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They say that a tie is like kissing your sister. I
don't have a sister, so it really isn't like that for
me. Anyways, when the Tigers play five-hundy ball for
the week, it's a little bit better than even. When
you're used to the clubs of previous years, a 3-3 week
looks just fine. The Tigers survived a set in the
Metrodome (record-wise and health-wise) and were just
about able to sweep the Tribe at Comerica. They
remain close to the top in the AL Central, and hope to
rack up some wins against the teams from the West.
Teams the Tigers are currently ahead of: Yankees,
Braves, A's, Giants, and Cardinals.
New Subscriber: Paul "Sorrento" Speaker
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Week of 4/20 - 4/26
Record: 3-3 LWLWWL-
Undy Five Hundy: The first week it was surprised.
The second week it was annoyed. This week, the UFH
index is downright furious! Like Brotha' O'Toole at
Riverfront, the index is not happy about being jilted.
But yet again, it will have to accept things the way
they are as the boys still have more W's than L's.
Sorry Undy-Five-Hundy...maybe next week.
Up Next for the Tigers...
April 27-29 Anaheim
April 30 - May 2 Seattle
May 3-5 @Anaheim
AL Central Standings...
MIN 12 7 -
CWS 11 7 0.5
DET 11 8 1
CLE 7 12 5
KCR 6 11 5
Tigers News and Notes: All quiet on the ghetto front.
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Tiger of the Week...
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Who is the most feared hitter in the Tigers' lineup?
Pudge? Rondell? Munson? Pena? How about Brandon
Inge? Inge is hitting .381 through 42 at bats, and
had a huge inning against Cleveland on Friday. In the
blowout win, Inge had a triple and a grand slam in the
same inning. Inge hit around .200 last year, so this
batting ability is a welcome sight for all Tiger fans.
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Pros and Cons...
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So it's time to grade the Tigers.
Pro: Batting Average and Runs Scored
The Tigers lead the American League in runs scored
with 119. That's huge for a staff that more resembles
the Texas Rangers than the Chicago Cubs. They have a
batting average of .283, fifth in the AL. Last year's
totals through April the Tigs had scored 54 runs off
their abysmal .184 average in 23 games.
Con: Strikeouts
Trammell's bunch have been punched out 136 times
already, second in the AL only to the Blue Jays.
Nothing good can come from a strikeout that finds the
catcher's mitt. Gotta put that ball in play.
Pro: Fielding
They haven't been spectacular as a team, but the
middle of the infield is vastly improved from last
year, mainly due to Carlos Guillen. Brandon Inge has
shown that he has what it takes to fill the utility
role (with the glove and the bat), and Pudge has been
exactly what he has been paid to be (take notice,
Bobby).
Con: Pitching
It may seem that the starters are pitching well, due
to the amount of wins the Tigers have, but the team
ERA is at 5.14; tenth in the AL, but second in the
Central. Maroth and Robertson have been solid, but
Bonderman, Cornejo, and Johnson all have swelling
ERAs. The bullpen has been pretty good so far with
Yan, Levine, Urbina, and Walker with ERAs of 3.00 or
below. Robertson is near the AL lead in strikeouts
with 30.
Pro: Wins
11 wins! Last year, the 11th win came on May 23rd.
Plenty more to cheer about.
Con: Injuries
So far we've seen Dmitri, Sanchez, and Higgy saddled
with injuries...some more serious than others. This
team doesn't have the depth to sustain many more
stingers.
All in all I am very happy with the club so far.
Haven't had much to cheer about since the Tigers made
the "Wild Card" graphic in August of 2000. Baseball
in Detroit could be on the rebound
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May West...
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"Is that a Louisville Slugger in your pocket, or are
you just happy to see me?"
Say goodbye to all of the AL Central teams that we've
been seeing (ok, the Indians and the Twins). Because
until the 25th of May, the Tigers will only be playing
against clubs from the AL West. It will be a steady
diet of Seattle, Anaheim, Texas, and Oakland...in no
particular order. The Tigs can either play some
competative ball, or they can start to slide. April
has been their weakest month, so let's see if they
play OK in May.
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Poll Question...
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Sports play an important part of many peoples lives;
athletes and non-athletes. The value of sports in
society can't be denied, but athletes are paid obscene
amounts of money to play their game and entertain us.
What do you think of the level of importance that
American society places on sports and on our athletes?
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Most Despicable Baseball Person Tournament...
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First off, thanks to Matt "J-E-T-S" Weiland for the
spell check on the word "despicable." As strange as
it looks to me, the correct spelling is as we now see
it. I guess I figured that the prefix was "dis" but
then I would have had a hard time deciding what
"picable" would mean. OK, now to this week's results.
Voter turnout was very poor. I hope that this week
I'll see at least ten votes. Thanks to all who voted.
