Oh, we were happy in Section 220 last night! The two older gentlemen in Seats 5 and 6 were talkin’ sweet to our seatmates in 3 and 4. The lady in Seat 4 caught yet another t-shirt from TC Bear and gave it to Ms. Baseball, who bought her a replacement beer (for the one that spilled in the scramble) to show her appreciation.

In the concourse, Ms. Baseball ran into Young220, who cheerfully teased: “Two beers, Ms. Baseball?” Then, having successfully lobbied his father for funding, Young220 (decked out in a purple Pooh Richardson t-shirt) returned to the Section of Love for Nick Punto in right field where he sat with his camp counseling buddies.

The guy right behind us delivered a game-long seminar on baseball for his young daughter, who peppered him with good questions for a girl of her age. There was a woman sitting below us, in the lower deck, who had on a pinstriped AJ Pierzynski Twins jersey with “Pierzynski 26″ crossed out and “Mauer 7″ written in black electrical tape. And when Mike Redmond came to bat, the sound guy went all Jermaine Stewart with the walk-up music. (Here’s the skinny, if you’re not in on the story.) And speaking of Pierzynski, the people booed him from the start with a gusto that I hadn’t heard at the Dome since he tried to slice off Morneau’s foot at first base last May.

And Carlos Gomez got an ovation when he came in to play defense, just three days after Dick’n'Bert were delivering last rites as he lay sprawled on the warning track in Cleveland. And he got another for his hit and yet another when he scored from first on Brendan Harris’ double to left. Redmond, who also scored on the play, had wisely gone from first to third on Gomez’ single — lessening the chance that Gomez would pass him on the Harris hit.

And did I say that Kevin Slowey was flat-out magnificent? If you saw it, you don’t need me to tell you. In fact, if you saw it on TV, you had a better view of him working fast/changing speeds/throwing strikes. Give Gardy and Bill Smith credit for not listening to some of us who suggested that there would be nothing better for the team than throwing Francisco Liriano out there for the series opener.

And Denard Span caught Jason Tyner on the all-time home run list when he banged a Mark Buehrle pitch off the football press box for a 2-0 lead. And then, three batters later with Alexi Casilla at first, I was telling Ms. Baseball how it was a good thing that Buehrle was making those throws to first base “because he’s distracted by Casilla and Morneau can hit a home run,” when Morneau went thwackenheimer to center field to make it 4-0.

And while we’re so giddy, let’s take a look back at Buehrle’s words from Sunday afternoon, as reported by Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, about getting ready to face the Twins: ”Yes, it’s the biggest game of my entire life. ‘I’m nervous, I’m scared. I’ve been [going to the bathroom] all day, and I can’t eat. I hope they scratch me so I won’t have to face them.”

Sometimes, sarcasm can come back and bite you where you sit when [going to the bathroom].

Back at it tonight. Gotta wonder if it’ll be a night for Vol. 2 of the Mike Redmond walk-up music collection. Oh, Nelly! It’s getting hot in the AL Central.

other people are here too

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 7:55 am and is filed under From the Dome. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.