It Never Gets Old

Watching the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup. Way to go Boys!!!!

After spending Monday night downtown in the D hoping to cash in on the celebration and getting one of the biggest gut punches ever (as well as no sleep), last night was awesome to see.

I was pulling for a Saturday morning parade but they're having it Friday instead. Little bummed out, I was seriously thinking about packing up the family and taking in the experience on Saturday. Oh well, with the way things go, there should be more opportunities.

For those that watched the game and especially the last 1:47, was that not the wildest minute and forty-seven seconds ever in sports!?!?!?! Mad dash, scrambling, the puck all over the place and literally floating just in front of the goal mouth...AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, awesome to see.

And?

Who cares?

Does it even matter anymore?

40 years ago a highly anticipated report was released that was supposed to put to the rest the controversy and questions surrounding the assignation of the President of the United States. 40 years later, no one knows anything. The Warren Commission report was supposed to put to the rest the assassination of JFK. Instead it left it wide open.

Similarly, the Mitchell report will be released today and its purpose is to put to the rest the issue of Steroids within MLB.

Well whoopdee do.

Does anyone even care by now?

People are more curious about the “80 players” that will be named in the report. It’s a curiosity thing more than it is a caring thing.

Alex Rodriguez?

Pudge Rodriguez?

Gary Sheffield?

Roger Clemens?

Randy Johnson?

If those names appear what’s going to happen to the sport of baseball?

Nothing.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m going to be sure to be at my computer at 2pm today when the report drops on the public. I want to see all the names too. But this isn’t like the Black Sox scandal of 1919. This isn’t guys “throwing a game” This isn’t Pete Rose betting on a game he is competing and/or managing. I know, I know, Pete Rose admits to gambling on baseball, admits to gambling on the Reds, but he never gambled against the Reds, or so he says. The integrity of the game has been tarnished, but none of us go to a baseball game and are suspicious the outcome has been “fixed.” We just expect to see a home run every inning.

Big Deal….right?

I’ve said it here before, so I won’t waste anymore of your time except to say this is a glorified book report. The issue of steroids is a bummer to baseball fans, no doubt about it. I don't like it. Bonds is an a-hole, that’s why he gets beat up the most. But he’ll make the Hall of Fame. McGwire? Probably won’t make it. But steroids aren’t a moral issue like the media wants to make it.

What we have is a great Oliver Stone script. Just as Oliver spent 3 hours presenting every freakin nuance of the JFK assassination, he has all the makings of a great 3 hour extravaganza making a mockery of a National Pastime.

Think about what this whole story has. Drugs? Check. Good guys? Check. Bad Guys? Check. A shady gray area between the Good guys and Bad guys? Check. A suspect leader? Check. We have speculation, conspiracy, back door shenanigans, and cover-ups. We have old pictures as possible evidence. We have interviews and taped testimony. We have (unfortunately) death and deceit. We have a massive investigation. We have a hyped media. We have one person who is the sole “patsy” of the witch hunt, and we have a slew of characters that have a shade of suspicion around them. And now we have a book report. A year and a half in the making that the public is waiting with bated breath to view. And all it will do is confirm what we all already knew……

Which is what?

Tigers 2007 Review Part 2

I'm Brian A. Maloney and I approve this message.


Read part 1 here, but part 2 is only going to be a couple links.

Why?

Because the Tigers picked up the $13 million option on a washed up catcher in Pudge Rodriguez.

Plus, the newspaper article I am referencing re-hash most of the same stuff I would have minus my glaring critique of one Brandon Inge in addition to Pudge.

The Tigers actually do have a lot of issues to address in the offseason for a team that has done so well in the last couple of years. It should be interesting and (hopefully) kind of fun.

So here you go.

The Heat is On

Who's Your Next Tiger





Paid for by the committee to talk about my beloved Detroit Tigers.

Lions are to good football as Global Warming is to...

I'm Brian A. Maloney and I approve this message.

Al Gore has just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor he shares with Yasser Arafat and Le Duc Tho. Gore has received a number of awards and honors from Europeans, who seem to wish to punish George Bush's policies by showering awards on his defeated opponent. (Gore would have been president had he carried his own state of Tennessee, but he couldn't manage it.)

