tiger's weekly

[september 8, 2003]

tiger's weekly

Here are some facts. The Tigers just got swept in
Toronto. They have not scored a run in 22 innings.
Mike Maroth lost his twentieth game this week.
Despite all these factors, it wasn't such a bad week.
The Tigs started the week by winning the final three
games of their four game set with the Tribe. So they
knocked off three wins on the way to avoiding 120
losses. Now they must average two wins a Weekly to
stay under that mark. I'd say it's about 50/50 right
now. A win in Toronto would have been nice. Beating
the Yankees once this week in the Bronx will be a gift
from heaven. Thorwing Robertson, Knotts, and Cornejo
at them against Contreras, Pettitte, and the Rocket is
about the best we can muster. The game on Wednesday
is slated to air on ESPN2.

***Campus Comments Announcement***

College football has started and Chas Claus will be
back at it publishing Campus Comments, a weekly
newsletter pertaining to NCAA football.   Campus
Comments is a fantastic read, and it was my
inspiration for Tigers Weekly (I guess I didn't
realize that the six month season would be so long).
Anyways, if you are a fan of college football and are
interested in reading/contributing to a newsletter on
the subject with a strong local flavor, let Chas know
by sending him an e-mail at chas79@hotmail.com. I
plan on posting semi-regularly, and especially after I
go to ND for the MSU game. Good times.
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Week of 9/2 - 9/8

Record: 3-3 WWWLLL-

Undy Five Hundy: No change in the index this week. I
guess for the UFH (not to be confused with UHF which
is a fantastic flick), no news is good news. At
37-105 the index remains at 68. Remember, finishing
at 78 or above translates into 120 losses (unless
there are some rain outs that don't get made up).

Dunn vs. the Tigers...

With Adam still on the DL, it's beginning to look like
a Dunn deal.

Adam Dunn 27 HR's
Tigers     37 Wins

Heck, Dmitri has more home runs than Dunn now.

Up Next for the Tigers...
September 9-11 @New York Yankees
September 12-15 Kansas City
September 16-18 Toronto

Note: The game on the 15th is a make up game from a
game rained out in early April.

News and Notes: The Tigers made use of the expanded
September roster and called up Torres, Knotts,
Anderson, Eckenstahler, Walbeck, Mears, and Cody Ross.
A. J. Hinch was activated from the DL.

AL Central Standings...
CWS 76 66 -
MIN 76 66 -
KCR 73 69 3
CLE 62 82 15
DET 37 105 39

(OAK still playing)
AL Division Leaders: New York, CWS/MIN, Oakland
AL Wild Card (games back in division, if relevant)
BOS - (3.5)
SEA 1 (2)

NL Division Leaders: Atlanta, CHC/HOU, San Francisco
NL Wild Card (games back in division, if relevant)
PHI -
FLA -
LAD 2
CHC 2.5 ( - )
HOU 2.5 ( - )
STL 4    (1.5)
ARI 6
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Tiger of the Week...
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Gary Knotts started the year in the Tigers rotation.
Since June, however, he's been languishing in the
minor leagues. Thursday, he got his first start in
roughly three months. He made the most of it,
pitching 6.2 innings, giving up just one run on six
hits. He is not satisfied with the one good outing
though. "This was great, but now I need to build on
it," Knotts said. "I need to put together three or
four good starts and show them that I can pitch
consistently in the major leagues." I liked Knotts at
the beginning of the season. He was the recipient of
some tough luck, but then he really started to get
knocked around pretty well. If he comes back strong,
the rotation should be pretty formidable next year.
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Poll Question...
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The final weekend of the season has the Twins in town
for a four game set. That weekend, the promotion is
"Fan Appreciation Weekend." What could Mike Ilitch
and the Tigers possibly do to show their appreciation
for people spending their money to watch them? There
should be some good ideas out there.
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Cody Ross' Wild Ride...
------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday turned out to be quite a day for Cody Ross.
Before the game, he was interviewed by Tigers radio
broadcaster, Jim Price. After the interview, Price
noted that Al Kaline thought Ross could be a great
outfielder for the Tigers. Then, in the third inning,
Ross hit his first career home run...a grand slam.
However, after beating out a sacrifice bunt, Ross tore
his ACL and is done for the year. Man, he was just
getting it going! I guess he'll be back for next
season. He's got a long rehab ahead of him. I hope
he doesn't try to do the splits while singing "Hot for
Teacher" at kareoke like some fool I know.
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Maroth Loses Number 20...
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As many of you know by now, Mike Maroth lost Friday
night in Toronto, blowing a 5-2 lead and getting
chased without recording an out in the fourth. It
finally happened, and he really deserved to lose this
one. That hasn't always been the case, but he really
looked like a pitcher that is capable of losing the
big 2-0. Brian Kingman, the last guy to lose 20, was
at the game to try and prevent Maroth from sending him
to the baseball abyss (using voodoo). No such luck.
Now the Tigers have to avoid 120. Here's a link to an
article on the end of Brian Kingman's "glory"...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=1611581
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Game Linescores...
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September 2: Cleveland 6 - Detroit 8
Starters: CLE: Lee 3IP - DET: Bonderman 3.2IP
CLE 200 400 000 6 11 3
DET 024 010 01X 8 9 1
W: Schmack (1-0)
L: Durbin (0-1)
S: Rodney (1)

