Tigers Minor League Baseball Blog

Anyone who has ever gone to any minor league baseball game knows that there are endless festivities going on between innings. These games are usually created and thought up by the marketing staff to further entice the fans’ interest in the game. Before I go on, I have to give our staff credit for what they do; They provide additional entertainment (which is needed in some of our games) and also these present prime advertising opportunities. Plus our games are done pretty well and are even entertaining for the players. However, some of these things I have seen in the past couple of years gets a little out of hand. I am a fan of the traditional Milwaukee Brewers sausage race and any kind of video board animation, but when some of these gimmicks take four to five minutes to finish, it gets a little hard to focus on warming up. When you are worried about hitting a giant running corn stalk behind the catcher, or a kid who is lost trying to cross home plate, it does make you utter a few words to yourself. With that said, I have to tip my hat to a participant in today’s dizzy bat race. Now our staff does this event right: They pick two older folks, usually who are a little dizzy to begin with, and let them spin, and spin, and then spin some more. Rarely do either participants stay on their feet and it brings plenty of laughs and entertainment to us relievers in the bullpen. Today was no exception, and as I was throwing my warm up pitches, I caught a glance as the man was beginning to tumble towards what looked like the line of my throw. So I stopped and stared as he fell, hard, right on the baseline, on his face. I waited to see if he was okay and when he got up his face was covered in blood. I will have to say that was the first dizzy bat injury I have ever seen and hope the guy is okay. But whoever you are dizzy bat face plant man, I tip my hat because you provided us with one of the most memorable moments of 2008.