The Big Potato

This is a guest post written by my mom, Louise Ducote.  I asked her to guest-write something because I am going on a trip with my school for a few days.  I'll be back soon; thanks for reading and go Tigers!

     Papa Grande.  Now there's a nickname to make a woman's blood run cold.  I don't want to be a "big potato." I want to be a slim flower, an elegant little slip of a thing, a slight and lovely shadow of a girl.  That said, I am behind Jose Valverde, a/k/a Papa Grande, all the way.  He's my favorite closer in baseball, because the closer of my own team (Cubs) is responsible for much of my gray hair.  Here are a few of the things I like about Detroit's treasure:
     1. On August 11th, he broke the Tigers' consecutive-saves record of 32.  August in Texas has been a horrific parade of triple-digit temperatures combined with total absence of rain.  I'm glad August in Detroit has this highlight.  Maybe it rains there, too.
     2. He loves his mama.  Just like Elvis Presley, General MacArthur, Sigmund Freud and President Woodrow Wilson, who invented Mother's Day.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, President Wilson, for creating a day on which I am not required to prepare food or wash dishes.  May you rest in luscious peace.
     3. He's dramatic on the field but quiet off the field.  He dances.  He performs elaborate rituals (three sticks of gum and one handful of sunflower seeds in his back pocket, no more, no less).  But he is a hermit and an angel off the field, playing solitaire on his iPad and dancing for charity.
     4. I saw him once in person, when he was still an Astro, playing against Detroit, and he actually blew the save.  I felt for him. But he left the field with dignity, and that makes me all the happier for the career year he's having this year.
     Brady asked me to keep this short.  So I'd better stop.  Thanks for reading, and go Tigers!