Unfortunately for Europe, the United States has been independent now for more than two centuries. It's nice for Gore that he won the prize, but who now remembers Frank Billings Kellogg, who won the Nobel for co-authoring the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, which outlawed war? How's that pact working out?

Americans have happily been ignoring Europeans for quite a long time, except when they have dragged us into their various wars between awarding people peace prizes.

The Nobel Peace Prize Committee likely cares little about Al Gore's "moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity" or his green cult or its pagan Earth-god. Gore's Nobel is just the latest evidence of the committee's use of surrogates like the ex-veep and Jimmy Carter (in 2002) and Mohamed ElBaradei (in 2005) to embarrass the United States - a state of mind that says more about European elites' insecurity in the modern age than anything else.

But as much material as the Gore Nobel feeds people of like political mindness like myself, the dimunition of the prize's seriousness is a tragedy.

The Nobel can have real power in shining a light into some of the world's darker corners.

In Burma, courageous monks are defying a brutal military dictatorship. In Iran, men and women die for their civil rights at the hands of religious despots. International chess star Garry Kasparov and others have been arrested resisting that country's slide back to authoritarian rule.

The Nobel could help elevate these causes to international attention. Instead, preening Nobel leftists throw their baubles at a rich ex-politician so that he can assuage his guilt of flying on gas-guzzling private airplanes to green fundraisers in sprawling Hollywood mansions.

Paid for by the committee to stop the FEARMONGERING!!

Tigers 2007 Review Part 1

Making a rare weekend appearance today.

What a difference a year makes. Just to make it even more upsetting, I can also offer you this too.

Disaster.

That's all it is.

When you are the returning AL Champ, have the AL Batting Champ (Magglio Ordonez), the runner-up to the AL MVP (Magglio Ordonez again), a top 5 Cy Young Candidate (Justin Verlander), lead the majors in hits, 3rd in the majors in runs, second in the majors in batting average, the second team to 60 wins, the 2nd best record at the All-Star break, 3,000,000+ fans, and the best record in baseball as late as July 23 and fail to make the playoffs, much less win 90 games, the season ends as a disaster.

Not 43-119 disaster. That's a different level.

But the season is a disaster.

You wasted two of the best individual performances by players in Tiger history (Magglio and Curtis Granderson) as well as brilliant seasons by Polanco, Verlander, Guillen, and Todd Jones. Failed to even win 90 games (which means you can't even play .555 baseball) and more importantly than all of that, not make the playoffs.

But, the injury bug was a huge problem this year. I do not think any team could overcome the injuries that destroyed this team.

• Their number 1 pitcher (Kenny Rogers) was gone for 2/3 of the season.
• Their number 2 and 4 (Bonderman and Robertson) pitchers also missed time with injury as well.
• With the starting pitching injuries we had to use 12 different pitchers to start games this year. That's not to "try a guy" out, but out of neccessity.
• Their number 1 setup guy (Zumaya) missed 1/2 the season
• Their number 2 setup guy (Rodney) missed a month or so.
• Their big bat in the lineup (Sheffield) missed a month or so and has been at maybe 70% the last month of the season too.

But injuries aren't an excuse or a reason to write off a season like 2007 as nothing other than a disaster. I say that for a couple reasons. First and tops among all are the expectations the season started with. Most baseball pundits were picking the Tigers to win it all. Also, most of those injury issues all came in before the collapse in August. It wasn't until September that the Sheffield thing manifested itself, Bonderman went down, and Kenny took a second stint on the DL.

But probably more than the expectations and the injuries their were some very bad performance issues as well.

