Even though we have been traveling we have heard about the tornadoes that hit Tuscaloosa and Joplin. However, we did not realize until our trip to downtown Detroit yesterday that a tornado also struck here in Michigan.
It’s a good/sad joke but I can’t take credit for it because the Detroit Free Press had an editorial in yesterday’s paper with a guy standing among the empty lots in Detroit asking why, if the government can rebuild Joplin and Tuscaloosa, it cannot rebuild Detroit?
My short answer would be that Tuscaloosa/Joplin have infrastructure problems; Detroit has human problems. We’re much better at fixing the former than the later.
Actually, the parts of Detroit that we saw on our trip from Ann Arbor to downtown for the baseball game and back, were not as bad as I expected. There are vacant lots everywhere and a few hulking, empty buildings; but there were also some signs of life, including grinding rush hour traffic on the drive home in the rain, a vibrant, restored downtown theater similar to San Antonio's Majestic Theater, and a bustling bar-restaurant in an historic building.
With tons of vacant lots it was no trouble finding a parking spot for the 1:05 p.m. start between the Tigers and Red Sox.
Once again the Red Sox scored 14 runs (the first time that’s happened since 1998) although, fortunately for me since was scoring at the time, they were one batter short of batting around when they scored five runs in the second inning. Readers may recall that yesterday I reported that Carl Crawford could have hit for the cycle with a triple but had to pull up because of a slower runner in front of him. Today he hit two triples, the eighth time in his career he has done that.
The game was shortened by rain but we came prepared with rain gear and repaired to a nearby bar (see photo below) a few minutes before the umpires called it off. Before we arrived yesterday the area was deluged and the newspaper reported that this is the fourth-wettest spring on record with 15 inches since April 1.
Of the four stadiums we have visited on this trip I think we both like Detroit the best, even if it is in Detroit.
The outside of the stadium is really cool with these gargoyle-like Tigers everywhere and it is very nice inside, with a nice, clean, green look and a good view of the downtown buildings over the outfield fence.
Our stub hub tickets were awesome; about 18 rows back from home plate. Counting the minor league game the seats we have had on this trip, collectively, have been crazy good.
After the hour-plus drive back to Ann Arbor we supped at a brew pub downtown, near the university, and called it a day.
The BIG DRIVE home starts early tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment