|
So the Tigers capped off
another losing binge and
finished the week on a positive note. After losing
their ninth straight (again) they've taken two from
the AL East conteding Blue Jays and look for the sweep
tomorrow. Before the game against the D-Backs on
Sunday, Trammell had the boys out for a workout to
practice fundamentals. Embarrassing, but so far it's
been effective. They put up a good fight on Sunday
and won the next two. They now are up to twenty wins
at the halfway point of the season, exactly half of
the wins that the 1962 Mets finished with. It seems
rather unlikely that the Tigers will be as bad in the
second half, and I'm sure that there will be a serious
effort made to avoid coming up with less than 40 wins.
That year, the Mets only lost 120, so the Tigers
would have to win 41 if they play all 162 games to
avoid the worst modern day winning percentage. Piece
of cake!
New Subscribers...
After the family matter at Comerica we've picked up
three new folks on the list. I could call them (all
of them are my uncles) the three wise men, but I
believe they draw a stronger resemblance to the Three
Stooges.
Denny "Moe" O'Toole
John "Larry" O'Toole
"Curly" Gene Kendra
Looks like I could be in for a few eye pokes and dutch
rubs at the family reunion this Friday.
------------------------------------------------------
Week of 6/25 - 7/1
Week Record: 2-5 LLLLLWW
Like the Jeffersons, the undy five hundy is movin' on
up. But it could have been a lot worse if the boys
hadn't cashed in a couple of victories to bring the
index back down to 41. 41. ...
Dunn vs. the Tigers...
Adam Dunn: 23 HR
Tigers: 20 Wins
Up Next for the Tigers...
July 2 Toronto
July 3-6 @Kansas City
July 7 no game scheduled
July 8-10 Chicago White Sox
AL Central Standings
KCR 43 38 -
MIN 43 39 0.5
CWS 41 42 3
CLE 34 48 9.5
DET 20 61 23
Tigers Division... (as of midnight, Wednesday morn)
SEA 53 28 -
|
MIL 33 48 20
TEX 32 49 21
TBD 27 54 26
SDP 28 55 26
DET 20 61 33
News and Notes: Carlos Pena is back off the DL, and
pitcher Chris Mears made his major league debut for
the Tigers this week. Making room on the roster were
Omar Infante and Franklyn German. I think German
needs significant work on his control, so let him iron
that out with Toledo. Infante, well he'll be back and
he'll get better. I'm sure we'll see both of these
guys again sometime this season. And Dean Palmer is
still not doing anything productive for the
organization.
------------------------------------------------------
Tiger of the Week...
------------------------------------------------------
Matt Roney gave up just one hit in seven innings
Tuesday night in the Tigers 5-0 win over Toronto.
After a couple of rocky starts where he didn't make it
out of the fourth inning, Roney mowed down one of the
best hitting teams in the American League. The hit he
gave up was a line drive off the second baseman's
glove, so Roney could have had a no hitter after the
seventh. Sure he had a tough outing in Boston, but he
was pitching against Pedro and a win wasn't expected
anyhow. This gives Roney something to build on and it
gives Trammell a reason to leave him in the rotation.
------------------------------------------------------
Poll Quesiton...
------------------------------------------------------
If you had the opportunity to attend any game in
baseball history, what game would you choose to attend
and why? And you don't get bonus points for saying
the game where I got my hit at Old Kent Park
(something the older, more talented brother was unable
to accomplish). Make the score Big Brother 999,
Little Bro 1.
------------------------------------------------------
Mo Vaughn Weekly...
------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, Tony Clark hit a game winning single in the
bottom of the ninth for the Mets. Mo should be takng
notes. In order to be successful you must A) weigh
less than 300 pounds B) have some skills C) be
healthy for more than a month at a time, or D) all of
the above. Boy, not only have you been replaced, but
you've been replaced by the Big K and Mets fans are
probably just fine with that. I think I may have
already used the multiple choice method to make fun of
Mo, but it was so fun the first time I had to revive
it.
------------------------------------------------------
Game Linescores...