• The starting pitching was brutal for a long stretch of time. Verlander was the only starting pitcher that met expectations this year...not exceeded, but just met.
• The bullpen had a horrible 1st half to the season. Todd Jones, yes, Todd Jones was the only consistency, and that isn't saying anything at all.
• The bottom 1/2 of the lineup had no performance (Pudge, flavor of the week for batting #7, Casey, Monroe, Inge, Santiago, Infante, Thames (who actually came the closest)) for nearly the whole season.
• None of their young players who were called up were consistent for anything longer than 3 days. This includes Miller, Maybin (a disaster to have been called up so soon), Rayburn, Hessman, Clevelan, Lopez, De La Cruz, Tata, and Vasquez. Compare that to Cleveland who had guys like Garko, Gutierrez (who was a Tiger killer this year), Shoppach, Cabrera, Carmona, and Perez for Cleveland.
• And Leyland rolled up some absolute horrible lineups and seemed too stubborn to make some necessary changes (like bench Brandon Inge, not bat Pudge 6th, etc.)
• Dombrowski also made bad moves. No deal at the deadline, waiting too late to send Monroe away, calling up Maybin too early to name a couple.
• And during the collapse we didn't win 10 series in a row: KC, at Chicago, at Anaheim (sweep), at Oakland, Chicago (sweep...at home!), Tampa, Oakland, at Cleveland, at Yankees, Cleveland (in that order) to go 11-23.

Throw in that shameful sweep by Cleveland a couple of weeks ago and that's an 0 for 9Detroit just cannot have. Going 19 - 17 against the horrible White Sox and Royals didn't help either. Finishing 6 games out of the wild card is a lot, but then again it isn't. If we win one game in each of the 3 sweeps we had, win two of those aforementioned 10 series we lost, and then go 21-15 against the last place KC and White Sox teams we are in the playoffs.

But that is the terror that is baseball. All it takes is a game or two here or there. Baseball is the only sport where coulda, woulda, shoulda works or has an iota of credence.

What the season did show was that 2006 wasn't a fluke or an apparition on the whole. Some individuals may have been (Inge, Monroe, etc.), but the team is legite in the grand scheme of baseball. The stayed in the race until the last weekend of the season. And no one is writing them off (on the national level...your ESPNs, Fox Sports, etc.).

Up next some positional breakdowns and a recap of the players as well as look at some of their offseason decisions (hint...one of them is in New York right now)

Without Even Knowing It

I broke my own personal record for posts in a month.

August had 19 posts.

WOW!!!

I didn't even realize I was posting that frequent through the month. The way it goes sometimes I guess.

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No Last 5 today, coming back from a holiday weekend leaves no time to do much research on boring mundane things to fill up 3 minutes of your day.

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I take some umbrage to the nominations Corey posted for his space golden globe oscar trophy thingie. He nominated a post written in September (no offense Toby, great work) for an award regarding August work....this is two months in a row that scandel has rocked the space heisman trophy. Could it be the end?

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The Tigers have 25 games to win at least 90 games (my self-proclaimed majic number of wins any team in baseball will need to make the playoffs). This means they have to go 17-8 just to get to 90 wins. Can they do it? We'll find out. They have 6 against the White Sox, 6 against Minnesota, 3 against Seattle, Texas, Cleveland, and KC, as well as one make up game against Toronto. Of their final 25 games, 16 are at home. All starts tonight with Bondo.

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And I would be remiss if I did not mention the monumental upset, biggest choke of all time. UofM managed to go Buckner in the Big House and lose to a 1-AA team.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

No wonder Michigan always ducked the 1-AA squads when assembling their schedule.

Arghhhh...?

I hate Lebron James!



Since uttering those words Thursday night, Friday morning around 1am.....

Let's say the weekend was crazy.

We all know about Thursday night and LB effin J. Arghh.....

Well Friday night wasn't much better with the Tigers blowing a 4 run lead in the bottom of 9th by giving up 5 runs to the freakin' CLEVELAND INDIANS. Arghh.......

Then after the game, saying good-bye to the brother in law and sister in law, my computer starts to reboot and shut itself down constantly. Arghh.......

Brother-in-law is a computer tech-head for Quicken Loans though, he says the Operating System is still there but something has corrupted a registery or one of the start-up programs. He can fix it! So we disconnect the tower and the external hard drive we have and he takes all of that to his home friday night, he pulls out the hard drive, hooks it up to a computer of his (he has like 5 of them...he is a serious tech-head, but not the geeky kind that wears glasses and listens to Radiohead all night, but geeky enough that he goes to "Network Partys" where 5 or 6 dudes bring their laptops hook them all up to one big network and play games) backups what he can off of my computer onto the external hard drive and then does system restore.

Problem still though, he's going to Cleveland to watch game 6 and Michele and I are leaving at 9am to head up-north for my sister's High-School graduation. Michele works exclusively from home now with her job at Quicken Loans. Without the computer having the right VPN and Term Web application she cannot work on Monday and will have to go into the office. Arghhh....

