Every once in a while here at STT, I plan to write about personal baseball experiences I’ve had.  Memorable games, moments, seasons, etc that have a great deal of personal significance to me will be on display in order to balance out some of the more technical analysis you’ll find on the site.

These come in no particular order other than the given post is the one I chose to write about that day. Please feel free to comment about your own take on the given topic or suggest others you’d like to see, such as “What were you thinking during Game 163 in 2009?”

Full disclosure, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to write about that. That’s the most crushed I’ve ever been, ever. Bar none. Crushed. Not just about sports, at all.

Today, I want to share with you one of the greatest regular season games I’ve ever attended. It took place at Comerica Park on a warm July night in 2006.

July 1^st, 2006 to be precise. It was Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN and my dad, brother, and I were sitting in Section 140B of Comerica Park. That’s The Terrace down the LF line for those of you who don’t have that kind of thing memorized.

It was a clear night and the first pitch was scheduled for 8:09pm to accommodate the national telecast. The Tigers trailed the Tribe by 1.5 games in the standings and another late season pennant chase was coming on after the magic of 2006. Tigers fans packed the house, 41, 708 strong, and were ready to catapult ourselves into prominence.

This was the year we were going to show that 2006 wasn’t luck, it was the beginning of something (it was!). So the park filled quickly and the game got underway.

Jeremy Bonderman took the hill for the hometown team against Twins hurler Scott Baker. Bonderman was having a respectable follow up to his masterful 2006 campaign and was 9-5 with a 3.90 ERA entering the night. Baker wasn’t much at this point in his career with a 5-2 record to match his 5.77 ERA through a few starts in 2007.

This figured to be a fair match, but what unfolded was one of the more magical nights in my baseball life to date.

The two men who had league average or worse ERAs twirled a collected gem unmatched by anything I’d seen before or since. I’ve been to brilliantly pitched games, but most of that came from one side of the other. I’ve been to Verlander near no-hitters and gems by individual pitchers, but as far as mastery on both sides is concerned, this is the gold standard.

Bonderman gave up five hits, but no runs through three innings. He was doing fine, but he wasn’t dominating. Then it clicked and he blew through the next five innings, allowing just one more hit, which came as a double in the sixth. His final line would read 8IP, 6H, 0R, 1BB, 7K. It took 110 pitches.

That’s a really good night for anyone, even if your name is Verlander. But his counterpart didn’t disappoint either. Scott Baker retired the first nine Tigers in order ahead of a leadoff triple by Curtis Granderson in the 4^th. He erased a leadoff walk in the 5^th on a double play and allowed a two out single to Magglio Ordonez in the 7^th that wouldn’t lead to anything.

Baker was in control. After 7 ½ innings, Bonderman had thrown 110 pitches and kept the Twins of the board. Baker had countered with his own 7 innings of shutout ball. He took the hill in the bottom of the eighth in great shape and looked to give his team a shot to win it against the Tigers bullpen in the 9^th.

Baker missed on the first pitch of the inning to Pudge Rodriguez and got him to pop up to RF on pitch number two. Craig Monroe came to the plate next and ripped a line drive right to the left fielder’s glove.

Bottom of the 8^th. Two outs. Tied at 0. Baker cruising.

Marcus Thames strode to the plate. He was 0-2 and had made two outs on four pitches so far. The Tigers DH had entered the day hitting .232 on the season with 7 HR. His prodigious power wasn’t enough to keep him behind everyone in the lineup except Brandon Inge.

But then something awesome happened. Thames crushed the first pitch. It sailed high and deep to left field. Jason Kubel was tracking it, but before long, he started to run out of room. The ball passed above our heads and it cleared the fence into a pile of screaming Tigers fans.

Homerun. 1-0 Tigers.

Baker got Inge to flyout on the second pitch to deep center field and the inning was over, but not before the damage was done. His final line was 8IP, 3H, 1R, 1BB, 3K. It took 79 pitches.

Both starters had gone 8 innings and the only blemish was a towering fly ball into the LF seats from Thames.

Todd Jones, who was famous for tightrope saves, set the Twins down in order in the 9^th inning on seven pitches. The crowd went crazy. Tigers win 1-0.

The punch line of this game? It took 2 hours and 7 minutes. It was a masterpiece in every way.

Both starters threw 8 brilliant innings and Baker only needed 79 pitches for a complete game loss than included one bad pitch. Jones shut the door.

A game that started at 8pm because of the national broadcast was over before most 7pm starts during the season. At 10:17pm, we were already heading for our car.

Pitching duels are my favorite games to watch and everyone loves late inning homeruns. It was textbook efficiency by both starters and it turned on a long fly ball in the 8^th inning.

This wasn’t the best baseball game I ever attended, but it was certainly close. In the Weinberg household, we refer to this as the Scott Baker Game after the starting pitcher who managed to average fewer than ten pitches an inning and still lose.

I think we all have certain moments in our lives as fans that stand out in our minds, and this is one of them. Bonderman-Baker-Thames sounds like a law firm or a John le Carre novel, but for me, it will always be the story of one of the best baseball games I ever attended.