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Tigers baseball rolls on this week in exciting
fashion. Every game this week was a one-run game at
some point in the ninth inning. The Tigers looked
like they were packing it in for the year as they lost
the last three games of their series with the Blue
Jays. Mother Nature provided a two-day rest in Kansas
City with some much needed rain. The series was
shortened to a Sunday double-header which the Tigers
swept (thanks to the offense in the first game and a
1-0 shutout tossed by Mike Maroth in the second). The
Red Sox are currently in town, and they will play the
rubber match on ESPN Wednesday, as each team has had
to endure a tough loss. Wells vs. Bonderman at 1PM;
it should be a good one.
New Subscriber...
Phil "Nevin" Young
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Week of 8/10 - 8/16
Record: 3-3 LL--(WW)WL
Undy-Five-Hundy: The index was all the way up to
eight on Thursday, but a few wins made sure that the
club is still six games under the mark. It should be
at four, but Fernando Rodney couldn't hold the lead
for Nate Robertson, who had thrown eight innings of
two-hit ball against the fearsome Red Sox offense.
The debacle in the tenth inning sealed the deal and
prevented a series victory (or at least it postponed
it). The bullpen has not looked good lately. Craig
Dingman has been anything but reliable and even steady
Jamie Walker got touched up tonight. I'm guessing
Dombrowski's got a plan for next year, I'd just like
to know what it is (I'm feeling very much like a Kerry
supporter).
Up Next for the Tigers...
August 17 Boston
August 18 no game scheduled...
August 19-21 Toronto
August 22 no game scheduled...
August 23-25 Oakland
AL Central Standings...
CWS 74 43 -
CLE 64 55 11
MIN 62 57 13
DET 56 62 18.5
KCR 38 80 37
Tigers Division...
CWS 74 43 -
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MIL 58 62 17.5
CHC 58 62 17.5
DET 56 62 18.5
TEX 56 62 18.5
ARI 56 64 19.5
AL Wild Card (BOS, CWS, ANA leading divisions)
OAK 67 52 -
NYY 65 53 1.5
CLE 64 55 3
TOR 62 57 5
MIN 62 57 5
NL Wild Card (ATL, STL, SDP leading divisions)
HOU 64 55 -
WAS 63 55 0.5
PHI 63 56 1
FLA 61 57 2.5
NYM 60 58 3.5
Tigers News and Notes: Rondell White injured himself
Sunday in Kansas City diving for a David DeJesus line
drive. The play, in which White dislocated his
shoulder, resulted in an inside-the-park home-run for
DeJesus. White is expected to return in September.
Curtis Granderson was recalled to take his place and
has started in center both games of the Boston series.
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Tiger of the Week...
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While Pudge Rodriguez served his suspension, Vance
Wilson saw his first bit of regular playing time and
did a decent job filling in. Vance knocked in the
winning run in the Tigers' lone win in The Rogers
Centre (formerly known as SkyDome) and had a monster
day in the first game of the double-header on Sunday.
Wilson still has less at-bats this season than Carlos
Pena. His average is pretty low, but hitting is much
more difficult when you aren't getting consistent
playing time. It's reassuring to know that if Pudge
ever goes down for a long spell that Vance can fill in
and not be an automatic out (can you say Javier
Cardona?).
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Baseball Websites...
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There are some great baseball websites out there.
Some of them I've stumbled across myself and some I
have been alerted to thanks to the readers. Here is a
short (but not complete) list of good baseball/Tigers
links.
www.mlb.com - The obvious place to start. MLB.com has
plenty of games to play (Beat the Streak, MLB
Survivor, Fantasy Baseball...) and is a good source
for info, though you won't find any controversial
opinions here.
www.cbssportsline.com - The site I check scores on. I
think CBS has the best gamecenter for keeping an eye
on the current game and also on the other games around
the league. Check it out.
www.tigersweekly.com - Had to put it on here. =-)
www.tigerscentral.com - Great site with up-to-date
Tigers news and comment feature on the articles.
Colorful Tigers schedule wallpaper that you can
download (new every month).
www.baseball-reference.com - Excellent site that is
sort of like the encyclopedia of baseball. Every
player I've ever searched for has been on there, and I
often used links to this site during last year's "Most
Despicable Baseball Person" tournament.
www.retrosheet.org - This site has boxscores from at
least as far back as 1960, so if you're wondering how
Larry Herndon did on June 13th of 1985 then you should
go here to check it out.
www.baseballthinkfactory.org - Looks like a gigantic
baseball weblog. Also has link to other blogs. I
haven't checked out this site yet.