However, Quicken tech support always has to have a person on hand just in case something (like this) happens. We find out that we can take the tower to the Troy office (which is on the way up north), drop it off and the tech person will upload all the necessary software. Sweet! It's on the way. But, can't take it there until after 11am. We want to be 2 hours into our trip up north by then. Arghhhh.....

Saturday morning, its 80 degrees at 7am already! Holy crap, the humidity. Load up the Ford Taurus. The AC isn't working. Arghhh......

Unload the Taurus, load up the 4 cylinder Contour and get ready to head up. We can't go over 70 but at least we'll have ac. Arghh.....

Arrive up north (after deciding since we're late, we stopped in Reese to visit the in-laws so they can see their grand-child) aroun 6pm. Roughly 5 hours later than planned. Arghhh..... (but the time at the in-laws was worth it and actually provided a good break. Besides, Seth rolled over for the first time, on his own, twice!!).

Armageddon type storm around 7:30 or so in Wolverine is showing on the horizon. Time to batton down the hatches. Storm hits, tree in backyard falls over. Dish Network Satellite isn't working and game is going to tip. Arghhh....

Storm eventaully passes, game is on, watch Daniel Gibson score 31 points, Rasheed plays his last as a Piston (more on that later), and I really hate Lebron James. Went to bed with 4 minutes to go in the game. Used the baby as an excuse...pathetic. Arghh......

Wake up Sunday, watch sister graduate high-school, very cool and very awesome. Decide to head out for home right away (it's 4pm). It rains the whole way home. All the way from Indian River to Detroit it never stopped raining, honest. Slow drive results in kid waking up in car seat screaming. He's hungry. Stop off at the grandparents home in Saginaw to feed Seth and do dinner. Get back on the road and not home until 11:30pm Sunday. Arghh.......

Hook up computer to check everything out. 95% of all mp3 files are gone! 7 years of downloading illegal music gone! Over 5,000 files gone! Arghhh.....

Let me take a moment to state that this may be the one and only time I'll admit my music snobberish. I hate it and I hate people who think they "know music." They claim what is good music and what is bad. No one knows that (except maybe Rick Rubin and Brendan O'Brien...maybe). The only bad music is rap (and that is the politics of it all, not the art form) and "critically acclaimed" is a joke in the music industry. I know good music when I hear it. I know crappy music when I hear it. My favorite song of all time is Just Like Heaven by The Cure. Favorite album of all time is The Verve Pipe - Freshmen. My favorite band of all time is Pearl Jam. Best concert I have ever been to is Kenny Chesny and Keith Urban (Urban opened for Chesney). The last CD I bought was Audioslave - Revelations and I already have on reserve for pickup on June 19 Icky Thump the new release by The White Stripes. I know music. But I will very, very, very rarely ever talk about that fact because music is for you and what you make it. What you like you like and I'm just glad you like music and know what it can do for you.

Anyway, that has been the last 96 hours of life. A big Arghhhh.......

But it has all been fun and worth it. It sucks having lost the music and some oher random files and having to load back up Photoshop and Office and all the updates from Microsoft. But we did get to travel up north safe and sound. We did get to see both parents, see my sister graduate high-school, and drive in an air conditioned car, even if we couldn't go 75-80 like we wanted to.

And of course, there is Seth

Catchin' Up

Man, what a week.

1 - It was Michele's first week back to work. Good news is that she works from home 100%. Oh, the blessing that is technology. Still closing million dollar loans in her pajamas at home. Gotta love that. The bad part is that even though we have some of the woman from our church helping her baby-sit she can hear Seth cry and for the last 12 weeks, se was right there for him. Now she has to finish the phone call or the email or the paperwork. So it has been a little tough on her getting re-adjusted to the new schedule.

2 - I was MIA with a fever over 100 degrees almost all week. Started Tuesday night and by Thursday eveing I was at about 99 degrees. Still, today I am feeling it. But much, much better.

So pile on me being sick and really not coming within 3 feet of Seth for 3 days with Michele working from home and she didn't leave the house once since Monday evening. So she needed to get out and did this morning. So I stayed home and watched Seth (he slept for 3 hours...man that was so hard to do) and was able to catch up on a lot of reading in the blogosphere, political world, and sporting world. As well as work some more on the masculinity series I am trying to tread through. As well, as a brand new lottery system. I'll lay that out at the end.

