10.25.2006

Flashback to Game 1: A PictoPhoto Tour


ROYAL OAK, Mich. -- Sure we're losing. Sure we look unprepared. Sure we're blowing it. But dammmmmm. We're having fun.




@ the airport.


With the Bro-in-law @ 10a @ the park


Down Brush Street toward RenCen


Pregame Skip


Game time from seat location #2
The town is smiling...smiling for the Magical Season to continue...

10.23.2006

Back! Back to the '80s!

The Detroit News (interns, probably) put together a 33-image retrospective on the 1984 World Series. There's surprisingly little action in these photos. And I love the fact that the away game is in black and white.

http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Ughh

CHICAGO - Out of respect for what's happening in the D, I've been waiting to comment on the patently bizarre offseason the Chicago baseball clubs have thus far endured.

I don't really have anything to say about this either. Other then, 'sheeeeeit.'

10.22.2006

World Series Blockbuster!

If Todd Jones blows a save . . .




. . . we'll know he's been secretly replaced by Morgan Spurlock, taping an episode of "30 Days" in which he finds out what it's like to spend one full baseball postseason hanging out with Fernando Rodney.

10.21.2006

A World Series Gift For My Detroit Homies

I hope this resonates for you all on this Game One Day. Only one more week of baseball; enjoy every minute . . .

10.20.2006

Manager Watch: In With the Old!

Meet your new hero. But now that Jimmy Ley-best is at the helm, what's the famous starting point for our 1984 6-4-3 doing? Turns out, Tram is throwing out the first pitch tomorrow...USA Today gets the skinny on the guy we all knew shouldn't have taken the job in 2003.


10.19.2006

Worst. Game. Ever

I love Rob Neyer's column on ESPN. He's always posting something statistical about baseball that proves "gut feelings" about the grand old sport belong somewhere between hearsay and conjecture in the "admissible evidence" pantheon.

Today's column is about the worst-ever game-seven pitcher. It's Oliver Perez for the Mets.

Perez boasts the fewest number of wins in a season in which he's pitching a game seven, lowest winning percentage in a season, lowest career winning percentage and second-worst career ERA. Guess who's got the worst career ERA for a game-seven starter?

Jeff Suppan. Tonight's starter for the Cards.

Ugh. We're in for a real pitcher's duel tonight.

Eekgads! It's Fernandomania, Jr.!

Check this link from sportsline. Fernando Valenzuela Jr. joins pop in Mexican League.

What's next? The return of Jerry Hairston Sr.?

10.18.2006

Breaking News: Jeff Weaver Smiled (Years Ago)











LOS ANGELES -- At some point during his time as a Dodger, Jeff Weaver smiled.

It wasn't on the field, of course, where he exuded a pure, focused sense of self-loathing or hatred for "this sh*t" as he no doubt has said thousands of times in his life. This smile was instead captured during a visit to Children's Hospital -- just south of a particularly famous Los Feliz home.

He didn't even smile when contacted via shout from an old party buddy when pitching for the Dodgers in San Diego. The dumpy looking fellow who contacted him through the fence near the sandbox and Weaver shared mutual smirks of understood camaraderie -- the kind that comes from sharing bushels of illicit drugs while skipping class.

"Is he smiling now?" asked Mike Hudson, a fan from Weaver's early stint with the Detroit Tigers. "He's the hottest pitcher in the National League. But I bet he's still just staring off into space more often than not in his hotel, picking out patterns in the carpet."

Developing...

Breaking News: Detroit Goes Towel-less


DETROIT -- The Detroit Tigers will not hand out rally towels for at least the first two games of the World Series at Comerica Park, team officials said.

The hanky-sized towels are a popular playoff accessory that fans whirl in the air to cheer on their team. Fans attending the opening games in Detroit will get some sort of World Series souvenir, but officials haven't said what it will be.

"The in-park giveaway for the World Series is determined by Major League Baseball," said Joel Scott, a Tigers spokesman. "They (league officials) have items that were going to be distributed no matter where the World Series was at."


Plus...this wiki on Jay Mariotti is funny.

10.16.2006

This Is Sharp

Comment from a post about the Tigers on Deadspin:
Wow, that's almost a brilliant way of making the Lions look like a winning franchise. I heard that if the Tigers win the WS, Jon Kitna will be the first thing torched.