------------------------------------------------------
June 25: Detroit 1 - Boston 11
Starters: DET: Maroth 7IP - BOS: Burkett 6IP
DET 100 000 001 2 8 0
BOS 011 000 09X 11 14 0
W: Burkett (6-3)
L: Maroth (2-12)
June 26: Detroit 4 - Boston 6
Starters: DET: Roney 3.2IP - BOS: Martinez 6.2IP
DET 000 100 300 4 8 0
BOS 100 410 00X 6 10 1
W: Martinez (5-2)
L: Roney (0-2)
S: Lyon (9)
June 27: Arizona 8 - Detroit 3
Starters: ARI: Patterson 5IP - DET: Bernero 6.1IP
ARI 020 100 113 8 13 1
DET 210 000 000 3 8 2
W: Randolph (2-0)
L: Bernero (1-11)
June 28: Arizona 7 - Detroit 0
Starters: ARI: Webb 9IP - DET: Bonderman 6IP
ARI 003 002 002 7 10 0
DET 000 000 000 0 7 2
W: Webb (4-2)
L: Bonderman (2-12)
June 29: Arizona 5 - Detroit 3 F/10 innings
Starters: ARI: Batista 7IP - DET: Cornejo 6.1IP
ARI 000 100 110 2 5 13 0
DET 200 001 000 0 3 10 0
W: Oropesa (2-1)
L: Spurling (0-1)
S: Valverde (9)
Toolie Sees a Ball Game: The Tigers came in to this
one on an eight game losing streak. For myself and
Lia, this was the second game we had seen together
this year, and the second time that the Tigers were
going for their ninth straight loss. But this time we
had a much bigger crew with us.
A section of the O'Toole clan chartered a bus from
Muskegon down to this particular game, and parents
Patricia and "Poor Ole" Terry were among the
travelers. After picking up Red Sox fan Deborah Kent
in Hillsdale, the three of us (Lia, Deborah, and I)
traveled down 94 (via Moscow Road, for all you
Hillsdalians) to the park. About ten miles out from
the city, the highway happened to be closed, so we
were blessed with traveling down Michigan Avenue and
seeing the finer side of Detroit. If Jesse Jackson
thinks Benton Harbor has it bad, he should take a
stroll in D-Town.
We got to the garage, and Ms. Kent was so amazed that
we could park for $1.75 at a nearby garage that she
insisted on paying. Nice. We got into Comerica about
ten minutes before game time (thanks to construction).
After a ride up the escalator we located the herd of
O'Tooles in section 322 and sat down to watch a fun
game of baseball.
The game started out great. With two down and nobody
on, Dmitri hit a double. Kevin Witt, one of the most
feared power hitters in professional baseball (self
proclaimed), layed stake to that claim by barely
clearing the right field wall and the Tigs were up
2-0.
This was nice, as it hushed my Uncle Denny, who was
jabbing the Tigers after their recent sweep at the
hands of the BoSox at Fenway. Alas, the good fortune
was not to continue.
After the Dunkin Donuts race, which Cuppy Coffee won
(our section was represented by Biggy Bagel), we set
out for a tour of the grounds. We checked out the
carousel and the ferris wheel, and then spent a little
time looking at the statues of Tiger greats. The
teams had traded runs up to this point, and then the
D-Backs narrowed it to 3-2 in the 7th. During the 7th
inning stretch, we were showered in a nice mist by the
General Motors Fountains (man I hate corporate
sponsorships). While Deborah made a phone call, Lia
and I watched some 8th inning action. Luis Gonzalez
hit a shot to right center, which disappeared from our
view. It did not disappear from Alex Sanchez's view,
though, as he made a great leaping catch at the out of
town scoreboard for out number one. Next up, Steve
Finley. Well, Steve-o made sure that the only person
catching his fly ball would be wearing a Mickey
Tettleton jersey and a tray of nachos. 3-3 game. We
got back to our seats around the middle of the 8th and
watched the rest from there. The Tigers looked rotten
in the 10th inning, and Robbie Hammock took a Chris
Spurling offering over both fences in left field to
cap the scoring at 5-3. The home team went 1-2-3 in
their half and that was the ball game.
