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Ho hum, ho hum, another spectacular week. 6-1, status
quo, what else is on? Tigers rule, can't be
touched...
Strangely this season is not a dream. After years and
years of futility we finally have a serious contender
in Detroit and it's a welcome change. After a tough
extra-inning loss to the Devil Rays the Tigers bounce
back like they have all year and, rather easily, run
off six wins in a row. The club is showing that it
can win in Jekyll (small-ball) or Hyde (long-ball)
mode. Tonight and twice against the Cubs the Tigers
showed their mean side and really thumped the
competition. The other games were lower scoring but
pitching and defense pulled them through. This squad
is no one-trick pony, and you need a whole bag of
tricks to last an entire season (and post-season).
Check out the Game Linescores section for two recaps
of Saturday's game and a recap of Sunday's game by
fans Brian Vessell, Nic Gilbert, and Derek Muller.
Weekly readers represent at Wrigley!
New Subscribers...
Chris "Capuano" Church
Emily "C.C." Sawyer
Tom "The Shocker" Coulter
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Week of 6/14 - 6/20
Record: 6-1 LWWWWWW
Undy-Five-Hundy: By now it appears that the Tigers
will make it to Five-Hundy. Maybe I'll start a
countdown. With 48 wins now, the Tigers need just 35
more to guarantee a winning season. That's a little
more than ten runs per month, a goal that seems quite
manageable.
Up Next for the Tigers... interleague rolls on...
June 21 @ Milwaukee
June 22 no game scheduled...
June 23-25 St. Louis
June 26-28 Houston
AL Central Standings...
DET 48 24 -
CWS 45 25 2
MIN 35 34 11.5
CLE 32 38 15
KCR 20 49 26.5
Tigers Division...
DET 48 24 -
CWS 44 25 2
NYM 44 26 3
STL 42 27 4.5
BOS 41 28 5.5
Tigers News and Notes: Welcome Wil Ledezma back to
the big-leagues. The full-of-promise lefty returns to
the bullpen at the expense of Bobby Seay. Ledezma's
numbers at Toledo have been great and so far he's
allowed just one walk in 2.1 innings of relief.
Ledezma seems ot have a lot more upside than Seay and
he should be a good addition to the pen.
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Tigers of the Week...
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After last night's game I was ready to hand the award
to Jeremy Bonderman. Tonight Zach Miner made a case
that he should get the honor. Then I remembered that
Kenny Rogers went eight strong at Wrigley for his
200th win. Then I recalled that Nate Robertson and
Justin Verlander had great starts. So the winners
this week are the entire Tigers rotation. They went
43.2 innings this week and gave up 8 earned runs.
That's an ERA of 1.65! It's been a treat to watch
these guys pitch. How about Miner in his last three?
Amazing.
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Moves Around the Central...
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Lots happened this week in the AL Central. The White
Sox made a deal with the Red Sox trading a prospect
for reliever David Riske, the Twins released Tony
Batista, the Royals picked up outfielder Joey
Gathright from the Devil Rays, and the Indians
released former Tiger Jason Johnson.
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Makeup Date w/ The Birds
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If you recall, the rubber game of the series with
Baltimore was rained out. According to the Tigers'
schedule on MLB.com that game has been rescheduled for
September 21. It comes in the middle of a short road
trip consisting of stops in Chicago and Kansas City.
Maybe the O's will have their September call-ups
playing by then and we'll catch 'em at a good time.
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Pesky White Sox...
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The Tigers have gone 11-3 in the last two weeks and
they've gained... a half-game on the White Sox.
What?!?! Ever since the Tigers left Chicago the
results of each teams' games have been identical.
When the Tigers win, the Sox win. When the Tigers
lose, the Sox lose. The only thing that allowed the
Tigers to pick up that half-game was the Sox having
Monday off. Obviously the champs aren't going
anywhere. And don't look now but the Twins have won
eight in a row and are a game over .500! Meanwhile
the Indians are sliding and the Royals just won their
20th game.
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Trivia and Ball Game...
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Again I implore people to check out the website and
try your luck at Tigers Trivia. Thanks to Josh Klomp
for submitting some nice questions. Also please send
in pictures of your experiences at any major league
ball park and we'll put them up on the website.
www.tigersweekly.com
It's looking good for the Tigers Weekly Baseball Game
as far as players are concerned. Don't let that deter
you from participating, though. The more, the
merrier. Now I need to secure a field and an umpire,
but I need to nail down the day that we'll be playing.
