tiger's weekly

[september 22, 2003]

tiger's weekly

"That, Mr. Anderson, is the sound of inevitability."
Unfortunately for the Tigers, "My name is Neo" isn't
going to get them out of this mess. Their latest
losing streak (10 games) has them just two losses
short of 120 and it now seems evident that they will
reach that mark. This is going to be the worst team
ever. Lately I have found myself having almost no
faith in the Tiger's ability to win any game. Alas,
the season is almost at an end. The end of this
season will remind me of the end of Dickens' "Great
Expectations." It's like you get kicked in the face
for the entire time, and then the story ends. But for
Pip, there wasn't a next year! By the way, the book
is much better than the movie (I can't believe I got
roped into seeing that).

***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.

Spelling error: I realize that I spelled toppling
wrong last week. And I am writing this before anyone
else (i.e. Deborah "dot your i's and cross your t's"
Kent) has a chance to scold me. There. I am
redeemed.
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Week of 9/16 - 9/22

Record: 0-7 LLLLLLL

Undy-Five-Hundy: 79 undy. Believe it. If the Tigers
won 78 straight games, they would still be under
five-hundred. Think about that.

Up Next for the Tigers...
September 23-24 @ Kansas City
September 25-28 Minnesota
October - March Wound licking.

AL Central Standings...
MIN 87 69 -
CWS 82 74 5
KCR 82 74 5
CLE 67 90 20.5
DET 38 118 49

OAK, SEA still playing...
AL Division Leaders: New York, Minnesota, Oakland
AL Wild Card...   (games back in division)
BOS - (5)
SEA 3 (4)

LAD still playing...
NL Division Leaders: Atlanta, CHC/HOU, San Francisco
NL Wild Card...   (games back if relevant)
FLA -
PHI 1
CHC 2 (-)
HOU 2 (-)
LAD 3
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Poll Question...
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With the season all but over and us about to witness
the WORST team ever, what will you remember most about
the season, and how much do you expect the Tigers to
improve? What aspect of the Tigers do you think needs
to improve the most, and what aspect has the most
promise? This will be your last chance to sound off
for the year, so let it all hang out!
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Game Linescores...
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September 16: Toronto 9 - Detroit 6
Starters: TOR: Walker 5IP - DET: Cornejo 6.1IP
TOR 001 001 421 9 14 1
DET 010 100 022 6 9 1
W: Kershner (2-3)
L: Cornejo (6-16)

September 17: Toronto 6 - Detroit 0
Starters: TOR: Halladay 9IP - DET: Loux 3.1IP
TOR 002 400 000 6 11 0
DET 000 000 000 0 6 1
W: Halladay (21-6)
L: Loux     (0-1)

September 18: Toronto 10 - Detroit 6
Starters: TOR: Towers 6IP - DET: Maroth 5.2IP
TOR 310 003 003 10 12 1
DET 020 101 002   6 6 0
W: Towers (7-1)
L: Maroth (7-21)

September 19: Detroit 2 - Minnesota 6
Starters: DET: Bonderman 3.1IP - MIN: Milton 7IP
DET 000 000 020 2 5 1
MIN 011 300 01X 6 13 0
W: Milton    (1-0)
L: Bonderman (6-19)

September 20: Detroit 3 - Minnesota 7
Starters: DET: Robertson 5IP - MIN: Santana 5.2IP
DET 000 012 000 3 9 0
MIN 300 120 10X 7 8 0
W: Santana   (12-3)
L: Robertson (1-2)

September 21: Detroit 4 - Minnesota 6
Starters: DET: Cornejo 5.2IP - MIN: Radke 7IP
DET 001 000 021 4 11 3
MIN 004 002 00X 6 12 0
W: Radke    (14-10)
L: Cornejo (6-17)
S: Guardado (39)

September 22: Detroit 6 - Kansas City 12
Starters: DET: Knotts 4IP - KCR: Abbott 4IP
DET 010 030 020   6 10 1
KCR 201 125 01X 12 16 0
W: Affeldt (7-6)
L: Knotts (3-8)
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Readers Write In...
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Lia "G-3" Bottinelli

Matt,

Out of NFL and MLB (in September AND October) I find
COLLEGE FOOTBALL more interesting.

