What is the most difficult thing I have ever done?

Well, it’s a tough question to answer.

Mostly because it’s difficult to think of everything that I have done in my life.

Difficult might not be the word I’m looking for here.

I think nerve-racking fits better.

I never quite understood the value of having someone to talk to during an important sports game until tonight.

Tigers-Twins Tiebreaker.

OK, well, I thought I could do it on my own.

I was wrong.

It also doesn’t really help that this is just the second Tigers game I have watched this year.

I got a little help from my landlord during the first six innings. But béisbol isn’t really a game that Ecuadorians get behind. I spent most of that time explaining the rules. For example, when I wanted to break down Leyland's or Gardenhire’s strategy, what could I do? Who could I talk to? I tried my landlord’s wife during the first couple of innings. I would put that adventure on its own on the list of difficult things I’ve attempted (and not suceeded at).

I lost both of them at about the seventh inning, which is probably when I needed them most.

I don’t really need to tell you how many heart-wrenching or exciting situations there were to break down.

• You start with Porcello getting into trouble in the third.
• You get men on the corners in the ninth with no outs. And then Randy Marsh calls, what I would argue, a really, really, really obvious ball on one of the best contact hitters in baseball. I would have preferred Stan's father. "This is America, isn't it?"
• You have ESPN Deportes announcers who are in love with Orlando Cabrera and appear to be rooting against the Tigers.
• You have Miguel Cabrera getting things going with a double and a home run to give Porcello a little help early on.
• You include the Tigers’ bullpen.
• You have Cabrera swinging at the first pitch in the 10th and grounding out.
• You include the Tigers getting the go-ahead run.
• You have Brandon Inge, coming up big with the leather and the bat.
• You have Ryan Rayburn’s dramatic turn-around from allowing the game-tying run to initiating the game-extending double play.
• You have the ground ball up the middle with one out in the 10th that looked like it could have been a game-ending double play.
• You have Gerald Laird being awesome, but only once.
• [Who knew that Aubrey Huff was even on the Tigers?]
• Then Miguel Cabrera draws a walk in the 12th, and Don Kelly singles to left. Cabrera lumbers to third (I reserve use of “lumber” for very few players. Cecil would be another.). Then Inge appears to get hit by a pitch.
• Maybe Gerald Laird can be awesome again? I would say he is about due for a hit … and then he strikes out. What kind of momentum can the Twins carry from that?
• How many innings can Rodney go?

In every single one of these instances, there was a comment I needed to make to the other person who ordinarily would have been in the room. Luckily, I stayed in contact with one of the other volunteers throughout the game. He’s a Padres fan, but more than that, he is a sports fan and understands how someone must feel, watching the most important game of the season and not having anybody to talk to.

Would it have been better if I had just read about the game on the Internet?

Hell no!

This is part of having being a real fan and following your team any way you can.

Today, this meant bumming cable from your landlord in southern Ecuador while the mangos ripen outside and the tamale salesman is hawking his product just around the corner (when what you really want is an humita salesman) and you're nearly starving but cannot get off the sofa for 4 1/2 hours. Why? Because My Tigers!