If you haven't already, please send me which of the
three Saturdays after the 4th of July you'd be able to
make it. I hope to make the decision on the exact
date sometime this week.
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All-Star Ballot
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I did the old vote twenty-five times thing today on
MLB.com. It's actually not too difficult, as the form
keeps the checkmarks next to who you voted for. All
you need to do each time is enter a code of wavy
numbers and letters and repeatedly uncheck the boxes
that sign you up for unwanted e-mails. Here are my
votes. I took a very anti-NY-BOS stance in the
American League. AL guy first, then the NL guy.
1B: Teixeira, Howard
2B: Roberts, Utley
3B: Crede, Zimmerman
SS: Tejada, Reyes
C: Rodriguez, Molina
OF: Crawford, Ordonez, Suzuki; Holliday, Lee, Soriano
I did vote for Joe Mauer about six times because he is
clearly the best-hitting catcher this year (leads the
AL with a .380 AVG). However, with Jason Varitek
leading, I felt it was my duty to vote a bunch of
times for Pudge. I guess I should explain some picks.
I voted for Howard (.291, 23 HR, 59 RBI) because I
thought Pujols was going to be out longer. Albert
will win that vote easily. Probably could have picked
Berkman but I felt like going with the young guy.
Teixiera's not doing great this year but he's one of
my favorites and I couldn't vote for Giambi or Ortiz
and Hafner doesn't play the field. I guess I could
have voted for Shelly but he's been so brutal lately.
Roberts' stats are comaparable to Cano's and he's not
a Yankee. I almost voted for Grudzielanek just to
give the Royals some love.
I just like the rookie Ryan Zimmerman. He's not even
close to the best 3B in the NL this year.
At SS, Jeter, Tejada, and Michael Young are all
ripping it up in the AL. Reyes has 30 SB for the Mets
this year. I have a soft spot for steals (where have
you gone Roger Cedeno?).
In the OF, Ichiro is back to being Ichiro, Maggs is
earning his stripes and his $$$, and Carl Crawford is
amazing to watch. Holliday almost leads the NL in
AVG, Carlos Lee has great power numbers and he's a
Brewer (who I secretly root for), and Alfonso Soriano
has great numbers despite his move from 2B.
Feel free to comment on my selections and let me know
who y'all are voting for. Online voting can be done
at http://www.mlb.com. This year it counts...again.
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Who's Your Tiger Look-alike?
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With a start like this we should try and form a team
of dopplegangers. Take a look at some of the
similarities. I tried to find pics where they were in
similar poses, but I only really managed to do this in
the first case.
Fred Rogers as Dave Dombrowski
Fred:
http://www.childrensmuseum.org/special_exhibits/
misterrogers/images/fred_rogers.jpg
Dave:
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/images/1/dombrowski-
david-tigers-05.jpg
Rich Uncle Pennybags as Jim Leyland
Pennybags:
http://www007.upp.so-net.ne.jp/chance88/monopoly/HTML
/m-y-tin-carry2.html
Leyland:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al/tigers/
2005-10-04-leyland-hired_x.htm?csp=34
Shaun of the Dead Guy as Brandon Inge
Shaun:
http://www.thefilmasylum.com/gallery/Shaun-of-the-
Dead/aab
(the guy on
the right, obviously)
Inge:
http://www.tigerscentral.com/players.php?pnum=144
Ron Weasley as Chris Shelton
Weasley:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.
harry-potter-games.com/Images/ron%26rat.jpg&imgrefurl
=http://www.harry-potter-games.com/Pictures_of_Ron_
Weasley.htm&h=425&w=338&sz=8&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=
RsaOyF7eUffEJM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%
2522ron%2Bweasley%2522%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
%26c2coff%3D1%26sa%3DG
Shelton:
http://www.tigerscentral.com/players.php?pnum=59
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Game Linescores...
