First Sunday at Comerica Park

Today June, Zo and I slipped down to Comerica Park for the first Sunday home game of the season. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and Zo was ridiculously excited at the prospect. She was all smiles all morning and was cracking even more by the time we stumbled into the ballpark.


A smiling Zo bathing in some Comerica sunshine.

It was Zo's first trip to Comerica this season -- the first of many since we anted up again this year and scooped another season ticket package. We'll be spending a good chunk of our Sundays down on Woodward Ave. in Detroit. With a little luck we'll wander into the same kind of weather all season long. Today was a gift. It turns out in more ways than one.


Our usual Comerica view from the rail. Standing with the statues above both bullpens.

It was a Verlander start, which was what pulled us down I-94 when we could have been sitting on the beach at home, and by the end of the first half-inning, with the Indians ahead 5-0 on a Luis Valbuena Grand Slam, we were wondering if we hadn't made a poor decision. Six innings later, with a Verlander gem in front of us (even with the Grand Slam) the Tigers had something like 16 hits and had left 16 runners on base but couldn't collect a damn run if they were giving them away (which the Indians seemed to be trying to do). It was one of the craziest games we've ever attended. Meanwhile, Zo was happy just to meet strangers, do her best to shake her parents, and do laps around the Al Kaline statue.


Zedder and Mom losing the ball cap so people will relaize that Zo is, indeed, a girl.

The Tigers trailed all afternoon...but then suddenly it was 8-4, and before we knew it the Tigers had charged back, scoring two runs in the 8th and another 2 runs in the 9th to tie the game. By the time Zoey's eyes started to droop the Indians had walked three batters in the bottom of the ninth including the game winning run and Zoey's first Sunday at the ballpark was a stellar one.

I'd keep typing but I once heard that a picture's worth about a billion and a half words...


Mom and Zo learning about the great Al Kaline...when Zo wasn't circling him.


Our second favorite spot at Comerica Park, and our usual change of scenery spot.


Three quarters worth of Japanese wife and daughter buy sushi at the ballpark, not hot dogs.


Zedder breaking hearts on the Comerica right field concourse.


We love our perch above the visiting bullpen. It's where you'll find us every time.


An excited Zo checking out the Indian's bullpen action.


Zoey and her cat taking in the Tigers-Indians game at Comerica.


A wore out Zedder after a long day of sun, 25,000 strangers and baseball.

It was a fun day, and an auspicious start to what we hope will be another 2006-like year. We're looking forward to running into friends down at the ballpark, and wasting weekends away under blue skies and Tiger legends out there on the rail in left-center. We couldn't have had a much better weekend to set the table for this coming summer, of course, we wish that our friends, Joe and Erin, could have said the same.