Tigers are back in first. Ordonez is crushing the ball, Sheffield is back. Some concern with the pitching staff falling apart lately. But do not forget that the Tigers have some young arms in the minors just waiting to crack the majors (Andrew Miller, Virgil Vazquez, Kyle Sleeth, etc.) They'll be fine.

Pistons are going to steamroll to the Finals. They'll probably lose one game, maybe 2 before the Finals. I'd put 50-50 odds on them not losing a game until the Finals. With Dallas out of the picture, the Pistons will win it.

Red Wings - the most underrated 1 seed ever. The "sports critics" give them no credit and claim they aren't grimey, gritty, and tough enough. But they've been the money line favorite in Vegas all playoffs long. You really want a picture of the sports world, look at the Vegas sports lines.

Imagine a June with the Pistons and Red Wings going for the championship and the Tigers battling in the bst division in baseball for first place. If you are a Detroit Sports fan, best time ever right now.

Here are some other great links I read today.

Scripture is all you need - an excerpt

However, the enlightenment, which he called "a movement of spiritual darkness," then so elevated human reason that it became the arbiter of truth and the final authority on all matters. The result was skepticism which led to naturalism and a corresponding suppression of the work of God the Holy Spirit as the illuminator of Truth. Subsequently, those who were considered the experts on Scripture were no longer humble people filled and led by God the Holy Spirit to live a life of love in obedience to Jesus, but rather rationalistic modern critics of both Scripture and the supernatural. According to Packer, the sad result of such subjectivity, where there is no truth but rather only one's opinion, is that my opinion only matters to myself. Tragically, as Francis Schaeffer predicted, subjectivism leads to despair because if there is no Truth and no answers to the great and perplexing questions about life beyond my own subjective opinion, then hope is forever buried.

Dinner is one of the most important elements to the family - a family philosophy Michele and I have been firm on from the beginning. Yes, we have already started it, somewhat.

An excerpt

The largest portion of these family meals was the best part of the day. I think we would all agree that not only was this important to the parenting process, but it defined our family and our relationships to one another in many ways. In my mind, I remember this as a special, much blessed time.

How did the family meal make for successful parenting?

We learned to talk to one another. Conversation is a hallmark of the Spencer family. We talk and we enjoy talking as a family. Sometimes the kids would fight over who was interrupting whom in a conversation. Considering where a lot of people are with their kids- cold silence- this was a good problem to have.

Seem slike Toby is feeling the same way as me lately.

Corey has been thinking way too much in the stillness of the night, he needs to get back to sleep and get it while he still can.

John Frye has a post on a book that is on my hit list this summer.

and

Gary's boy looks just like him, duh.

And now the new lottery. This would raise millions for the schools. Milions for the roads in Michigan and will probably piss a lot of you off.

First, you have to go here and read the story and watch the video to the top right of the screen

Here is what we should do in cases like this.

Hold a lottery everytime something like this happens. Each ticket is a buck or two. In this case, he hit the old man 21 times. There are 21 winners. Everyone who buys a ticket gets there names put into a huge hopper. You can buy as many as you want. They draw out 21 winners. Each winner gets one free shot at this guy. Now you can only punch him where he punched the old man. So in the face or arm. No where else.

How could that not be a winner.

It's been a great Saturday morning. Time to do some yard work. Maybe I'll get a petition started on the lottery thing too.

C-Webb to Detroit? Absolutely!!

For those that do not know, I am NOT a Michigan fan. Oh sure, I am fair weather fan enough to cheer for them against USC and sometimes against Ohio St. but I am a Spartan. By the way, did you watch that Florida/Ohio St. football game on Monday. I thought Jim Tressel coached the Buckeyes? It sure looked like John Cooper and Lloyd Carr morphed into Jim Tressel. Ohio St was so unprepared for a big game (Cooperesque) and then made no adjustment in the 2nd half (Carresque). Crazy.

Anyway, just know that I do not eat the Michigan cornbread.