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June 14: Tampa Bay 5 - Detroit 1 F/12
Starters: TBD: Hendrickson 9IP - DET: Bonderman 8IP
TBD 000 010 000 004 5 12 1
DET 000 000 001 000 1 5 0
W: Meadows (2-1)
L: Jones (1-5)
June 15: Tampa Bay 2 - Detroit 6
Starters: TBD: Fossum 5.2IP - DET: Miner 7IP
TBD 200 000 000 2 3 1
DET 002 301 00X 6 12 2
W: Miner (2-1)
L: Fossum (2-3)
June 16: Detroit 5 - Chicago Cubs 3
Starters: DET: Robertson 7IP - CHC: Rusch 1.2IP
DET 220 010 000 5 10 1
CHC 010 100 010 3 6 0
W: Robertson (7-3)
L: Rusch (2-7)
S: Jones (18)
June 17: Detroit 9 - Chicago Cubs 3
Starters: DET: Verlander 5.2IP - CHC: Marmol 6IP
DET 301 000 032 9 14 0
CHC 010 000 002 3 12 0
W: Verlander (8-4)
L: Marmol (1-1)
---
Game Recap sent in by Brian "Clarence Carter" Vessell:
I went to my first game in Wrigley Field on Saturday.
And on top of visiting one of the most historic fields
in history, the Cubs were playing
the Tigers. The atmosphere in Chicago was great!
About 25% of the crowd was wearing Tiger
paraphernalia.
The game started out great with Granderson hitting a
triple to lead off the game in the right field corner.
This lead to the LET'S-GO-TIGERS chants
(there were many more chants throughout the day). It
was pretty amazing how loud the crowd cheered for the
Tigers. Polanco came up next and hit in Granderson,
and a few batters later Guillen hit a homerun and the
Tigers put up three in the top of the 1st. The Cubs
never really seemed to make much of a scoring threat
(but maybe that was the Old Style). They did leave
25 men on base throughout the day.
Verlander pitched okay, but not great. He allowed 9
hits in 5.2 IP, walking 3, and striking out 4.
All in all it was a great day to visit Wrigley and
even better to see the Tigers win another one.
Go Tigers!
---
Another Recap By Nic "Gilby" Gilbert:
Gilby sees a ballgame...
The day started off with a 4hr drive to Chi-town in
90+ heat with my girlfriend Lindsay, as every major
highway had construction in Chicago as well as
downtown being closed off due to National Puerto Rican
Day or something. One of my friend’s father owns the
Budweiser house behind left field and was holding a
party. The goal was just to go to the party and enjoy
Chicago, but you can't just do that at Wrigley. So
after a trip to the 7-11 ATM, I was able to obtain 2
tickets behind home plate. Once inside the stadium, I
swear I saw nothing but Tigers fans. And then once we
sat down, it seemed like it was only Tigers fan being
loud. I never have seen something like that in
another team’s ballpark before.
The game was just a blowout from the start with
Guillen lifting to the right field seats. In the 6th,
it was nice to see Wilfredo Ledezma back in a Tigers
uni after Verlander loaded the bases. In the 8th
inning there was some controversy and with controversy
comes another on of Leland's great outbursts. He was
running all over the place in front of the umpire when
they ruled Infante's HR a triple (it was clearly long
gone and took 2 bounces out before bouncing back in
play). After a lengthy umpire conference the ruling
stood and the crowd booed frantically.
A few batters later I was able to witness some history
in the making. Leland walked up to Fernando Rodney
and told him to grab a bat. His face was priceless.
There was a loud chant of Rodney-Rodney throughout his
at-bat. He was laughing from the moment he grabbed a
bat until he grounded out to the pitcher. It was his
first at-bat of his professional career and maybe the
last. At least he hit the ball in play and didn’t
strike out like most pitchers these days. I have
included a picture of him at bat.
In the end Guillen, Ordonez and Polanco had three hits
apiece, the Tigers had won 9-3 and Tiger country was
happy. A chant of lets go Tigers was buzzing around
the stadium as people were exiting going along with
high fives with other avid Tigers fans. An even
stranger event occurred as I went to two different
souvenir stands looking for a program. At each stand,
more than one fan was asking where the Detroit hats
were at and each time a disgruntled employee referred
the fan to a sports shop down the road. After a
return trip to the Budweiser house, a ride on the Red
Line to downtown, and a stroll to Michigan Ave and
the Garret's Popcorn shop (for those who have not
visited yet it is a must) it was time to hit the road
home again.