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The Streak...
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If you were watching closely on Monday night then you
caught a brief glimpse of one of the two streakers
that graced Comerica Park. It was just a blip, but I
definitely saw pale whiteness that could only be a
naked man. The streakers got a good cheer from the
crowd, a tough scolding from Mario Impemba, and a
cuffin' and stuffin' courtesy of the police. If
anyone was listening to the radio broadcast at the
time, I'd be interested to hear what Dickerson and
Price had to say about the incident. Ultimately
streaking crosses the line. I'd say Morgana the
Kissing Bandit had perfected the art of running on the
field. She was funny, harmless, and appropriate for
all ages.
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Mascot Hall of Fame...
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This week there is a Mascot Hall of Fame beginning,
and the three inaugural inductees are the San Diego
Chicken, The Philly Phanatic, and the Dunking Ape from
Phoenix Suns basketball games. I can't say for sure,
but I don't think that PAWS made it on the ballot.
http://www2.logikbox.com/mhof/events.cfm?cd_cdid=2954
&mode=event
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Poll Question...
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Speaking of Mascots... what is the best mascot/game
entertainment that you've ever witnessed? It doesn't
have to be a mascot, but anything at the game that was
fun to get into. Some examples I can think of are
Claude the Trumpeter (at minor league hockey games),
Zeke the Wonder Dog (who catches frisbees at MSU
football games), and the Dunkin' Donuts Base Race
(gets my heart pumping every time). Worst ever could
be the Hillsdale Pit Posse (Latin has no business
being spoken at a football game).
Also, who would you boo louder: Rafael Palmeiro or
Kenny Rogers?
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Game Linescores...
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August 10: Detroit 3 - Toronto 4
Starters: DET: Robertson 7IP - TOR: Chacin 6.2IP
DET 000 201 000 3 5 0
TOR 010 002 001 4 9 2
W: Speier (2-2)
L: Dingman (0-1)
August 11: Detroit 1 - Toronto 2
Starters: DET: Bonderman 8IP - TOR: Downs 7IP
DET 000 000 010 1 2 1
TOR 200 000 00X 2 4 0
W: Downs (1-2)
L: Bonderman (13-9)
S: Batista (20)
August 12: game postponed due to rain...
August 13: game postponed due to rain
August 14:
Game One: Detroit 8 - Kansas City 7
Starters: DET: Johnson 6.1IP - KCR: Wood 6IP
DET 410 001 101 8 11 1
KCR 101 300 200 7 12 0
W: Dingman (1-1)
L: Burgos (1-5)
S: Rodney (3)
Game Two: Detroit 1 - Kansas City 0
Starters: DET: Maroth 8.2IP - KCR: Lima 9IP
DET 000 010 000 1 5 0
KCR 000 000 000 0 5 0
W: Maroth (10-11)
L: Lima (4-11)
S: Rodney (4)
August 15: Boston 6 - Detroit 7
Starters: BOS: Arroyo 6IP - DET: Douglass 4IP
BOS 030 110 100 6 8 0
DET 021 000 013 7 16 1
W: Walker (4-3)
L: Schilling (4-5)
August 16: Boston 10 - Detroit 7 F/10
Starters: BOS: Papelbon 5IP - DET: Robertson 8IP
BOS 020 000 001 7 10 10 1
DET 000 020 010 4 7 9 1
W: Bradford (2-0)
L: Dingman (1-2)
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Readers Write In...
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BASEBALL ROAD TRIP 2005 - SEGMENT 2
"The MAC Daddy" Kevin Kopec - Fenway Park, Boston MA.
Hello Tigers Weekly readers. As a member of the
last two Claus Summer Baseball Roadtrips, I now feel
compelled to write in as I visit a new park for the
first time. On Thursday August 4, I attended my first
ever game at Fenway Park (Red Sox vs. Royals). The
following story that ensues is a lengthy one but I
strongly encourage you to read through it - it is
easily the most memorable baseball experience of my
life.