But Chris Webber coming to Detroit is a good thing and will probably happen for sure. He will probably go right into the starting lineup as our 5, replacing Nazr Mohammed. I think this is a good move.

It sets up Detroit to make a splash at the trade deadline with Flip Murray, Dale Davis, and 2 number 1 draft picks to this year's draft. That is alot and more than most teams, in a title contention, can offer any other team. The team really needs backcourt scoring off the bench. Blaylock and Hunter do not offer that at all. Webber does not address that need but aquiring him opens up the possibility to make the trade to get that.

Webber doesn't make Detroit the prohibitive favorite. It is not as much a slam-dunk as landing Sheed in 04 was, but it is a great move for a little over 1 million dollars. It is good to see a homeboy come back.

Updates Galore

October has proved to be a very busy month for Michele and I. We have had a lot going on. This post is to update on all those things and why my posts here have been few and far.

1) Obviously, the Tigers postseason run took up a lot of time. Went to every home playoff game and watched all the away games. Yes even game 5 of the World Series right up to the end and watched the celebration as well. Every Friday ad Saturday night (but the last one) in October was a Tiger game and we would go early to them as well and tailgate or do dinner downtown.

2) It is wine season and as such, there is somewhere in the proximity of 115-125 gallons of wine in my basement right now. A couple 50 gallon oak barrels filled and some 5 gallon glass containers filled with some leftover wine from the press. Some pictures below. On Saturday mornings (before Tiger games) my uncle and I as well as my brother a couple days and a couple friends were hard at work producing some vintage 06. The grapes were absolutely awesome this year and already tastes great.

3) The kitchen is in complete remodel mode right now as well. We have a new granite countertop being installed on Tuesday, November 7. We are also painting our cabinets and installing new doors. The kitchen is a real mess right now and looks horrible. We have no sink and after tomorrow night, no counter until the new one is installed. More pictures below.

4) I wrote earlier about the "baby's nursery" and jumping on that bandwagon (here is part 1 and here is part 2) and getting the room ready for the baby. Well, we got some furnitue in there and finished up all the painting and updates to that room too. Unfortunately, no pictures, yet. I'll get them up soon.

5) Tomorrow (Saturday) is the baby shower and Tuesday morning (before the new countertops go in) is the ultrasound where we will hopefully be able to find out the sex of the baby. Tuesday night is the first of our "pregnancy classes" at the hospital. Whew!!!

There has just been a lot going on and a lot more to go. Before we know it it will be Thanksgiving and then the Holidays. Followed up by New year. In January is our wedding anniversary and my birthday, plus all the last minute details with the trying to get ready for baby. Come the middle of February, everything changes.

So, I am still here, just very busy and I see myself spending more time surfing other blogs and reading what you guys have to say and commenting as well. Hopefully I find sometime once or twice a week to post something here.

I just might be convinced

Maybe the Calvinist have it right. You gotta wonder if everything is predetermined and already mapped out. Some things are "meant to be" because it has already been determined. You see things unfold in front of you and you just throw your hands in the air.

How else to explain the Detroit Tigers in the World Series?

8 errors, guys falling down, mising ground balls, guys hitting rocket missles off their bat right to the 2nd baseman or left fielder.

I am nearly convinced they have it right, Calvinist have been right all along.

Dang!

Down 3-1

What a bummer .

Our outfielders are falling and diving all over the outfield watching balls land behind them and deflecting off their glove.

Our pitchers are walking the lead-off hitter and throwing the ball 3 rows into the crowd behind 1st and 3rd base.

And now we are down 3 games to 1.

The team can still come back and win this thing.

As a matter of fact, of the 5 times it is has happen in the past, St. Louis was the victim twice (they were the team up 3-1 and lost the sereis).

Even more peculiar is that it happen in 1968, when the Tigers and Cardinals played in that World Series.

Another odd fact is that the Tigers and Cardinals have now met in 3 World Series and each time the following took place:

• St. Louis won Game 1
• Detroit won Game 2
• St. Louis won Game 3
• The winner of Game 4 lost the World Series

So either the basball gods are on the Cardinals side as the Tigers have had so many fluke plays and the Cardinals are destined to win this thing or the baseball gods have to make sure that history repeats itself and tradition holds.

If there is any sport that holds to its tradtions it is baseball -- so we'll see.