After the game we got some photos and parted ways with
the O'Toole group. On our way back to the garage of
fiscal responsibility, this crazy guy that had parked
in the 20 dollar lot pulled out some sketch of Jack
Morris that had a bunch of illegible autographs on it
and asked me, "WHO IS THIS?" and I was like, "That's
Jack Morris" and he's like "THANK YOU! MY SOON TO BE
SON IN LAW HAS NO IDEA WHO THIS IS!!! COME HERE A
MINUTE!" The over-zealous gent then banged on his
back seat window and the poor chap in the rear rolled
down the window. Crazy guy comes at me with "WHO IS
THIS" and I say again "Jack Morris." Then to guy in
car "WHO IS THIS", guy "I don't know." Then he
motions at me "WHO IS THIS" and the guy says "I don't
know" and then I think I had to again repeat that the
sketch was of Jack Morris and then some other random
guy had to tell the crazy man that this picture was
Jack Morris. The loon went on to badger the guy in
the back seat for not being able to recognize Morris
from his sketch and we shuffled away from the scene.
As we got farther away, the nutcase began to yell some
words of praise my way and said that he would have
bought me a beer at the game. Looks like I ran into
him at the wrong time, but I was glad to be out of
that situation. This is what 10+ years of losing does
to the hardcore fan. I wonder how long until I end up
like that? I am wondering if I am going to have to be
able to recognize renderings of Yankees of years past?
Fun times. I was happy to give the visiting Deborah
Kent a memorable first Tiger game. It pretty much
capped off a tremendous weekend for me. Another L in
the books, but at least the game was fun to watch.
June 30: Toronto 2 - Detroit 6
Starters: TOR: Lidle 6IP - DET: Maroth 7IP
TOR 000 010 100 2 8 1
DET 000 050 10X 6 9 1
W: Maroth (3-12)
L: Lidle (10-6)
July 1: Toronto 0 - Detroit 5
Starters: TOR: Hendrickson 7IP - DET: Roney 7IP
TOR 000 000 000 0 4 1
DET 300 000 02X 5 11 0
W: Roney (1-2)
L: Hendrickson (5-6)
S: Walker (1)
------------------------------------------------------
Readers Write In...
------------------------------------------------------
Andy "Proletariat" Karnitz
WORKERS OF THE WORLD,UNITE- to kick Juan "Gone" -zalez
right in the teeth!
as an old lefty, who used to wish he was born 70 years
earlier so as to be an activist for the Wobblies, let
me now put to rest the idea that baseball needs a(so
called) union.
the owners of the game seemed to have got the message
loud and clear- they pay mega$$ for megastars because
the market will bear it. it's the perks such as no
trade clauses, and private use of the team plane by
oft injured twirlers that drive me insane, not to
mention the per diem, which could buy my groceries for
two or three weeks.
most players with no trade clauses seem to give in-
especially if bein' dealt to a contender. here's two
theories as to why j.g. won't waive bye-bye to the
rangers:
1). three chicas in the metroplex, w/at least 1 in
every other a.l. city(none in d-town, 2 in evey town
w/a healthy hispanic populace).
2). a potential ron leflore-style situation when he
rears his head in san juan (unintended irony). how
much would he owe in child support in canadian $$?
i'm w/ya, matt, as concerns munson- i say give the guy
a lot more at bats. how could it possibly hurt?
hal,i mean brian-scratch that- of course i mean matt-
no, it's jack....... all right , the scorecard says he
warren morris( i'll try to remember) has impressed-
but so did craig monroe, at first glance. if morris
does nothing else all season, his spectacular grab in
the bottom of the 8th against the rocks on friday(dp,
infante goin' 360 before tossin' to first)
will probably stand up as the kitties defensive gem of
the year.
-andy
ps- "a man who is not a socialist at twenty has no
heart, a man who is not a capitalist at thirty-five
has no brain."-william f. buckley(or churchill, i
always forget which.)
------------------------------------------------------
Brian "B-B" O'Toole
The O'Toole residence in Holly Springs, NC, has been
established and the high-speed online is back. I was
going to wait a few weeks to hook it up but grew tired
of Mr. Karnitz banter every week. I can't let said
PACKER FAN get too many words in before football
season. Lord knows we'll have to hear about the
Lambeau Leap and Brett Farve, excuse me Favre from
August to hopefully early, I mean very early Jan.