Let's Go Tigers!!!
---
June 18: Detroit 12 - Chicago Cubs 3
Starters: DET: Rogers 8IP - CHC: Prior 3.2IP
DET 600 220 020 12 13 0
CHC 001 100 001 3 5 1
W: Rogers (10-3)
L: Prior (0-1)
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Game Recap sent in by Derek "The Clone" Muller:
Tool, saw the game Sunday. What a classic. Great
group of Tigers fans who chanted loudly by the end.
I'll skip most of the obvious details and cut to the
chase. First, the Cubs just looked lost. Prior threw
a lot of first-pitch balls and just looked lost out
there.
Obvious in-game stat: 8 Tigers home runs. Very nice
to watch.
Post-game stat: Rogers's 200th win. Didn't know that
coming in. His double late in the game brought all
the Tigers fans to their feet, and we were going nuts.
It was amazing.
Score-keeping stat: Keeping score ($2 for a scorecard!
I mean, you get a nice pencil, but I'm spoiled by $1
scorecards) I saw a neat Rogers stat. Of his 24 outs,
19 came from IF putouts, and 2 from strikeouts. That
means 21 of his 24 outs never left the infield. He
was just completely dominant. First to 10? This man
deserves another All-Star appearance. What a great
pickup in the off-season. I admit, I was skeptical,
but it's been worth it.
---
June 19: Detroit 3 - Milwaukee 1
Starters: DET: Bonderman 7IP - MIL: Davis 7IP
DET 000 000 030 3 6 0
MIL 000 000 100 1 4 2
W: Bonderman (7-4)
L: Wise (4-4)
S: Jones (19)
June 20: Detroit 10 - Milwaukee 1
Starters: DET: Miner 9IP - MIL: Helling 2.1IP
DET 026 200 000 10 9 0
MIL 000 000 001 1 5 1
W: Miner (3-1)
L: Helling (0-1)
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Readers Write In...
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Tim "Dawg" Daggett
I could actually make the 22nd and would love to play.
I was star in RARA (Rochester Area Recreation
Authority) back in the day.
I would have the All Star game chosen by some
ridiculous computer formula designed to decide the
best player at each position, teams only get the
regular season number of roster spots (thus only 3-4
subs), Once the game starts the commissioner has no
say in what happens, and they all try as hard as they
can to win.
Coach Daggett
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Nick "The Greek" Ciofani
After watching the Tribe take on the Yankees I feel
like riding on a motorcycle without a helmet.
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Mike "Colonel" Kopec
I can't believe that neither you nor Mike Claus
mentioned Matt Anderson among your "Tigers who pissed
me off." First ballot HOF on this list, in my
opinion.
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Steve "Stone" Sprague
Toolie,
For the All Star game the biggest change I would make
is that I would allow starters to re-enter the game.
Those guys often times are the best in the league and
the guys you want up at the end of the game when it
get's a little close. I love the NBA All Star game
and the reason I do is that the end is usually pretty
competitive. The coaches figure out which players are
actually trying, it's usually not hard since there are
only four or five who consistently try, and who the
fan favorites are. Everyone gets to play
though, and usually every one scores. Throw in some
highlight reel dunks and the game is a thing of
beauty.
I know baseball would have a harder time getting
everyone in and getting the starters back in so that's
why I would scrap the "every team get's one
player on the team" rule. The Tigers and Royals did
not deserve an All Star many times over the past
several years, and every year there are a couple of
teams in that category. No one in Kansas City this
year will watch the game solely to see a guy in a KC
uniform play.
If you get rid of that rule then you can pare down the
roster somewhat and maybe have a couple of emergency
reserves in case of injury, or if that rule
must stay make the managers vote for 9 players and
have a rule that any player selected must have three
votes minimum. If a team fails by that measure the
commisioner's office picks that teams best pithcer so
that the bull pen doesn't run dry.
I think that if the fans knew they would get to see a
good finish with 18 of the best players in baseball
trying to win it in the end they would be much more
inclined to care, and to believe that "this time it
counts."