I had to break the tie in the Alomar/Henderson vote.
Otherwise, I'm not voting. Just call me prez pro
tempore.
Ty Cobb def. Billy Martin
Rickey Henderson def. Robbie Alomar (Toolie
Tiebreaker)
Juan Gonzalez unanimously def. Paul O'Neill
This week's matchup...the Cheaters bracket.
Explanations can be found on this page, except for
Sosa and Canseco.
http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/cheaters/
ballplayers.html
(1) Albert Belle vs. (8) Graig Nettles
(2) Gaylord Perry vs. (7) Wilton Guerrero
(3) The Bossards vs. (6) Jose Canseco
Canseco was found to use some kind of illegal drugs,
and makes a buffoon of himself regularly with his
comments and comeback attempts (he recently tried to
make it back with the Dodgers). Canseco also holds
the honor of having a fly ball go off his head for a
home run.
(4) Joe Niekro vs. (5) Sammy Sosa
OK, so we all know why Sammy is on the list. Last
year his bat broke and it was full of cork. Also
(prior to the bat incident), shortly after telling
Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly that he would be
willing to take a drug test, Sosa flipped when Reilly
called him on it.
Vote...NOW!
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Game Linescores...
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April 20: Detroit 4 - Minnesota 6
Starters: DET: Johnson 5IP - MIN: Silva 6IP
DET 000 220 000 4 7 1
MIN 001 203 00X 6 9 1
W: Silva (2-0)
L: Johnson (1-3)
S: Nathan (3)
April 21: Detroit 11 - Minnesota 8
Starters: DET: Cornejo 4.1IP - MIN Radke 2IP
DET 423 020 000 11 15 0
MIN 002 120 210 8 12 0
W: Levine (2-0)
L: Radke (2-1)
S: Urbina (1)
April 22: Detroit 3 - Minnesota 4
Starters: DET: Maroth 7IP - MIN: Santana 6IP
DET 001 101 000 3 10 0
MIN 000 310 00X 4 8 1
W: Santana (1-0)
L: Maroth (2-1)
S: Nathan (4)
April 23: Browns 3 - Lions 17
Starters: CLE: Davis 5IP - DET: Bonderman 5IP
CLE 100 20 0 000 3 6 0
DET 100 30(11) 02X 17 15 1
W: Bonderman (2-1)
L: Davis (0-2)
S: Yan (1)
April 24: Cleveland 2 - Detroit 5
Starters: CLE: C. Lee 6IP - DET: Robertson 5IP
CLE 000 020 000 2 6 1
DET 100 010 003 5 9 0
W: Urbina (1-0)
L: Stewart (0-1)
April 25: Cleveland 3 - Detroit 2
Starters: CLE: Westbrook 9IP - DET: Johnson 6IP
CLE 021 000 000 3 6 2
DET 010 000 100 2 1 0
W: Westbrook (1-1)
L: Johnson (1-4)
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Readers Write In...
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Editors Note: I totally snubbed Anthony last week, so
here is his reply to the April 12 issue.
Anthony "Candiotti" Williams
Good to see the Weekly again, and all the Tigers
faithful. It's fun to watch 'em so far, what with the
bigger numbers after Tigers and the smaller numbers
after Other Team. I will miss the Undy Five Hundy,
though. Wait, no I won't. Need a catchy title for
the new index. Or maybe we should all just savor
those negative numbers.
Bonds annoys me. So do the Yankees, but I really
don't fault them for being a super team. That's the
price of being #1: you get hated. I would like to
vote for the Red Wings as most overexposed team, just
to mess with Matt, ;) but out of that list I'd have to
go with the Yanks. That they're always a top team and
actually deserve some of the attention just makes it
more annoying.
If they don't look out other teams might start
respecting the Tiger claws...go Tigers!
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Matt "the Sham" Schramm
I got it this week, stud... I was out of town and the
inbox flooded... so I didn't get it last week. Keep
'em coming. (and you could send me any that have
already been published this season)
Bless you boys!
schramm
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Steve "Stone" Sprague
If you asked me that question last year I would have
definitely said a tie between basketball and hockey.
That sentiment though was based on ignorance since I
had never seen a baseball team I love play for a
championship. So my answer is baseball. I loved
watching the Cubs down the stretch last year winning
the Central on the second to last day and then almost
getting to the World Series. Now if I can get to see
both the Tigers and the Cubs one day tear it up in the
postseason I would be in heaven. For now though, Go
Wings! Go Pistons! Finals predictions:
Pistons over Spurs in 6, Wings over Tampa Bay in 4.