Unfortunately I think it may be the former and the Cardinals are just meant to win this thing.

But my hope is not gone. I still have plans to be in Comerica Park on Sunday night watching a World Series Game 7.

World Series Game 2

I thought I was going tobe sick in the 9th inning. Well I actually was sick, and had been all day. But I mean, punch me in the gut, weak in the knees, country music song sick.

The Rollercoaster was in full effect last night. 2 outs, 2 strikes and it nearly all fell apart.

But, they won, the series is tied 1-1 heading back to "The Lou" and hopefully the Tigers roll off 3 straight wins or at least come back up 3-2 and can clinch Saturday night...I'll be there.

Go Tigers!!

THE FREAKIN WORLD SERIES

I was there, so was Michele, but we have no pictures!!

Well, I have video because we did have the video camera and taped the pre-game ceremony stuff, the first at bat, and pretty much the whole first inning for the Tigers.

But we didn't take pictures with a camera. Oh well. I'll have to take the video and get still pictures off of that.

Anyway, it was freakin awesome to be at the World Series cheering the Detroit Tigers on.

Too bad they lost. That was a big buzz kill, but I am confident they will show up tonight and Kenny will continue his strong pitching.

Last night they completely looked like a team that had a whole week off and got back to some bad habits. And 3 errors!!!!

Anyway, as I said, Kenny will continue his strong postseason pitching and Detroit wins 4-0, maybe 2-1. Zumaya in the 8th, Jones in the 9th, we head to St. Louis tied at 1 a piece. I have game 6 and game 7 tickets already, so if Detroit happens to not clinch in St. Louis, they will back in the D next weekend. I will for sure have pictures for that!!!!

Go Tigers!!

Joy in D-Town

Oh-E-Oh, Magg-lio

Oh-E-Oh, Magg-lio

I wish I knew how to upload the video from the homerun, the reaction, and roar from the crowd.

The Detroit Tigers are going to the World Series!!!!

More than 24 hours later, all i can still say is...

WOW!

California - Here we Come

WOW!!!!

Total Euphoria. Detroit took the mighty Yankees down. The last 2 games were complete domination. The aggressiveness of the Tigers pitchers and the base running was by far the key to winning the series. Especially the base running tonight. I think everytime we had a runner on first and someone got a hit, the guy from first would run to third forcing New York to make the play. Bondo tonight and Kenny last night and thier emotions on the mound was refreshing to see. They deserved the standing ovations they received when they exited the game.

All year, and especially the last month or so, all we heard was Detroit was lucky to be there and that going into the playoffs they didn't have the bats to make it very long and go very deep. We do not know what is going to happen in the Oakland series, but the Tigers proved they are for real and they belong. New York, Boston, and Chicago were the 3 teams all the naysayers said Detroit couldn't contend with in the playoffs. Well, all 3 of those teams are now sitting at home watching the Tigers. 2 of them didn't even make the playoffs and the other (New York) was just eliminated by the Tigers.

Go Tigers, we'll back on Friday and Saturday night to cheer you on to the World Series!!!

I like to call this picture "Settling Tee Times"

ALDS Game 3 in the D

1) I can smell it. It is right there for the taking. 1 more game against the vaunted Yankees lineup.

2) Kenny Rogers!

3) My voice is near gone, and I am going to do it all over again tomorrow.

4) Today, I got an email from Ticketmaster, stating my tickets I ordered for the ALCS (4 tickets each to game 1 and game 2 at the CoPa, above and beyond the 2 I already have as a season ticket holder) have been printed...coincidence?

5) Kenny Rogers!

6) Those young guys for the Tigers keep showing up and aren't going anywhere.

7) Kenny Rogers!

8) What is A-Rod's problem? Seriously. How can a guy with all that talent and skills be so horrible in the playoffs? He is one of the best of all time, but come the playoffs, not so much.

9) I have been to many live sporting events. Playoff basketball games, Stanley Cup Finals games, MSU/UM football games, NCAA basketball tourney games, etc., etc. Tonight's game was like nothing else. Anything. I was so nervous/excited Thursday night about it, I actually took NyQuil to fall asleep. Therefore......

10) Same thing for tonight. Time for the NyQuil.

11) Kenny Rogers!

Let's go Tigers!!!

