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It was shaping up to be another rough week of Tigers
baseball. After an extemely aggravating series with
the Rangers, where the Tigers lost three of four
games, the White Sox came into Comerica to try and
make the AL Central a tight race again. So far all
has been good as Tiger pitching has dominated the
first two games. The two wins have pushed the
division lead back to a more comfortable 7.5 games.
The White Sox and Twins continue to lose days in their
efforts to overtake the Tigers. Commentators on
television already talk as if the Tigers have their
tickets for October punched. Plenty of games remain,
and neither of those teams are going away.
Programming Note: The game this Wednesday will be on
ESPN and the Sunday game on September 3 vs. the Angels
will be on ESPN2 at 8PM (NCAA football on ESPN).
Also, check out the cover of this week's Sports
Illustrated. On Tuesday's broadcast they gave us a
sneak peek and the cover features a big shot of Justin
Verlander. I hope our coveted rookie can avoid the SI
cover jinx! Asked if Verlander would receive ribbing
in the clubhouse, Jim Leyland said something to the
effect of "Oh yeah, and I'll be getting some of that
action."
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Week of 8/16 - 8/22
Record: 3-4 LWLLLWW
Chase for Five-Hundy: The Tigers have done it!
Undy-five-hundy has been vanquished! With three wins
this week the Tigers assured the world that the streak
of losing seasons has come to an end. The first
winning season since 1993 is one win away. Now the
next goal is to win the Central! Magic number is 30.
The magic number is the number of games that the
Tigers have to win to guarantee that they will win the
division. The number decrements by one each time the
Tigs win and each time the second-place club
(currently the White Sox) loses.
Up Next for the Tigers...
August 23-24 Chicago White Sox
August 25-27 @ Cleveland
August 28 no game scheduled...
August 29-31 @ New York Yankees
AL Central Standings...
DET 81 45 -
CWS 73 52 7.5
MIN 72 52 8
CLE 56 68 24
KCR 46 81 35.5
Tigers Division...
DET 81 45 -
NYM 76 48 4
NYY 75 49 5
CWS 73 52 7.5
MIN 72 52 8 <--- Playoff Cushion
AL Wild Card (NYY, DET, OAK leading divisions)
CWS -
MIN 0.5
BOS 4
TOR 6.5
ANA 6.5
NL Wild Card (NYM, STL, LAD leading divisions)
CIN -
SDP 2
PHI 2.5
ARI 4
SFG 5
Tigers News and Notes: Placido Polanco hit the DL
with his shoulder injury and is expected to be out 4-6
weeks. Hopefully he gets back with a little time
before the (knocking on wood) playoffs. Ramon
Santiago was recalled to take over the back-up infield
duties but, after the acquisition of Neifi Perez (see
below), he was sent back to Toledo (no love). Roman
Colon also went on the DL this week with neck spasm,
so Colby Lewis was brought up for the second time this
season. Maybe he'll actually see some action this
time.
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Tiger of the Week...
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Second-half swoon? Hah! The Gambler, Kenny Rogers,
is defying his track record and putting together some
solid numbers in the month of August. After enduring
a hard-luck no-decision against Cleveland and an even
harder-luck loss in Chicago, Rogers delivered a pair
of good outings and picked up two victories this week.
His first came against his former team. OK, that
doesn't really narrow it down (Kenny has pitched for
Texas, Oakland, Minnesota, both New Yorks, and now the
Tigers). I'm talking Texas, here. Rogers pitched the
Tigers to their only win against the Rangers in that
series and then shut the White Sox out for seven
innings on Tuesday. Rogers has absolutely owned
Chicago this season (7 innings 2 ER, 6 innings 1 ER, 7
innings 0 ER, and 7 innings 0 ER). The big week for
Kenny kept it a respectable week for the Tigers.
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Perez Acquired from Cubs...
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With the injury to Placido Polanco the Tigers
management decided that Omar Infante/Ramon Santiago
would not be the proper combination to fill in the
gap. So they dealt Lakeland (class A) catcher Chris
Robinson to Chicago for Neifi Perez, a switch-hitting
infielder who is capable at second base and shortstop.
