At Angel Stadium, the bullpens are next to each other - they share the same entrance.
Prior to the game, Donnelly and Shields had taken a construction barricade and blocked the entrance to the Angel bullpen, taping a sign on it that said Percy #40 and had an arrow pointing toward the Detroit bullpen.
The other tribute to Percival was quite classy.
There was no tribute to Garret Anderson tying and then surpassing Tim Salmon's franchise record for total bases.
I wore my Garret Anderson Road Anaheim jersey in anticipation of the occasion. Garret the 16th came through. Tied it on a laughable roller that stayed fair and then broke it on a basehit to Left that was almost a highlight reel catch. If Salmon never plays another game for the Angels, I was present for what at present was his final appearance as an Angel, so I am all all over the Franchise Total Base mojo.
Finley is heating up.
He is officially not Frosty anymore, but he IS still sub-Mendoza and he is kind of a Centerfield version of Eckstein - playing in the spot to where the hitter is most likely to hit toward, unable to do anything about a ball hit elsewhere - and when one does, it appears to be a clean hit instead of poor fielding.
Running on Empty.
I didn't understand Scisocia's defense-pressuring tonight - you are pressuring Pudge Rodriguez here Mike. I-Rod responded with two clean throws to Thirdbase, denying steals to Ersty and Finley. Perhaps, somewhere deep in his psyche, Mike's internal Catcher demanded that Pudge be challenged. We paid for Mike's Jungian therapy tonight, fortunately just with outs, not with the game.
Escobar was fabulous, Shields was sloppy, Frankie was K-Rod.
With two outs in the 9th, Francisco walked Brandon Inge(the tying run) and Ivan Rodriguez steps to the plate. A homerun would put Detroit up by one, so the Tigers' closer gets up in the bullpen. The wisenheimer behind me in Section 240 hollers BRING IN PERCY. Percy is throwing in the pen, starting to warm up and Pudge weakly grounds out to Figgy at 3B. Whew!
The post-game fireworks show was nice, all 6 minutes of it.
As far as PRE-Game Fireworks, the L.A. Times is reporting that Jered Weaver negotiations are back on, with Scott Boras meeting with Bill Stoneman before tonight's game. I'm looking psychic with this three week-old prediction. You see folks, you follow the money.