NO WINthrop

Tigers 2 @ Winthrop 4 (Sunday, July 9)
This was the longest game ever, since it started back on June 6th. Actually, it was a suspended game because the umpire broke his collarbone on a foul ball, and could not continue. So after dropping an extra-inning affair to Gaylord, off most of the Tigers went, to Winthrop.

If Michael J. Fox could go Back to the Future, I don’t think he’d jet back to June 6, 2006 for the first seven innings of this game. But since time travel still hasn’t been invented, I will fill you in.

The Tigers trailed 4-2 with one out in the seventh at the time that fateful bone cracked. Dave Kreft started that day, and ironically also took the hill upon the resumption of this game (Dave’s got a real fettish for complete games; don’t ask).

I wasn’t able to attend the remaining portion of this game, but eye witness accounts have it going something like this: Kreft shut down the Eagles in the 7th and 8th. In the Tiger eighth, the inning ended when Paul Dressen was rung up on a HORRIBLE pitch at his shoe tops, because earlier in the at-bat Paul hit a foul ball that almost hit the ump’s truck. (You can’t make this stuff up.) That left a man on base.

In the Tiger ninth, Brad Lawson started with a single. Ben Jass then hit into a fielder’s choice, but after a 2-3 minute delay, the umpire claimed Lawson slid out of baseline (which he didn’t), meaning Jass was now called out, too. Manager Kreft pleaded the Tigers’ case, to no avail. One out later, the Tigers were headed back east down US-Highway 19.