crowd the stadium from the get go.  If you were a major leaguer and had the choice of tossing a ball to a little kid, a uniformed hero, or a big dummy with an oversized mitt who would you choose?  God Bless the solidiers on this weekend especially. The sacrifices they made and continue to make are indeed appreciated.

They had very limited BP for the Tigers that lasted about 20 minutes.  As they were setting up I saw coach Rafael Belliard standing in front of the BP ball cart that had about 200 balls in it.  I was pretty much the only one in the very immediate vicinity so I asked him for a ball.  He outright ignored me.  I then said "No Pelotas" Rafael?  and have shook his head no.

Adam Everett finished warming up right in front of me and I asked him for the ball.  I thought I had an inside track since he played for the Twins last year but he flat out ignored my request.  He did made a throwing error that cost them 3 runs in the 4th inning so that serves him right.  Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!

I then moved down to the right field side and set up.  It is kinda my hidden secret.  It isn't great for getting balls but it isn' crowded at all and you can usually score 1 ball there.  I would rather be in an area with 10 people that gets 4 balls then an area with 1,000 that gets 25 balls.

The Tigers were wearing their warm ups so my roster sheets were worthless.  A BP ball was looped down the line and a medium skinned players ranged over to field it.  When he scooped it up I yelled "puedo tener la pelota por favor".  He stopped and looked at me like I just accused him of stealing Jim Leyland's last cigarette.  He snapped "do I look like I speak Spanish??"  Well, that is kind of a rhetorical question since if I didn't think he spoke Spanish I wouldn't have asked him in Spanish.  I just looked at him and then proceeded to ask him for a ball in Japanese.  The humor was lost on him and he walked away disgustedly.  There would be no ball for me from that corner.

During the game I was able to get Brian Buscher to toss me up a game used orb for ball #1.  The game went the way I wanted with the Twins coming out on top and taking the rubber game.  After a win, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has the custom of tossing a couple of baseballs into the crowd.  I was able to score a Gardy toss up for ball #2 on the day.  Not bad all things considered.  Up next will be the hated Yanks.