Geesh, with records like those, you'd think this was
the first week of the season!

September 3: Cleveland 5 - Detroit 6 F/11
Starters: CLE: Sabathia 6IP - DET: Robertson 5IP
CLE 110 110 001 00 5 13 0
DET 100 011 020 01 6 9 0
W: Walker (4-3)
L: Santiago (1-2)

September 4: Cleveland 1 - Detroit 2
Starters: CLE: Westbrook 8IP - DET: Knotts 6.2IP
CLE 000 001 000 1 6 1
DET 000 020 00X 2 5 1
W: Knotts    (3-5)
L: Westbrook (6-9)
S: Patterson (3)

September 5: Detroit 6 - Toronto 8
Starters: DET: Maroth 3IP - TOR: Hendrickson 3IP
DET 203 001 000 6 10 0
TOR 022 400 00X 8 12 0
W: Sturtze (7-6)
L: Maroth (6-20)
S: Lopez   (9)

September 6: Detroit 0 - Toronto 1    F/10
Starters: DET: Cornejo 9IP - TOR: Halladay 10IP
DET 000 000 000 0 0 3 0
TOR 000 000 000 1 1 6 1
W: Halladay (19-6)   <--------- 99 pitches!
L: Rodney   (0-2)

September 7: Detroit 0 - Toronto 8
Starters: DET: Mears 2IP - TOR: Towers 7IP
DET 000 000 000 0 4 1
TOR 122 020 01X 8 14 0
W: Towers (5-1)
L: Mears (0-2)

September 8: no game scheduled...
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Readers Write In...
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Nic "Twinkle-toes" Gilbert

I was just wondering where the mentioning of the shoe
and pin were? I skimmed the past two issues but found
no reference. Evn though it is not baseball in any
means, I still think it at least warents a mentioning
in big bold letters. After all, I did bowl a 214, 50+
pins above my previous best.

As I see it, the Tigers will end the season at 123
losses. That is my prediction and I am sticking to
it. However, they are on teh exact same pace at this
point in time. We will just have to wait with James
Stewart on the bench and see.

Sportcenter just announced that the Tigers can finish
no best than last place in the division. I love the
Tigers. And I am still 3-0 this year baby.

When this gets posted the Lions will be 1-0, have a
better winning percentage than the Tigers, Gary will
have had a 100+ rushing day, and Harrington will be on
fire, with Emmitt Smith also gaining near 100 yard
performance. This is being writen Tuesday morning
just so I can time stamp it.

Gilby
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Andy "Ghost of Seasons Past" Karnitz

please, would someone kill my tiger lovin' ass?!!

it's hard to find the silver lining anymore, but here
it comes:

craig monroe is finally livin' up to some of the
potential he showed when he first came up.

i like klassen. i like moriss. they're both solid. not
great, solid. we've upgraded at both the 4 and 5 spot,
though.

dmitri still has a great attitude.

mike maroth is going to surpass the 20 loss mark,
easily, but he doesn't bitch. it's gonna be great when
he wins 20, as a tiger or not.

brandon inge is finally hitting the ball. finally!

randy smith will die some day. it might take a while,
but he will die. tell your kids about
this guy. if he lives to be 120 years old, we're
gonna need our progeny there to spit on his grave.
he'll probably live to 220 years, the suck! put it in
your wills- every one of the offspring must curse
randy, daily. 5 times, daily. as ned harkness was to
hockey(the darkness under harkness- it killed the
wings for 2 decades, and hurt the league, too.
harkness was only the wings g.m. for 2 or 3 years, but
did soooo much damage), so randy was to baseball! how
did he ever end up here?!!!!

