Great news all around for the Detroit Tigers tonight. Not only is the Go to the Polls for Placido! working its magic as Placido Polanco has overtaken Robinson Cano to lead all AL Second Baseman in All Star Voting but, Justin Verlander tossed a no hitter tonight. A no-hitter. And I was there, at Comerica Park. A pretty special night indeed.
A once in a lifetime experience, a once in a generation experience. The Detroit Tigers had not had a no hitter since Jack Morris tossed one in 1984, and the Tigers had not thrown a no hitter at home since 1952. Simply incredible. Everything just came together. Justin Verlander with twelve strikeouts, a career high. And he had everything working tonight. Unhittable breaking ball. A 102 MPH fastball in the 9th inning after throwing 110 pitches. That shouldn't be legal. It's so hard to articulate what it was like to watch it, I can't imagine what it was like to be part of it. And Neifi Perez, who takes a lot of heat, deserves a lot of credit for a no-hitting saving double play he started, and Magglio Ordonez had a great sliding catch as well to save a hit. It was a great performance all around for the Tigers.
And the atmosphere at Comerica Park was electric. I was at Game Four of the Oakland A's playoff series last year, and when Magglio hit the home run to send the Tigers to the World Series, it was bedlam, but tonight's crowd was just as loud and it was just as special of a night. I still can't believe it.
And the Polanco news is even better. I don't think I can take credit for the entire 60,000 vote swing (from an 8,000 vote defect to a 52,000 vote lead) but every vote helps. And the response online has been overwhelming. Here's a full list of the blogs (that I know of) who have encouraged their visitors to Go to the Polls for Placido! Newest links up front (Updated: June 15):
Absolute Michigan
Dave of Gorilla Crouch
Billfer of The Detroit Tigers Weblog
Detroit Sports Unleashed
Leelanau Sports Guy's World
Christy of Behind The Jersey
Lee of Tiger Tales
Big Al of The Wayne Fontes Experience
Pete of Yzerman Is God
From The CoPa
Gregg Henson of GreggHenson.com
Greg Eno of Out of Bounds and Where Have You Gone, Johnny Grubb?
Kurt of Mack Avenue Tigers
Samara of Roar of the Tigers
Ian of Bless You Boys and Sweaty Men Endeavors
GreenPotatoes Live Journal
Rick of Rick's Writing Again
Wow. That's pretty incredible. And if I missed your blog/website, just let me know and we'll help spread the word. The next step is getting Magglio Ordonez the 125,000 votes or so he needs to start in the game.
Samara of Roar of the Tigers has some great Polanco "campaign photos" so we're going strong now, especially on the backs of Verlander's no hitter.
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