This was one of those waiver-wire deals. Perez has
played the first two games at second since the deal.
Neifi...the name sort of looks like Deivi. He's
wearing the right number (8)! Also, Perez is signed
through the 2007 season.
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Tigers Sign Vance...
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The Tigers locked Vance Wilson up for the next two
seasons for the price of $1.9 million total. Pudge's
contract expires after next season, so that will cause
some drama after 2007, but at least the team won't
need to look for a back-up.
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.
jsp?ymd=20060817&content_id=1615508&vkey=news_det&fext
=.jsp&c_id=det
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Playoff Tix...
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Heads up from Gilby: The box office will begin
selling tickets for the ALDS starting on September
19th. Check it out here...
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article
.jsp?ymd=20060822&content_id=1623372&vkey=news_det&fext
=.jsp&c_id=det
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Poll Question...
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If the Tigers make the playoffs they will need to have
a playoff pitching rotation. In a five-game series
this usually consists of three pitchers. In a
four-game series you sometimes see an extra pitcher go
in game four (but sometimes not). How would you set
the Tigers' rotation for the playoffs (5 and 7 game
formats)? For the pitchers that don't make it, how do
they fit into the bullpen?
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Game Linescores...
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August 16: Detroit 4 - Boston 6
Starters: DET: Verlander 6IP - BOS: Wells 6.2IP
DET 001 003 000 4 11 0
BOS 001 022 10X 6 8 0
W: Wells (2-2)
L: Verlander (14-6)
S: Papelbon (32)
August 17: Texas 2 - Detroit 4
Starters: TEX: Volquez 3.2IP - DET: Rogers 5IP
TEX 000 101 000 2 6 1
DET 021 010 00X 4 11 0
W: Rogers (12-6)
L: Volquez (1-2)
S: Jones (34)
August 18: Texas 2 - Detroit 1
Starters: TEX: Millwood 7IP - DET: Miner 6IP
TEX 000 101 000 2 8 0
DET 000 100 000 1 5 0
W: Millwood (12-8)
L: Miner (7-4)
S: Otsuka (24)
August 19: Texas 3 - Detroit 1
Starters: TEX: Tejeda 6.2IP - DET: Robertson 8IP
TEX 000 012 000 3 2 1
DET 000 000 100 1 5 1
W: Tejeda (2-3)
L: Robertson (11-9)
S: Otsuka (25)
---
Toolie Sees a Ball Game: Didn't see much of this one
as I was part of a group celebrating a bachelor party.
We had standing room only tickets and decided to
stand up on the patio where the Wildcat Bleachers are.
This wasn't such a great idea since they had most of
it roped off for a special group of barely any people.
You couldn't even sit in the Wildcat Bleachers.
There was only a sliver of railing that was available
to the general public. Pretty lame, but that's the
cost of the Tigers getting good I suppose.
Not much to write about with this one. An Omar
Infante error lead to the two-run sixth. Craig Monroe
tried to jump-start the offense with a home run, but
the Tigers could only manage four hits. The Rangers
only had two! Unreal. Cuppy Coffee won the Dunkin'
Donuts race. Holding a standing room ticket I really
didn't have anyone to root for.
Standings...
Cuppy Coffee - 3
"The Original" Dashing Donut - 2
Biggie Bagel - 1
---
August 20: Texas 7 - Detroit 6
Starters: TEX: Koronka 1.1IP - DET: Bonderman 4.2IP
TEX 002 131 000 7 13 0
DET 060 000 000 6 13 2
W: Benoit (1-1)
L: Grilli (1-2)
S: Otsuka (26)
August 21: Chicago White Sox 1 - Detroit 7
Starters: CWS: Contreras 5IP - DET: Verlander 7IP
CWS 010 000 000 1 7 0
DET 020 023 00X 7 12 0
W: Verlander (15-6)
L: Contreras (11-6)
---
Toolie Sees a Ball Game: What a great day for
baseball! The weather was ideal, traffic was minimal,
and the arch-nemesis White Sox were in town to open a
four-game slobber-knocker with our boys. This
promised to be entertaining, though the cards seemed
to be stacked against Detroit. Contreras had been
unsolvable, Verlander had been average against the
Sox, and the Tigers had just dropped three straight to
the mediocre Rangers. Thankfully the game wasn't
decided on paper.