My wife and I were visiting Boston with another
married couple that are friends of ours. My friend
Jim and I decided to leave for Boston Wednesday night,
driving through the night (just like Roadtrip '05
Segment 1) so we could catch the day game at Fenway on
Thursday. We arrived in Boston at 8 a.m. and unloaded
all of our things at the hotel. After a quick round
of showers and breakfast, we were off to Fenway at
11:00 a.m. Since we missed the subway into Fenway, we
had to drive in and look for a place to park. This
proved to be quite the challenge. In the one-mile
radius around Fenway, prices to park were in the $50 -
$60.00 range. A little steep for us. We dropped our
wives off in the Back Bay section of Boston to shop
and then we backtracked to Brookline and walked the 25
minutes to Fenway (and still had to pay $30.00 to
park....bleeping city parking.) We approached Fenway
just as the game was getting underway (and of course
still needing tickets). Fenway and Wrigley are so
similar, intimate venues that feel like baseball. If
there weren't the big lights on top of the ballpark,
you may walk right past it and not realize it is a
stadium - that is the one thing that separates it from
any park I have seen.
Jim and I were committed to getting into the park,
regardless of cost. As we made our first trip around
Fenway looking for tickets, our two offers were $100
per ticket or $80 per ticket. Both seemed high to us,
so we decided to wait an inning or two and see if we
could get prices to drop. We ended up standing and
waiting outside the players gate. At this point, a
woman approached me and asked if I was looking for
tickets. She said that she had just gotten these
tickets at 12:30 and her friend couldn't make it. She
was willing to give the ticket to me for free. At
this point, Jim came over and realized it was only one
ticket she could give away. Jim, who has been to
Fenway before, insisted that I go in with this girl so
I could see the game and the park. I concurred. At
this point, the girl said "hang on a minute" and she
went over to the players gate. She talked to the old
man taking tickets for about 30 seconds, and then
motioned for Jim and I to come over. The old man took
her ticket and my ticket, and then proceeded to let
Jim in for free without a ticket! As we began our
walk up the ramp, I said, "OK, so who are you,
Batman?" The girl informed us that she recently began
working full time as the Red Sox team nutritionist,
and gets to go to all of the games. I asked where our
seats were and she said, "about 25 rows behind home
plate, in the section reserved for the players
families". AWESOME.
Fenway is unbelievable. The atmosphere is great,
it's just baseball, with great fans. The "aura" is
strong and the park, with the Monster and the
bleachers....I could write so much just about the
park. I need to tell the rest of the story so I will
not go into detail here, but just get to Fenway if you
haven't been there. It is very much like Wrigley,
although I must say I prefer Fenway.
Back to the story. We sit down (Jim, since he
didn't have a ticket, stood in the standing room only
section behind our seats), and the girl began to tell
me about life in Red Sox Nation. I asked how she got
her job and she said that she works for a nutrition
company. She volunteers at an orphanage helping kids
who don't have parents learn how to eat properly. The
orphanage had a dinner for all the people who worked
with their organization last November. She went and
ended up sitting at a table right next to Curt
Schilling and his wife. During dinner she was talking
with Schilling's wife, who was interested in her job
and told her that Curt eats horribly and could really
use a nutritionist. She gave Curt's wife her card and
told her to have Curt call her. Three months later,
Schilling called her and set up an appt, and after
that asked her to work as his nutritionist. "Curt"
(as she kept saying and I couldn't get over this....)
didn't want to have to pay for it, he wanted the Red
Sox to pay for it, so as he renegotiated his contract,
he had them write in the cost of the nutrionist into
his contract. Thus, since November, she has been
working with Curt at Fenway a couple of times per week
talking about diet.
During this time she also has gotten to know some
other players. She says the players are great, and
get along well. She told me that Schilling and Wells
are the two "worst" in terms of nutrition (no shock
there). She said Wells eats pretty well but drinks
way too much beer. She said about a month ago she met
with "Theo" (again just the general sense in which she
said this kept cracking me up) and presented the Red
Sox GM with her plan for helping the team. She
explained what she saw as the nutritional needs the
players had, and how she could help them, and at what
cost. Two days later, she got a call from Theo
Epstein and he hired her to work as the organization's
nutrition expert.
All the while, I'm listening to these great
stories, 25 rows back from home plate, at Fenway, for
free.....does it get any better than this? I look
back at Jim and being the outgoing person he is, he's
talking away with the 8 people around him, laughing
and enjoying the game.
Then the girl asked me, "I think I have a couple
of old voice mails on my cell phone from Curt. Do you
want to hear them?" And of course I respond, "hell
yes". The first was a very general voice mail, but
you could tell it was Schilling. The second was more
of the prank variety, Schilling called her from Taco
Bell with the following message: "Hey, it's me. I'm
at Taco Bell! I'm at Taco Bell and there's nothing
you can do about it! I know it's bad for me but I
don't care! Talk to you later." CLASSIC.