Also, you should come rent "Tiger Town" from my Family
Video in Holt. They're sure to have it on the shelf.
I had to fight some guy for it last week.

Lia

P.S. Grandma B. thanks you for making sure that there
is NO MISTAKE, she HATES Yankee Stadium.
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Dallas "All-Nighter" Senters

hey matt

everyday sportscenter is giving us the latest edition
of "the tigers have now lost more games than anyone
since..."

they prove the league needs contraction. there is
obviously not enough talent. no, they don't need to
be contracted. just send them all to toledo and call
the expos the detroit tigers.

four days a week, starting in september, baseball has
to take a back seat. college sat/thurs, nfl sun/mon.
for one, i can actually sit through an entire football
game on tv. i can't stick one out in baseball.
baseball is an event meant for the park or for the
radio. thank-you, tom hamilton and marty brennaman.
(guys who call indians and reds games)

i am rooting for oakland/boston alcs
       chicago can't play philadelphia in the nlcs,
                              but i would prefer it.

that's all.
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Nate "Boyz in the" Hood

What's shakin', O'Toole?

Great job on keeping up with the newsletter. I don't
know how you do it. Mine is only monthly, and that's
hard enough (you can sign up at www.NathanHood.net)
That's pretty cool that you got to meet the Mick, a
good Oklahoma boy, I might add.

This year our Tulsa Drillers switched affiliation from
the Texas Rangers to the Colorado Rockies. I think our
pitcher got moved up the the big show a few weeks ago.
I haven't been to a baseball game in a while, but I
do make most of the OU home football games. My
buddy Blake punts for them, and it's always more
interesting when you have a personal interest in
the game. Not to mention that we throw some pretty
wicked keg parties and I know tons of hot
chicks over there. That helps.

Anyway, I don't know what to say about the good ol'
Tigers, except that history has shown that they have
pretty good staying power. Now about those Lions...

Alright, back to work. See you around.
-Nate
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Brian "Flannigan" O'Toole

I must say reading the line scores every week is like
scratching a Michigan Instant Lotto Ticket. Even if
the Tigers post a decent number of runs, you know the
other team will have more. Aah, it was only a two
dollar winner anyways. To answer the poll question:
There is no substitute for football season.   The
limited number of games heeds far more expectation
than every other sport. Nothing feeds the male psychy
like a bunch of 300+ pounders beating the crap out of
each other. If the Tigers and Lions were both great
teams the Lions would get most of the press once
football season started. I love baseball and every
little part of the game, but I would rather watch
football. Anyday.

Yo brother from another mother.
Brian
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Sara Jo "Safeco" Pietraszewski

Kuddos O'Toole for sticking with Tiger's Weekly for
the duration of the season...it takes a good man to do
that! I always enjoy it. SJ
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Anthony "Hull, er, Hatcher, er, Modano" Williams

Kudos to Matt for making it (almost, just one more
week to go!) through an entire Tigers season. And for
keeping Tigers Weekly upbeat, in the face of
overwhelming downbeats. Yes, that was a terrible play
on words. The good thing about being indescribably
awful is that there's nowhere to go but up. No team
is bad forever: even the Cubs have gotten pretty good
the last few years. Someday, the Tiger's prince, er,
year, will come...

I guess I find football more exciting than baseball in
September, and in October too. Baseball's pretty well
played out by this time of year, usually, and the
Yankees are on their way to another dominating year.
I used to get interested in October, many moons ago
when the Rangers were making the playoffs, but then
they'd get stomped on by the Yankees and by that time
I had a paper to write anyway. Now I don't have cable
so it's all academic.