Arrived in Detroit around 5PM with my cousin Lisa
(first trip to Comerica) and my girlfriend Lia. We
found a spot on the street (50 cents after feeding the
meter) and grabbed some grub in Greektown. Hellas was
closed (closed Mondays, they must also be barbers...)
so we tried the Parthenon. I give it an A.
Full of Greek goodness we strolled to the park and
made it in a little after 6PM. We watched the Sox
take a little BP and I tried to convert a ten year old
Sox fan. She kept trying to get left-fielder Scott
Podsednik to toss her a BP ball but he kept throwing
them back to the infield. I told her that he was just
mean and that Tigers players give balls away, but she
wasn't having any of it. She was from Chicago, and
when I asked her if she liked the Cubs too she said
"No way I hate the Cubs." Yep, she was definitely
from Chicago. I noticed she had an autograph on her
shirt, so I asked who signed it. "My Uncle Fred," she
replied. I thought that was ridiculous but then she
added "...my Uncle Fred Lynn." She seemed impressed
(and proud) that I knew who he was. But the
conversation quickly turned to her visits to
California and Legoland and I lost interest. She was
a cute kid... except of course that she was a Sox fan.
Uncle John O'Toole and family were there so we chatted
for about a half-hour before the game. We had
discounted upper-deck seats, so up we went. Things
looked ominous in the early going. Verlander escaped
trouble in the first with a strike-em-out
throw-throw-throw-em-out but surrendered a homer to
Jermaine Dye in the second. The worm turned in the
bottom half of the inning when Magglio was plunked by
Jose Contreras. The Tigers followed that up with
three straight hits to score two runs. It was all
they could muster, though, and I still felt uneasy
about leaving more men on base.
Justin Verlander quelled any fears I had with a gritty
performance. Only four Sox batters reached base in
the next five innings. Craig Monroe padded the lead
with a bullet that just cleared the old wall in left.
Sean Casey (3 for 4) added a two-run double and Inge
brought him home with a single to cap the scoring.
Rodney and Jones put a couple guys on but didn't allow
any runs. I can't imagine how the game could have
gone much better. It was an incredibly fun game to be
at. Biggie Bagel came through for us in the Cheap
Seats and got back into the Dunkin Donuts Cup Race.
Astoria Bakery afterwards completes the perfecto
evening.
Standings...
Cuppy Coffee - 3
"The Original" Dashing Donut - 2
Biggie Bagel - 2
---
August 22: Chicago White Sox 0 - Detroit 4
Starters: CWS: Buerhle 5.1IP - DET: Rogers 7IP
CWS 000 000 000 0 5 0
DET 201 010 00X 4 9 3
W: Rogers (13-6)
L: Buehrle (10-10)
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Readers Write In...
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Deborah "Ran Amok In" Kent
Hey, O'Toole!
I'm so glad the Weekly circulates internationally =).
You'll be amused to know that I caught some baseball
last week in a somewhat emergency situation: I
discovered a crop of friends who had (gasp!) never
been to a game before! ASAP, I whisked them off to
see the local boys of summer... a farm team for the
Oakland As. It was a gorgeous night and the fans were
really energetic. (The cowbell giveaway probably added
to the ruckus.) It was an action-packed game ~ perfect
for a primer. One friend kept exclaiming in disbelief,
"And I've always heard baseball was boring!?" Au
contraire, mon cher. We started off with TWO anthems
and then saw practically one of everything, which
provided plenty of opportunities to explain the game
(fortunately for me, there was one guy with us who
could also field questions). The peanuts (Virginia
peanuts, of course) were a big hit and the 7th inning
stretch came just when the board-straight benches
became unbearably uncomfortable. The newbies found
the concept of tagging up particularly mysterious, but
once they figured that out, the Infield Fly Rule was a
piece of cake. The game was on the wire right up until
the last pitch ~ it was a nail-biter of a ninth.