She then tells me about all of the different
places at Fenway that she has sat for games. Like
Wrigley, she thinks the outfield seats are the best
because the fans are rowdy and it's a great
experience. She really likes the new seats on the
Green Monster, she says those are "cool". Obviously
the seats we had are pretty good. She then proceeds
to tell me a story about how she was up in the luxury
suite with all of the organization and corporate big
wigs, and one of them came up to her and gave her his
two tickets for the game. He insisted that she go
watch the game from these two seats. She didn't
really want to, but one of her friends came over and
said, "NO, you have to go watch from these seats". As
she starts to head towards her seat she realizes that
she is going to be sitting in the two seats in the
front row right next to the Red Sox dugout. As they
approach the two seats, they see two men sitting in
their seats. She then realizes that one of the men is
none other than New England Patriots head coach Bill
Belicheck. At this point, I stop her and
say..."WAIT... please don't tell me you kicked Bill
Belicheck out of your seat." And she says, "well, not
exactly, but he did end up moving". Belicheck and
Indians GM Mark Shapiro were in the two seats, and
they realized that their seats were the ones right
next to the Indians dugout. They invited this girl
and her friend to sit next to them, where they talked
for a couple of innings before Belicheck and Shapiro
moved (interesting side note here: the girl told me
that during this time she told Shapiro about her
nutrition plan and how she was trying to get with the
Red Sox full time....Shapiro said that if Epstein
didn't call her to call him, he gave her his card, and
he said the Indians would love to have a nutrition
program......how does all this happen to one
person??????)
I could go on and on with more stories about Red
Sox players....she gave me the scoop and I have lots
of stories. Let me close with a final story. During
the 7th inning, I finally said, "Hey, everyone on this
team sounds like a great guy. There has to be someone
who is an ass. I just don't believe that everyone is
perfect....can you tell me that there is someone who
is just a jerk on this team?" Without hesitation, she
looked at me, straight face, and said, "Doug
Mirabelli". And I said, "really! He is the last guy
I would have guessed." She said that he was a jerk to
her and didn't take her work seriously and when she
tried to meet with him he pretty much blew her off.
So when Mirabelli came up to pinch hit in the 8th
inning, Jim and I booed relentlessly and cheered
loudly when he struck out on three pitches.
After the game, the girl joined Jim and I and our
wives for a beer at Boston Beer Works. We traded
emails so when she makes Detroit stop I wouldn't be
shocked if she wants a tour of Comerica from Jim and
I. She already emailed me, saying that she talked to
David Wells about the great time she had with two
teachers from Detroit and Wells said that "those two
(teachers) have the toughest job in the world...I
could never do that". AWESOME...David Wells has just
moved up my list of cool people.
To conclude, if you are still reading this, thank
you...I hope you enjoyed these stories as much as I
enjoyed this whole experience. Fenway is easily
sitting at #1 in my baseball parks I have visited, and
it is not just because of all this stuff. It was a
great park, a great game, everything I thought it
would be and more. Until next time, KGK signing off.
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Steve "Stone" Sprague
What does it take to qualify as a sport? Some simple
guidelines will clarify. First anything a large
number of people do as a means of putting food on the
table is out. This takes care of hunting and fishing.
Second all of the competitors need to know they are
involved in competition. This rules out horse racing
and any other competition involving animals. Third,
the scoring system must be easy to comprehend, which
basically rules out sports using a judge, e.g.
gymnastics, figure skating and cheerleading. Fourth
you must break a sweat for a reason other than the air
conditioning broke, sorry poker. Finally the heart of
it must be competition.
Using this guideline all of the major sports are in,
plus soccer, autoracing, tennis, golf, and many
others. Cross country running and skiing are
out, as well as weighlifting. I don't care about the
small numbers who compete in those, most just do those
to lose weight or pickup members of the
opposite sex (editors note: acoustic guitar playing
is also overly used by dudes to try and achieve the
latter).
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Dallas "We Call Jevon Over" Senters
i feel bad for the tigers. i really do. however, the
indians are in a playoff race with the
a's/angels/yankees, and needed those wins. they
also need to prove that they can beat the teams that
they are supposed to beat. they continued that trend
by beating the royals the last couple of games.