As for the Sox and Yankees bias blame none other than
espn. Whenever those two teams are playing I don't
bother checking espn to see what game they are
showing. I know which one it's going to be. I really
think some one needs to explain to the powers that be
that baseball is played all over the country all year
long, and that there are other rivalries that:
a)actually are rivalries, and
b)make for good baseball.
The Sox have one meaningful win over the Yankees in
the past 90 years, even Michigan State can do better
than that against Michigan.
Steve Sprague
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"Dig" Dug Senters
I will admit that I haven't given the question a lot
of thought. I just enjoy watching the (All-Star)
game. The truth is that I don't even find the game
itself very interesting. I spend most of my time
evaluating the selections - determining how many of
the players I like and how many I don't even know.
One thing I think I would change about the game is
that each team is given at least one representative.
To me that is like giving a trophy to every kid in a
race, even the ones who blow. There are teams that
simply do not deserve All-Stars.
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Nic "Gilby" Gilbert
Classic stuff from CBS.Sportsline's Weekly Power
Rankings. Speaking of the St. Louis Cardinals: "So
much for the NL Central gaining on them with Albert
Pujols out. The division actually fell further behind
and the NL MVP could return this weekend for a
potential October preview in Detroit." Who would have
thought ANYONE would be talking about the Tigers like
this in June.
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Toolie's Trashtalk...
So I know I'm a purist when it comes to the topic of
interleague play, but for this season I'll keep my
mouth shut. The Tigers are 7-1 against the NL so far
and I can't say that I would have rather seen them
playing the Yankees and Red Sox. In the long run I
would give interleague the boot. This year it's been
pretty enjoyable for Tiger fans. Watching Tigers
pitchers hit has been a riot. Rogers and Miner
recorded hits and Fernando Rodney even got an at-bat
in Chicago.
On that note I recently realized how lucky the Tigers
have been in interleague. Last season they faced a
Bonds-less Giants squad. This season they missed
Derek Lee, Kerry Wood, and Carlos Zambrano of the
Cubs. Albert Pujols may or may not play this weekend
in Detroit. Fans will obviously want to see Pujols
play but I won't shed too many tears if he's out
(especially since I won't be in attendance).
Everything's coming up Tigers.
Want to know how much the Tigers are making this
season? CBS Sportsline is your hook-up. Check out
the bargains and the busts here:
http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/teams/roster/DET
This just in: Pronk is the dumbest nickname ever. I
don't care what it stands for, Tribe Fan, it's
retarded. Travis Hafner is the man, but that nickname
is brutal.
Colonel, thanks for calling me out on Matt Anderson.
He probably should have made my list of annoying
Tigers. Perhaps the fact that I won a fantasy
baseball league with the team "Matt Anderson's
Duckbutts" led me to show mercy. A duckbutt, for
those that don't know, is when you have a bunch of
curly hair sticking out from the back of your baseball
hat. Magglio has a pretty good one right now, and so
does Rodney, I think. Matt Anderson in curly hair
mode had a great one. Whenever I start to get a good
one going I get yelled at and end up in the barber's
chair.
Sprague, good point about the Yankees and Red Sox. I
wouldn't be surprised if 70% of the games broadcast on
ESPN (and ESPN2) involve one of those two teams. It's
almost as annoying as how much uber-coverage that
network gives the NBA. NBA Fastbreak on a night when
there's no game? Stop wasting my time and put some
shows on that relate to what happened today (I'm
referring to Saturday). With a full slate of
interleague baseball, the USA playing Italy in soccer,
Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and Day 3 of the
U.S. Open, there were plenty of more important things
to talk about on the Trifecta than previewing SUNDAY
night's game. That NBA talk bores me to tears.
Big World Cup game this Thursday for the USA. At
least they're not out of it yet. They essentially
need a win and a Czech Republic loss, something that
is not inconceivable, to advance. Then they'll play
Brazil. Ugh. It doesn't look promising, but the
least we can do is cheer for the red, white, and blue.
The Brewers have a player named Corey Hart! He was
not wearing his sunglasses tonight, though I think
"Sunglasses at Night" should be his entrance music.
If only I ruled the world...
Well this issue is long enough that I think we can
call it quits here. A tougher test, to be sure, this
week as the Tigs face St. Louis and Houston. Gotta
keep showing the NL Central how it's done.
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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changing, drop a line and it will be updated...
Play Ball!
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