I've always had a group of favorites, not just one. I
mean besides the Mick, who, like Matt could polish off
a case of ice cold Budwisers before slamming a 500
foot home run.
Could you imagine Mickey and Harry Carry in the
booth for a good old Cubbies game?? "Ground ball to
third, Jody Davis scoops it up, fires to Steve Trout
at second, over to Rick Sutcliffe in the dougout for
out number 5! Holy Cow!" August A Busch III must be
so proud. Anyways back to the favorites: The
Closers. These guys are the best. Some of the most
colorful personalities in all the world. Look to Eric
Gagne out in LA. Here are a few from the past that
you had to love to hate to love: Mitch Williams, Lee
Smith, Guermillo (don't call me Willie) Hernandez, Dan
(draggin' my arm on the ground) Quissenberry. Rob
(ROIDS) Dibble. These guys were classics and names
you can never forget, even if you wanted to. Note to
Andy Karnitz: Washington called, you can have your
Capitals back. Just in case you lost your shift key!
Anyways boys, you always have a
place to crash here in N.C. Lots of extra bedrooms,
good booze and fine southern women. See Y'all later!
Matt's older and not much wiser brother!
RESTORE THE ROAR
SOMETIME B-4
2024
------------------------------------------------------
Matt "Bream" Houser
I am just writing to note that Dan Simpson's e-mail
address, as published in the latest issue of Hillsdale
Magazine is lovinglisaiseasy@hotmail.com.
Congratulations on your marriage, Dan. Do you have
your own Doug Christie jersey?
My all-time favorite players are Orel Hershiser and
Mark Grace. I don't have time to go in depth, but one
reason I like Orel is that once my brother Seth gave
some stuff to my dad to get autographed (Orel was
going to be in my dad's office), and it came back
addressed "To Matt." One reason to love Gracie: no
batting gloves. Old School.
-------------------------------------------------------
Dallas "Face" Senters
my ideal world series matchup was previewed
tonite, as the indians and reds faced off. tough
split loyalties. i was flipping back and forth b/w
the indians radio and the reds broadcast. that was
fun. i have to say i like the indians announcers
better. i also must admit that i wish the reds
would have won. they are my favorite, and are
still in the hunt this season.
no trade clauses....i have to give them a big ole
booo.
i wish that players could become stars for a team, and
then stay with the team. nba basketball gives you the
best pictures of these guys. magic and bird (maybe
stockton) cal ripken jr is the man for baseball.
thome was so close. he stayed an indian for most of
his career and talked about how proud he was of his
career numbers with one team...now he's a phillie?
the no trade clause is just false hope that a player
will stay with the team. gonzalez said that he wants
to stay in texas for his mother....whatever. he had a
chance to play for a contender with a vlad...he is
obviously stupid.
i think that the teams should be able to trade who
they
want...and should be smart enough to want to keep the
guys that put it all on the playing field for them.
the loyalty issue with no-trade clauses is much
like the performance issue with incentive clauses.
they have the right idea and the same flaw SELFISHNESS
i will play anywhere and be traded as often as you
like...just let me play for money....shweet.
the pooley crack was below the belt last week.
dallas "k.m." senters
-------------------------------------------------------
Dave "Achilles" Dixon
Ode to Juan E
I've been doing research on Juan Encarnacion (one of
Detroit's lost gems IMHO) and I see that Cincinatti
has traded him to the Marlins where he is tearing it
up with a .283 BA and some other healthy stats. I
think it's ridiculous that the Tigers traded this guy-
sure, maybe he wasn't a real lockerroom presence but
man he can run! I don't understand why we let go of
nearly all of our hitters and expected a pitching
staff of cottonpicking rookies to win games. I say we
trade Higgy for Encarnacion straight up.
------------------------------------------------------
Jamie "Beast" Peters
Thanks to interleague play, the Tigers came to town
(Denver) a week and a half ago. I told my wife that I
was going to watch every game until the Tigers lost.
