Skip's Tigers Blog

Finally, it looks as though the Tigers will get some ball in this weekend! The game has just gotten underway in Chicago… It’ll be two games played back to back! Game 2 expected to start somewhere around 8:45ET. 

GO FRANKIE GO!

 Here’s how you set a major league baseball all-time season saves record..

                                           MARINERS TOP 9TH               

                                          G Matthews in right field.

                                        F Rodriguez relieved S Shields

                                           M Cairo hit for R Johnson

                                               M Cairo doubled to left.

                                             L Valbuena walked.

     I Suzuki grounded into a fielders choice to second. 

 L Valbuena out at second, M Cairo to third.I Suzuki stole second.

                                      W Balentien struck out swinging.

                                        R Ibanez struck out swinging.

                                        And, you get save number 58!! 

                       Good going K-Rod! I see Cy Young in his near future!

JETER VS GEHRIG

Derek Jeter tied Lou Gehrig’s hit record at Yankee Stadium this afternoon! Number 1296 came on a home run off of David Price. An opposite-field drive to right. A good way to punctuate your hit! The crowd roared when Jeter came out for a curtain call!

 CUBS VS HOUSTON

Two games will now be made up in Milwaukee at Miller Park.

Game 1 is at 8:05ET Tonight. Game 2 will be played tomorrow at 2:05ET. If game three is needed, it’ll be played in Houston on September 29th.

~Skip

Well, my anticipated weekend of Tigers-White Sox baseball seems to be a bust. The rain in Chicago forced the postponement of Friday’s game and the postponement of today’s doubleheader. The remnants of Hurricane Ike are expected to reach here by tomorrow night and it’s beginning to look less and less likely that a game between these two divisional rivals will be played at all. If they do play tomorrow, a doubleheader is on tap. It’ll be a matchup between Justin Verlander and Javier Vasquez in game one and veteran Kenny Rogers and John Danks face-off in game two.

As the rain continues to fall, heavily at times, here in Detroit, I began thinking about two games that I attended this year that featured rain. I took my step-son to the Mother’s Day game between the Tigers and the Yankees on May 11th. He’s 15. His mom and I divorced 8 years ago and I’m very fortunate to still have him in my life. My ex-wife’s family is from New York and I thought Andrew might enjoy seeing a Yankees game. The last ball game we attended together was back in 1998 at Tiger Stadium. He had not yet been to Comerica Park.

The rain began falling at about 9. I like to get to the ballgame when the the gates open. I really like to watch batting practice and it gives me an opportunity to fill out my score card and enjoy the atmosphere of the ballpark. It just looked like one of those all day kind of rains, but we decided to chance it anyhow. If we didn’t get a game in, he could at least say he had been to the ballpark. When we got there, the tarp was on the field. We walked around the park and I showed him the statues of Wille Horton, Ty Cobb, Al Kaline, Hal Newhouser and Charlie Gehringer and Hank Greenberg. We got a dog and some pop. He really wanted the Dippin’ Dots though. Go figure!

Anyhow, we did the batting cage. He didn’t do so well, but he does throw a heckuva pitch. Sixty-one miles per hour on the gun and he’s got pretty good form. Something he picked up during his little league days. The game was eventually postponed and rescheduled for Labor Day.  

The other game was the Dodger’s game on Father’s Day. I bought one ticket in the club level behind home plate. As I mentioned before, I’m also a Dodger’s fan and I looked forward all year to this game. The rookie phenom Clayton Kershaw was scheduled to pitch and I really wanted to see that!

The day started out nice. Some clouds, some sunshine throughout all of BP. Joe Torre, Jim Leyland and Dave Dombrowski were in a little huddle just outside of the Dodger’s dugout –   talking. How I wish I could have heard that conversation! Derek Lowe was in the outfield catching and throwing, he paused, and turned to look up at the scoreboard to hear a story that was being told by Ernie Harwell. Being from the Detroit area, he knows and appreciates what Harwell means to Detroit and baseball.

As the game began, the clouds began to form and the rain began to fall. I stayed in my seat getting soaked up until the tarp was rolled out. It was only a 45 minute or so rain delay. The Tigers won the ballgame 5 – 4!

Speaking of the Dodger’s…

I’ll be watching their game tonight against the Rockies at Coors Field. Los Angeles is looking to win their fourth game in a row. They are 11 and 1 in their last twelve games.

These guys are on a roll!

Clayton Kershaw is pitching tonight! He’s 3-5 with a 4.60 ERA and a 1.56 WHIP.

BRANDON INGE 

I’d like to express my deepest sympathies to Tiger’s catcher Brandon Inge and his family. Brandon’s grandfather passed away. He won’t be with the Tiger’s tomorrow, but should rejoin the team prior to Monday night’s game against the Rangers in Texas.