Not much "analysis" I know, but my emotions are running high and the experience of a Detroit Tigers playoff game doesn't leave you much room to "analyze" a game.

Bless you boys.

Tigers 2nd Tiger game

1) Wow, have I never been more unproductive at work than I was yesterday from 3pm on.

2) The Tigers "two best hitters" seem to be the most scared people out there, Ordonez and Pudge. Menawhile, the young guys are tearing it up - Monroe, Thames, and Granderson. As well as.....

3) Verlander and Zumaya...wow!!! 23 year olds throwing 100mph fastballs in Yankee Stadium during a playoff game. Not backing down at all. Except for one Johnny Damon swing (which is all it takes in baseball sometimes) they were near perfect. These guys had better be around the Tigers organization for awhile.

4) Brandon Inge has got to go. Sorry, I know he has been a Tiger the longest and has done anything the team has asked him (played catcher, left field, 3rd base, etc.) everytime they have asked him. But he is brutal at the plate. Maybe I wouldn't be so down on him if everyone in Detroit didn't think he was the next Alex Rodriguez. Which leads me to.......

5) No way A-Rod is back in New York next year. A guy that goes .340/35/130 every year should not be as big a "bad guy" as he is in New York. He is way too worried about making a mistake rather than just playing and doing what comes natural.

6) I still love New York fans, and it is even better to watch them when they are losing and then when the Yankess have lost, it is award winning stuff. I wish I had access to a New York sports talk radio show.

7) As unproductive as I was yesterday at work, I may be even more today. My excitement level is too high in anticipation of being at tonight's game. I may just sit at my desk and watch the clock tick away. Then turning around and going to tomorrow's game as well. Priceless!!!

Let's go Tigers!!!!

My Thoughts on the Tigers first playoff game

1) Tuning in last night and watching the start of the game was all too surreal, and I think when I go to Friday night's game will be even more. The Tigers were the prime time game on Fox, with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver announcing for a national audience with the Tigers in Yankee Stadium for a playoff game!!!! I asked Michele to pinch me to make sure it was for real.

2) The Tigers 1 through 3 hitters did have 7 hits.

3) Detroit does/did not look scared or intimidated.

4) The Tigers must score runs when they have runners on 2nd or 3rd and no outs. Absolutely must!!!!

5) I have no problems with the hit and run with Mags and Pudge.

6) I forgot how much fun it is to watch playoff games in New York. Yankees fans are the absolute best. Cheering and booing every play. Every time the other team is up and putting a rally together the looks in the crowd are total despair and end of the world drama. Priceless.

7) I think last night is the Yankees at their best. The Tigers can do better. The Tigers did not rollover and play dead. They fought back, if the Tigers play their best who knows.

8) The Tigers bullpen only gave up 2 hits as well. One was a Jeter homer but.........

9) Jeter is every bit our generations Joe Dimaggio. We just have all the media to take away the mystique and aurora.

10) Outside of Mariano, the New York bullpen is a mess. Which is why.........

11) I think Torre rolled the dice and took Wang out early, expecting to have to use him on 3 days rest on Saturday. The Tigers have a real good chance to win tonight and Friday (if Verlander and Rogers are there normal selfs). That could mean Game 4 on Saturday at Comerica could be a series clincher. Who would New York throw up there?

I am not saying the Tigers will have that chance come Saturday, but I think it was in the back of Torre's mind.

At least they made it

Well, at least they are in the playoffs for the first time in 19 years. The Tigers finished the regular season with 5 straight losses to make it as the wild card. All they needed was one win...ONE WIN and they would have won the Central Division. They had been in first place since May 10 and on the last day of the season they lost it. Michele and I were at Friday night's game where they blew a 5-0 lead and lost in the 11th 9-7. They were one strike away in the 9th inning from finishing that game too.

Now it is onto New York for a best of 5 series. Hopefully they can steal a game there as New York's starting pitching has taken a big hit with injuries. I have my playoff tickets and will be at game one at Comerica Park (the actual 3rd game of the series) on Friday night. I do believe the Tigers have a chance to make this a series against New York. Being that they only need 3 wins (and not 4) could make a difference.

We will see.

Go Tigers!!!!

Bless you Boys

Regardless it has been an awesome year!