Tigers Minor League Baseball Blog

I guess you can say that a little publicity can go a long ways. After doing a simple run of the mill, Q & A for the Detroit Free Press, and having them mention this little tidbit of my life (which I have to thank them ever so much for), I have received some great feedback along with questions that go beyond my ordinary train of thought. No, I know what you may think, and yes please, if you think you have a better idea than me for a certain topic, feel free. I don’t relish in the fact that I may be the smartest minor leaguer out there. I am fully aware I may be nowhere close and don’t have half the interesting things to talk about or stories to tell as some guys who have been around a little longer. But I do talk to those guys and live the same life, so really, I am acting as a catalystic sponge of information, if you will. One of the interesting questions I had was if we had any sort of rituals when a player gets moved up or down, or when a new guy comes in. Well to hit on the first part, when someone gets called up, it usually happens after a game and it may be announced or it may not and the only way of knowing is if that person’s locker is empty the next day amongst the flood of rumors we may have heard. What is a little more interesting and to me, a little more fun is when we get a new player; particularly one who has not been at this team before. We usually try to think of something outrageous to do before the game in front of all the fans and say “Oh you have to do it, we’ve all done it.” And clearly no one has, but for our own humor pray that he does. For instance, in West Michigan they run a Whitecaps flag into center field before every game, and we would make new guys do that on their first day. It always got a decent laugh out of the dugout. Down here in Lakeland, things are a little slower because we don’t draw the kind of fans like other places, but we still try to find something like making new guys meet with the umpires and visiting coaches before the game to exchange lineup cards and go over any ground rules. I always hope this happens when I pitch, that way I can give my buddy a fifty before the game, and try to see if he can sway the umpires a la Rodney Dangerfield (”keep it fair, will ya”). But most of the time moves happen so fast that we don’t even know what’s going on until someone else is wearing the uniform. It’s all part of the game and everyone understands it, and any little bit of humor and laughter we can all get out of it makes the transition a little bit easier.