"The game's still catch it, throw it, hit it, pitch it...I'm old, but I'm not old school. I play the game."

This is Jim Leyland's take on our game. I couldn't agree with him more. Let's throw out all the rhetoric about Pete Rose's betting slips, the theory behind appointing George Mitchell, or Anna Benson (well, on second thought, let's keep her around.)

Yes friends and good lookers, as only Ernie Harwell can put it, "For, lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing of birds is come, And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." What Ernie's getting at is that baseball's back.

I said 78-84 for the Tigers this season, mainly because of the starting pitching. Now they could easily flip that record around, or perform better. "The players have to decide if they're tired of being known as a bunch of nice guys who get beat," Leyland. The thing is, they have 3 pitchers in their rotation that could break out at anytime. If those guys can win games into the teens, then our eyebrows can raise a little. Those guys have to last into the 6 and 7th inning to save some health for Todd Jones, who will begin the year on the DL.

I won't go as far as ESPN's Skip Bayless and predict the Tigers will take the AL Wild Card, although I wouldn't mind if he passed that splif over to me. I guess a little wishful thinking can help us get through the regular season.

Enjoy our National Pastime all !