Oh yeah, cool that the Tigers beat Dunn for the year.
That's one victory anyway, we'll take 'em where we can
get 'em!

Go Tigers, go Rangers, go Stars!

Anthony
-------------------------------------------------------
Nick "Modell" Ciofani

September - NFL
October - NFL (unless the Indians are in the hunt)
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Mike "and the Mechanics" McKeown

Gotta keep it going for next year Matt! After all,
you made it through what is soon to be the worst year
on record. Next year's gotta be better, doesn't
it?!?!?!?

Regards,
Mike McKeown
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"Ticketmaster" Toolie's Trashtalk...

First off, thanks to all who wrote in this week. This
late in the game I was pretty certain that I'd have
only one or two letters in the old inbox. Now...

Dallas, the Cubs can play the Phillies in the NLCS.
If the Phillies win the Wild Card then they will play
San Francisco. If the Cubs were to win the Central
then they play Atlanta (assuming Philly or Florida
wins the Wild Card). It's still up in the air. The
AL looks a lot more ordered. Barring a collapse by
the Red Sox (they're not known for those anyhow), the
Sox will play the A's and the Twins will be playing
the Yankees.

Brian gets the funniest post of the week, comparing
the Tigers scores to the instant lotto ticket. That's
exactly what I do when I check ESPN for the score if I
don't know the result. I'll cover the linescore and
slowly reveal the score inning by inning. It usually
ends in disappointment.

I am surprised at the lack of love for playoff
baseball. I love October. I had some good times
watching Boston take out Cleveland with Ciofani,
watching the Mariners come up short against the
Yankees in the EAR at Hillsdale with the likes of
Keith Miller and Melinda Dille, and staying up,
listening to Joe Table blow the 7th game of the 1997
World Series on the radio because mom and dad wouldn't
let me stay up to watch it (it was a school night). I
WAS 17 AND A SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL! Also, I still
remember being extremely upset when Joe Carter homered
off "Wild Thing" Mitch Williams to win the Series for
the Blue Jays. In the NFL and in college, October is
just some more weeks of games. Sure they are fun at
the time, but in the grand scheme they are forgotten.
October baseball endures.

I saw a commercial today for Steve Yzerman furniture.
What's next, Brendan Shanahan designer clothes? A
crazy ad like this can only mean that hockey season is
right around the corner. I know that baseball season
is here when I see the Grub Control commercial. You
know, the one with the grub that has a Scottish accent
who says "Oh, I'm so hungry! I'm going to eat the
entire yard!" Well, maybe only Claus and Daggett and
I remember that one.

This just in: Roy Halladay OWNS the Tigers (owwwns!).
In the three meetings, the Tigers were outscored 15-2.
The last two meetings resulted in complete game
shutouts (one was a ten inning shutout)! They need to
trade for this guy or something.

I was in South Bend this weekend for the MSU/ND game
and I got a few comments on my Tiger hat. I was
representing with the away cap, since the Tigs had a
12:05 game at the Metrodome. The game was so early
because the Golden Gophers had a home game later in
the day. Basically, everyone loves you if you have a
Tiger hat. How can you hate on the Tigers?

It should be noted that the home run numbers posted by
Craig Monroe and Eric Munson are equally as impressive
as the ones posted by Dmitri Young. If you take
Monroe's and Munson's homers (20 and 18) and project
them over the same number of at bats as D has had,
then you come up with 27 and 31 home runs,
respectively. D has 28. Now of course, this type of
projection couldn't be made for a guy who has one home
run in two at bats, but each player has over 300 at
bats, so the comparison is pretty valid. If these
guys can play a whole season and if Higgy and Pena hit
to their potential, then the Tigers could start
putting up some numbers in the run column (did I
really just type that stupidly optimistic statement?).

Done and done for this week.

One issue to go.

Last chance to post.

Toolie
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