10.15.2006

A Few Notes on Losing My Mind

It seems like Maggs' shot took minutes to reach the outfield. Mike and I didn't want to lose it until we had empirical evidence that it was a homer. There was jumping and hugging and running around the apartment. The pets scattered to avoid being trampled. I got down on the ground and slapped the floor with my hand. I was shaking and sweating and my voice was wavering. I had three sticks of gum in my mouth -- Gum Time to end all Gum Times! -- and I nearly choked on the chew, not to mention spitting up everywhere. Mike reinjured his heel from jumping up and down. I pulled something in my ribcage from shouting so loudly.

We instantly started calling or got calls from everyone in the Michigan Diaspora -- our dads, Steve Davis, Jon Brunt, Pat Muir, Jake Cooley, Scott W. Baird, Eric Lacey, Brian Shiels, Chris Solari ...

For the rest of the night (as I will for the rest of my life), I replayed the shot in my head and shook my head and laughed.

That feeling, friends, is why we watch.

Tigers Move On To The World Series . . .

. . . and guess what they have . . .

10.14.2006

2006: A New Hope

THE TIGERS WIN THE PENNANT!

10.09.2006

A's-Tigs History


Seems the 1972 ALCS got pretty nasty between these two. Let's hope we can leave out the extracurriculars this time, boys. We want a nice, clean fight.

10.08.2006

On the plus side . . .


The Dodger team might have proved itself an inconsistent mediocrity, but, having attended NLDS games in the mid '90s that felt like June games against Milwaukee, it was exciting to see the Stadium packed with intense, excited, dedicated Dodger fans, dressed in blue and hanging on every pitch. Biggest Dodger crowd I've ever been a part of. The weather was gorgeous and the stadium looked as beautiful as it ever has.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world...





10.07.2006

Live...from Detroit...







It's a Saturday Night for the ages...

10.06.2006

Show 'Em Off, Boys

Tigers -- 2
Yankees -- 1

Exit Stage North


Was that Torii's last play as a Twin in Minnesota? Could be...enjoy the Division Title, Twin Cities...you earned it. OAK looks on-time.

This Isn't the Postseason I'd Envisioned

10.05.2006

Big Apple: Didn't See That One Coming

Baby, Where You Been?

Classic Tigers baseball! Great quality start by J.V., who continually got out of jams. Bullpen was a phenom, including the Laser Man Zumaya. The offense did what it did when it was humming earlier in the season: A homer here, a manufactured run there, just enough. Then Jonesy made it a bit fun in the ninth.

This is Tigers baseball! On to Detroit!

10.04.2006

Atta Boy, Nate

If Gum Time is still feeling good, then so am I.

J.V. pitching a day game in the Bronx tomorrow. Do it up, baby!

10.03.2006

Roar Restored: 2006 is a Magical Year


Before Game 1 Tigs v. Yanks gets going...
Before we get all caught up in who will win this or that or the whole thing...
Before we dissect the performances...
Before we judge even one pitch...

I'd like to say, "Thank You" to the Detroit Tigers organization for fielding a wonderful team this year after 13 years of losing and only 3 years after the 119-loss debacle that I sat through 25+ games of with Devil Ray.

Seeing the Tigers lineup on GameDay and announced by Bob Sheppard in the House Ruth Built in a playoff game against the Mighty Yanks in October is really all I could have asked for. While we might have choked a bit toward the end of the 162-game stretch, we much closer to the top of the game than we are from the bottom of it...and that's where the proud Detroit Tigers of Cobb, Greenberg, Kaline, Lolitch, Trammell, Gibson and Anderson would want it. Soon we'll be putting a name like Verlander, Granderson, Miller (or hopefully Robertson!) up there with them.

10.02.2006

Two reasons Why America is the Land of Opportunity.


Who's Hot? Who's Not?

So the Tigs absolutely quit playing after clinching the Wild Card and dropped three to the Royals of all teams. Meanwhile the Dodgers are smoking along winning, I believe, seven straight. Cardinals are playing really poorly. Mets are injured. Padres look pretty good. Yankees are the Yankees and got some bats back just in time to dominate in October. Twins look decent, but a bit shaky here and there. Oakland has a history of blowing it in the postseason.

So...the question is...who you got?