Although the home team lost in the end, we enjoyed a
grand night out at the old ball game. I'm sorry you
missed it.
~Deborah
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Paul "Jerome" Kersey
Least favorite sports personality? Dick Vitale. The
guy needs to start taking his meds.
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Lee "S.S." Cole
Toolie,
Regarding your poll question, Skip is a serious
offender when it comes to annoying sports figures. I
don't mind him on TV when he is by himself, but he is
bad on radio and almost unwatchable when paired with
the superlatively bad Woody Paige. As for Skip's
Tigers comment, in his defense, he did at least rank
the Tigers as the best team in baseball less than a
week ago, while his lover Woody Paige had them at
fourth, I believe; nonetheless, you are right on in
observing that Skip makes ridiculously exaggerated
claims for the purpose of effect. As for the most
serious offenders: Chris Berman (only Toolie can make
corny nicknames funny; if I hear "Jermaine 'Live and
Let' Dye" one more time, I'm going to throw my TV out
the window); Bill Walton (toning down a bit but still
grating); Skip Paige/Woody Bayless (see above).
Dishonorable mention: Stuart Scott (he would be
solid, if he would stop with the over-the-top ghetto
shtick; you can only take so much "he is just SICK!"
until you're feeling a bit sick yourself).
In other news, a new Bengal cub arrived on the scene
last Saturday: Margaret Thérèse Cole, weighing in at
6lbs 8oz. Mom was actually watching baseball during
much of active labor, so we know what sport little
Magpie will be partial to. Unfortunately, Fox was
picking up the Yankees game and not the Tigers game;
I'm sure when Margaret is baptized she'll turn away
from the pinstripes and be faithful only to the Motor
City Kitties.
Out,
Lee
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Andy "Kin Korn" Karnitz
I found this in the AP wire story in the NY Times
follwing Monday's Tigs/ChiSox tilt:
"White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen downplayed the
significance of the series before and after the game.
''When you're managing the team, you've got to go low
key,'' he said."
Yep. Ozzie Guillen. Low key.
Peace, Andy
ps- I like the ring of Iron Mike Presents the Over
Five-Hundy Meter.
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Toolie's Trashtalk...
Ozzie Guillen certainly didn't play it low-key
tonight. He was run out of the game in the second
inning for arguing balls and strikes. His beef was
justified, but his ranting didn't exactly inspire his
club.
This has to be the best I've felt after a 3-4 week.
The two wins over the White Sox seem to have Tiger
fans brimming with confidence. Minnesota's loss to
Baltimore tonight was unexpected but welcome, and it
meant the Tigers increased their division lead by a
full game. Boston continues to struggle, increasing
the likelihood that the Wild Card will come from the
Central (good for the Tigers).
To err is human. To error is apparently Tiger. We
have seen some crooked numbers recently in the error
column for our boys. Sloppy defense cost them a game
in Chicago and it cost them again on Saturday night.
The Bengals were able to survive another three errors
on Tuesday (thanks to some great pitching). An
error-filled game in the post-season can bring a team
down, so I hope that this problem is remedied.
Lee, congrats on the birth of your daughter. I hope
the doc didn't make an error on the delivery. If he
did, 1-800-CALL-SAM or 1-800-I-SUE-BIG (an I-75
billboard favorite).
Gotta run for now, but looking ahead it's another bg
week. Cleveland will want revenge for the sweep
earlier this month and the trip to New York could be
an ALCS preview (knocking on wood again). Anyone else
feeling apathetic about the upcoming football season?
It's still Tiger Time!
I'm Out.
P.S. Attached is a photo of Carlos Guillen's picture
that gets put on the scoreboard when he bats. The
look on his face is hilarious. Try and imagine (in
your best Venezuelan voice) what Carlos might be
thinking... it's fun!
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Play Ball!
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