GAMEDAY

The Tigers are playing their last game of the season. It's do or die time and I'm dying to watch my team and cheer them on to the finish. But, I'm not watching the game and that's okay. Because it's just a game. Production is necessary if consumption is to exist. I don't have the baseball package on satellite or even satellite, or cable, or even some bunny ears - and my tv only turns on after you press play on the combo VCR, then stop, twice. But since that only produces a nice clear blue screen, I've been watching Legends of the Fall for 8 months now, 4 seconds at a time. Might I mention, quite a good movie. The game isn't even on the radio because apparently the Lions fourth game of the year takes precedence over the Tigers 162nd and most important. America's past time, on two different channels, nothing - a season defining ender effectively silenced by the radio. Ironic, because the Lions are on everyone's television today. I guess at least one Detroit franchise per week must be blacked out. So be it. I can't afford tickets, nor do I have a ride to a cool, low-key sports bar within driving distance from my apartment. I could pedal to the pub , it's a bit chilly, but I don't even have anyone to go the dang pub with. How pathetic. I will not sit and make small chat for a whole nine innings or more, with an equally pathetic, loner, loser who's only at the bar for a stool, cheap beer and company. Sunday afternoon isn't the local pub's best looking day. I could rouse up four bucks, grab my ID, jacket and Tiger hat, bike downtown, jump on the tunnel bus, run five blocks to Comerica, climb up the fence, and catch a partial view of the last two innings next to a couple of dirty bums. The game might be do or die, but I'm not gonna die if I don't do it - watching the game that is. Or die doing it. Watching the game, that is. 'Cause that's pathetic. At least I still have my pride and a slower but dependable connection to the Net, so I can check the ball to ball real-time action via that little diamond video box that pops up on the Tigers homepage. It's 4-0 in the 6th. The Sox have a runner on first and Verlander's pitching solid. That is, from what I can tell from the cartoon diamond, 'Now batting, Now pitching' icons, arrows and little red boxes with the telling box score underneath it all. The application is called, and rightly so - 'GAMEDAY.' Check that, the game was on the radio. Couldn't locate the station between the white noise and crude dial. The Tigers won. But so did the Twins. Final tiebreaker, 163rd game of the season - on Tuesday.