An amazing thing happened: I went to two games! A
couple observations from the weekend: 1. The $4.00
seats are a blessing for the low income-types like
myself. 2. It was a sad day to see Jonesy come out
of the 'pen and not slam the door. 3. You can be a
Tiger's fan without subscribing to TW. During Friday
night's game (a win for us), a "Let's go Ti-gers"
chant was started up in the Rockpile. Of course, the
"Let's go Rock-ies" countered, BUT did not succeed. I
was happy. 4. I thought our defense was supposed to
be at least marginal, but it's not. 5. Dimitri Young
is becoming my favorite Tiger. 6. Denver should get
over John Elway. Thanks O'Toole.
------------------------------------------------------
Anthony "Ted" Williams
I hear the Tigers won yesterday. Roar! In unrelated
news, I have just checked on Texas and I see that they
are so bad that I know more about the Tigers---due to
Tigers Weekly---than I do about the Rangers. That's
cause I have paid them so little attention. I guess
I'm a fair-weather fan.
Trades...yeah, trade 'em to whoever wants 'em. Players
are commodities, as far as the team goes. That said,
managers and GM's should have some respect for the
player himself. It's not exactly easy to bounce
around the league, make friends, buy a house, and so
on. But players should know that when they break into
the league.
I'm headed home to Texas for the 4th of July. Maybe
I'll get to go to a game...
Antwon
-------------------------------------------------------
Toolie's Trashtalk...
Nice to see all of the chatter from the readers. The
Tigs were pretty bad again this week, and they had
another sub par record to show for it. Actually, 2-5
amounts to a .286 mark, so I guess that's not sub par.
I just watched ESPN's web gems for the month of June
and the double play referenced by Cuz Karnitz was not
in the montage. Unreal. Obviously the program will
cater to the better teams, but if that play doesn't
make the best of the month, then I don't know what
they have to do to get on the highlight reel.
So the AL Central teams have been pretty active these
days, making some roster moves. The Tigers added Alex
Sanchez, the Royals picked up Jose Lima who has won
three straight starts, and Tuesday, the White Sox
traded for 2B Roberto Alomar and OF Carl Everett. So
we'll get to see those new guys soon, as July has
quite an AL Central flavor.
If I had to pick one game in history to attend, hmmmm.
First I have to say that the last game at Tiger
Stadium was a freaking blast and that I'm quite
content with that as my best game ever. But I think I
would like to have been at the NLCS game where the
Braves beat the Pirates in game seven, Sid Bream
beating the Andy Van Slyke throw home to send the
Braves to the World Series. OK, maybe there's a
better one out there, but that was a great game with a
great comeback. I was ticked the Pirates lost, but it
would have been a blast to see. Also, game five of
the 1984 World Series ranks right up there.
Well, in response to the boys who wrote in....
A-Karn, call me the Tin Man, because at twenty I was
certainly not a socialist. Brother, you forgot one of
the most charismatic closers of all time, Ricky
Vaughn. OK, so he only got one save, but you've gotta
love the drama. Houser, as far as no batting gloves
being old school, I agree. Guess who else didn't wear
batting gloves? Me! Of course, I figured they
weren't worth the investment for the ten official at
bats. With regards to Encarnacion, we DID trade him
for Dmitri, so it's not like it was a total loss
losing Juan. At least we got Dmitri Young and not
another bust like Karim Garcia. Nice to see the Beast
representing the Tiger fans in Colorado. I'm sure he
saw one more game than he was expecting, and I liked
the definitive manner in which he stated that he was
going to the games. And Anthony, I'm sorry, but
you've been traded to Keith Miller's 3 on 3 basketball
team for a player to be named later. I'm sorry, but
the organization just thought it was time to move in a
different direction. Just kidding, I don't think it's
possible to trade someone to a fictitious squad.
You're safe, for now.
But me, I'm out! I'm cutting the rant short this
week, as y'all did a great job of writing this issue
for me. See you next week, when we may know which
Tiger will be headed to New Comiskey for the Mid
Summer Classic. It's gotta be Dmitri.
Toolie
------------------------------------------------------
Tigers Weekly is in no way affiliated with the Detroit
Tigers or Major League Baseball.
Hey you! You are recieving this because I or someone
else thinks that you give a darn about baseball. If
you don't, or just don't want to receive the Weekly
anymore, write back and put NO! in the subject box.
If you know anyone that would like to recieve TW,
reply and give me their names and e-mail addresses.
Play Ball!
If your e-mail address is changing, drop me a line and
I will update it....
|
|