Stephen Sprague
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Dallas "Pokey" Senters
i think that watching my team win the superbowl
is the most exciting. absolutely everyone knows when
the superbowl is on, and almost everyone watches,
and picks sides.
i have loved watching the lakers win the 5
championships that i can remember watching, but saying
that sounds yankee-ish...i promise it's not.
back when the reds swept the a's i was loving it, but
it seems so far away. they need to beat the indians
in 7, so i can enjoy a GREAT october.
Dallas
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Matt "Wonderboy" Weiland...
O'Toole I can just imagine you dancing whith your
index fingers pointed in the air while you mock the
Yankees with your undy-five-hundy tune.
Baseball has got to be the most rewarding. I guess
I'll offer some proof. 162 games is proof enough in
my mind, heck football teams don't even practice that
much during their season!!!(chumps) To see your team
actually make it to the playoffs is rewarding but to
see them take it all, that tops alll cakes.
O'Toole I was disappointed you conformed to some of
your readers and allowed college football, a great
sport no doubt but who can ever be sure who the
champion is with that BCS system? That's it
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Toolie's Trashtalk...
Ahhhh, we are really getting into the baseball season.
And we're not thinking suicide! This is good. One
plus of being a Tiger fan (at least now) is that
anything mediocre is gravy. A 3-3 week looks pretty
good. If they can keep this up, it should be an
enjoyable season.
I got a nickel today that had the Louisianna Purchase
on the tails side. I did a double take, thinking that
it was a canuckie coin. It seems like any and
everything is getting on some form of money. What's
next, America's first prostitute on the fifty dollar
bill?
The Tigers currently have a guy on their roster
hitting .037. It's not Matt Walbeck, it's not Dean
Palmer. The Tiger is Greg Norton. Funny that this
guy would kill the Tigers when he played against them,
but can't muster more than one hit for the ball club.
Last year in April, Palmer hit .109 and we called for
his head. At least Norton isn't making any kind of
real money. Still, I currently hate seeing this guy
in the lineup.
Pat Tillman was killed in action. I believe that most
of us know the story. These days it seems amazing
that an athlete would give up his life to serve his
country. Sixty years ago it's what was expected. Sad
to see how society has changed in that respect.
Tillman obviously understood the role of sports in
society, and heard the calling of his role to society.
One thing though, is that all the sports people were
like "he was only 27." How old is your average
soldier? Younger than 27 I'm sure. 27 is an old man
in army terms...I think.
Holy crap, I just heard an ESPN News guy just use the
line "Hassan Chop" for a Hee Seop Choi home run. As
far as I know, that comes from a Bugs Bunny / Daffy
Duck cartoon. Daffy tried to steal Ali Baba's
treasure, and Hassan proceeds to chop him, all the
while yelling "Hassan CHOP!" A classic.
Tim Kurkjian of Baseball Tonight will soon be showing
up on "Comedy Night at the Improv." Recently while
talking about Minnesota's Lew Ford (who has been great
against the Tigers), Kurkjian remarked how Ford was a
smart ball player. The comment was in regard to
Ford's 750 SAT math score, and Kurkjian said "...that
means that he knows his signs...AND cosines!" Ooh
man, I don't think I would even be able to push that
one through in my Calc II class. But I was
appreciative of the "in-the-know" humor.
Tigers have been in a lot of close games lately. They
had two losses of one run, and their win on Saturday
was three runs only because of a three run walk-off
shot by Rondell White. It makes for exciting
baseball, win or lose.
So the voting turnout was poor. All demographics
showed extreme apathy. If the voting doesn't increase
I may pull the plug. I know that would be like
calling the All-Star game a tie, but you've gotta do
what you've gotta do.
I will be going to the game on Tuesday against the
Angels. It will be my first time seeing Vlad
Guerrero, so that will be interesting. John Lackey
and Nate Cornejo will be throwing.
Weiland, I agree that the BCS is garbage. Also, any
team that wins a split title in NCAA football, in my
eyes, hasn't won anything at all. But it can still be
somebody's favorite thing. For myself, I am also
saying baseball. It would have been even more so
before they split to three divisions and added the
wild card. Think about it. You have to beat out 5-6
other teams in your division to make the playoffs.
This is a six month daily grind, if that makes any
sense at all. Then you play one high pressure series
against the best team from the other half of the
league. Lastly you play the World Series against a
team that you have not played all year. And back when
league pride and player loyalty were sacred issues,
the stakes seemed even higher. Look at all the great
baseball teams produced by just the Red Sox that
couldn't get it done. These days it's not so
romantic, but it's still the most rewarding for me.
Actually, winning the Hillsdale Tecmo Super Bowl
league is pretty rewarding. But Weiland, there's one
thing I can't expect you to understand.
That's all for this week. Tigers have some tough
opposition ahead. We'll see where they stand in a
month, when they play Kansas City for the first time
this year.
I'm out.
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