god bless the maize and blue- i run like a penguin
with a hot herring in MY cummerbund-
but only when chased- andy

ps- is tom kendra readin' this? need a shout out from
that cousin. he is the only one i know who gets paid
to type about sports, but do I haveta be the one to
throw him 50 cents so he'll type to this letter?
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Lia "la la la" Bottinelli

Even though this is now a moot point, since Phil
didn't make the cut, I would have been perfectly happy
to see him sign. I LOVE PHIL! I am tired of seeing
him place second (or third or fourth or...) best in
golf majors, so it would have been cool to see him try
out something new and succeed at it.

Props to Matt for keeping up this newsletter while the
rest of us have given up on the Tigers.
------------------------------------------------------
Terrance "OATS" O'Toole

From OATS in Muskegon,
Matt I have to give a lot of credit for hanging with
those Tigers, I still like watching them too. I am
watching right now and it is the top of the 9th
and the Tigers lead by 2, first man pops to first, 1
out, oh I can't watch, Rodney is pitching and is
throwing strikes, Strike 3, 2 out, take a deep
breath Oats one more to go. Strike 1 on Matt Lawton,
foul ball, strike 2, ball 1 inside and low, RING HIM
UP STRIKE 3!!!!!! First big league save for Rodney,
Tigers win 8 - 6 WAY TO GO TIGERS.

Matt be ready for some High School Football Saturday
and some Pee Wee Football at 1pm at Muskegon Heights
High School, the first game of the year for Jason "The
Jet" Ribecky, looking forward to seeing you and Lia.
OATS.
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Toolie's Trashtalk...

Hey hey hey! Just three more Weekly's to go and I
will have made it all the way through this grueling
season. Funny that I should stay with the Tigers only
when they are at their worst. I guess I'm not as
smart as I thought.

I now have proof that I am the best bowler among my
circle of friends. A few weeks ago, Nic Gilbert and I
stripped Rick of his bowling hardware, humiliating him
in front of his newlywed wife, Sarah. When reached
for comment, Sarah had this to say; "I had no idea
that I married such a pathetic loser." I tell ya,
love is a fickle thing. I now hold the prestigious
"bowling pin" signifying that I am the champion of all
whose name appears on the pin (a very small sample of
MCC grads).

Anyway, on to more important things. The Tigers got a
third of the wins they need to stave off 120, but it
looks like the party is over. Aside from a three game
set against the Blue Jays, all of the Tigs remaining
games are against contenders (NYY, KC, MIN). None of
these wins are going to come easy. It should be fun
to see if the Tigers can play spoiler and also avoid
hitting the dubious milestone.

It was nice to have some people more close to home
write in this week. For the rest of the way out,
that's pretty much all I am expecting, as I'm sure
interest is dwindling. Pops, nice narration of the
ninth inning there. I was listening in the car and it
sounded pretty exciting. Too bad Rodney has been his
old mediocre self since then. Bella, I can't say that
I haven't given up on the Tigers. They are certainly
done for this year. Staying the course is more of a
"not giving up on myself" kind of thing. I need to
get through a full season of Weeklys at least once.
Plus, once the Tigers win the World Series I will be
able to recall this season pretty vividly and not be
scratching my head as to who hit leadoff this year (as
I did trying to find Luis Polonia's name out of the
baseball grab bag in my head). I'll be able to say
things like "Remember when Clemens was going for 300
and Comerica was packed and the Tigers tied the game
to stop the bid, only to lose in like the 17th
inning?" or "Yeah, I remember a game where the Tigers
were up on the Sox 1-0 in the eighth and gave up nine
runs." and "Halladay, didn't he pitch a 10 inning
shutout against us a few years back?" But I will also
remember Brandon Inge's walk off shot agains the
Angels, Craig Monroe's 13 pitch at bat against Tim
Hudson that ended in a home run, and the inadvertent
taunt of Jamie Walker. I think after all is said and
done, it will have been worth it. Plus, it makes
certain that people don't forget about me.

Well it's bed time. I'm trying to adjust my internal
clock, and it's been pretty successful. Today I woke
up at 7:30 without the alarm. Nice. Next season the
Tigers will wake up without needing the 11 loss alarm.

Running on empty...should I pit or try and make it on
the fumes?

Toolie
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