(disclaimer: i think the tigers are better than the
royals) the reds took full advantage of the sinking
cubs and the big bats all seemed to be
booming...unfortunately the table setters weren't
really doing so hot, and the pitching remains nerve
racking. i would love to see the reds get out of
the undy-five-hundy realms as well.
sport: not what you call a kid if you're a prep moron
not like hunting or fishing (for sport/game)
it's not the same i think the activity must involve
some physical skill (poker isn't sport) the physical
skill in the activity must be athletic...not just
skilled/precise (i think that this eliminates
video games/marksmanship/billiards/motor racing
i think the participant should be able to be
legitimately called an athlete (no sumo wrestlers or
horse jockeys) i also realize that this puts
many golfers, offensive linemen, and a few slobs in
the other sports in jeopardy as well. personally i
would like to exclude events that look like/include
dance/ballet (figure skating, rhythmic gymnastics,
cheerleading.
that's all i got today
dallas
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Mike "The Rabbi" McKeown
Hey Matt,
First off, I think I might have been a little quick to
discuss the virtues of Colon. He's not looked too
good since his first outing, so I think I'll hold off
on judging him for a while... :)
I think of sports as being defined by having
head-to-head matchups, with a winner and a loser(s).
Furthermore, a sport is one where referees,
umps, etc. are PART of the game, but not the SOLE
DECISION MAKER on who wins or loses. The events where
a person/team is judged is a COMPETITION, not SPORT.
This rules out things like competitive diving,
gymnastics, figure skating and the like. I'm not
saying these players aren't ATHLETIC, that's a whole
different discussion (are golfers athletes? What about
baseball players? John Kruk and David Wells come to
mind...)
Sporting events are those that get decided on the
field, diamond, ice, pool, track, etc. by the players,
not the judges. I use this example to help people
discern between the two;
If you think judged competitions are sport, then you
have to admit that marching band competitions are
sport. Having been in them, I certainly agree that
the difficulty level is high, but I never once
considered myself to be playing a sport.
See Ya!
Mike McKeown
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Toolie's Trashtalk...
It's good to be alive and it's good to be a Tiger fan.
One day they will put it all together These last two
years have been steps in the right direction... as
long as they fix their bullpen issues. Boy it scares
me to see some of these guys come in.
Great responses this week. Kevin that story is out of
this world. What a stroke of great luck! Get in for
free, great seats, awesome stories of Schilling eating
Taco Bell. Whatever he's eating, the Tigers need to
get hime more of it. Monday's win was truly thrilling
and quite unexpected. John McDonald earned his
stripes with his game-winning single on an 0-2 pitch
off of Schilling. Good to see the Tigers rally like
that. The offense should be commended for the run
they produced in the 8th on Tuesday as well. That
sequence went: double by Shelton, grounder to the
right side by Dmitri, sac-fly by Ordonez. It's too
bad that wonderfully produced run was erased by one
swing of the bat by that elbow-pad wimp David Ortiz.
Sure he can hit a ton, but as long as he wears that
pad he gets no respect from me.
This just in, the Royals lost in Seattle tonight,
making it seventeen straight losses. As Jim Price
would say (and did say after Ortiz crushed his
ninth-inning homer), "Wow."
Dave, I used the marching band example many times in
high school to argue to the cheerleaders that
cheerleading was not a sport. Man I was a pain in the
neck to those girls sometimes. Somewhere along the
way I learned that being nice to girls resulted in
good things and I changed my ways.
I've still only been the three Tigers games! Amazing.
With the way gas prices are skyrocketing I may stop
going all-together. Getting there and back will be
triple the cost of my ticket! Seriously, I'm
considering selling the Grand Am and taking the bus.
Stop. Find the empty threat in the last paragraph.
Continue.
Rondell's injury is a blessing in disguise (since it's
not too serious) as we'll get to see Logan and
Granderson patrolling center field. Both of those
guys can track down fly balls very well, which is a
necessity when you play at Comerica. If one of those
guys can turn into a productive leadoff hitter the
lineup would essentially be complete.
Poor Nate Robertson. It was a real shame that he
didn't get the win tonight. He hasn't been pitching
all that well, and to have this performance go for
naught must be salt in the wound. He deserved better
tonight.
That's all until next week. A month and a half to go!
Big series finale tomorrow. Watch!
I'm out.
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Tigers Weekly is in no way affiliated with the Detroit
Tigers or Major League Baseball.
If you know anyone that would like a subscription to TW,
send an email to editor@tigersweekly.com and give their
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Play Ball!
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