~Skip

My, my, my! What a difference a couple of years makes!

Let’s go back, shall we, to the year 2006…

                           <<Time Passing>> 

A Tigers and White Sox series had some real bite to it… especially in the month of September! These two teams tangled and fought hard the entire season. Detroit had taken the division lead on May 16th… and remained in the lead throughout most of the year. They reliquished the lead on the last day of the season to the Twins… entering the playoffs as the Wild Card.

The White Sox seemed even then to have our number. For the year we were 7 and 12.

Still, each series against Chicago had a playoff feel. Comerica Park was electric! 

ELECTRIC!

By September, their lead had dwindled to a 1/2 game over the Minnesota Twins. It was beginning to get a little hairy…

There was a nervousness about these two teams playing…

The Tigers just can’t lose tonight! We HAVE to win!! 

The anticipation was overwhelming and it was the talk on everyone’s lips across the city.

We HAVE to win!! 

The White Sox would give us a rough time in ’06. Winning games against them wasn’t easy…but we knew we were better!

We were the team that “came out of nowhere!” 

We HAVE to win!

The Tigers in the thick of it…  in September.

The pennant race! The freakin’ pennant race!

We could hang on…  We just knew…

IT WAS OUR DESTINY!! 

<<<FAST FORWARD>>>

2008.

Fun and exciting baseball for Tiger’s fans?

Yeah, not so much!

The White Sox face the Tigers again and that kind of excitement about this match-up just isn’t there… at least for us. I’m sure that they are looking forward to playing the Tigers. They sit atop the AL Central with a slim one game lead over the Twins. We haven’t done so well against them this year, they’ve won four out of seven against Detroit at US Cellular Field and they’re looking to make it 5! Overall, the White Sox are 9 – 6 against the Tigers. 

The Chisox have had a rough run of late. They’ve dropped 3 of 4 games to the Blue Jays. They’ve lost 9 of their last 15… and they’re without Crede, Carlos Quentin and Paul Konerko.

They NEED the Tigers this weekend!

Tiger’s pitcher Justin Verlander is 10-15 with a 4.78 ERA and gets the nod against John Danks who is 10-8 with a 3.44 ERA.

Verlander hasn’t been the same guy that he was in 2006. He has trouble locating his pitches and opponents have just eaten him for dinner and spit him out. Don’t get me wrong, he has had some bright spot days, days when he’s pitched well. Lately though, it hasn’t been so good for him… A pitchers poor performance sometimes threads successively into each throw. One bad outing can leak into the next… call it a slump, if you will. But, this has gone on for far too long! Yet, my fingers, toes and eyes (yes, my eyes) are crossed and I hope he does well tonight!  Why?

Because, beating the White Sox always makes us feel good!

First pitch is at 8:11 ET 

GO TIGERS!!

~Skip

Well, it’s pretty much over for the Tiger’s. No surprise to most I’m sure. But, what happened? How did they get to this point? Who do we blame? The players? Coaches? Manager? Do we blame ourselves for having such high expectations at the beginning of the season? It’s obvious that something must be done, and no doubt it will be done. They lost again this afternoon to the Oakland A’s… I really kind of expected that they would be no hit. Miggy punched one to center in the sixth to break up a no-hit bid between two pitchers… Too many walks claimed Gallagher. He walked Joyce, Thames, and Ryan Raburn before Brandon Inge flied out to end the fourth. He was replaced with Jerry Blevins who got the Bengal’s out 1-2-3 in the fifth. They’ve been shut-out a number of times this year already and with all these hitters in the line-up, could they be no-hit this season? Is that the next disappointment around the corner? That would just be salt in the wound.

Doncha think?

Congratulations to Gary Sheffield for hitting MLB’s 250,000th home run! It was a grand slam too! That’s showing how ’em how it’s done! I like Shef, always have! I remember watching him play at Tiger Stadium when he was with the Brewers. I just wish he would have come around a little earlier in the year. It seemed as though he really kicked it in only after he was placed on waivers by the Tigers. Tigers played the Blue Jays. He hit a home run that night too! In fact two. I was there, I just figured he was a little ticked off… 500 before the end of the year! 

Former Tiger Pudge Rodriguez was suspended for two games along with Torii Hunter for scrapin’ the other night. Torii stole second off of Pudge and then went on to steal third… no doubt Pudge was unhappy. Torii got caught in a rundown between third and home on a short grounder to third and was tagged at the plate. Pudge kinda pushed him away and then started walking toward the dugout… Torii really blindsided him, slamimng him in the back… HARD!  He deserves the suspension. Why Pudge got one too, I don’t know.

Did you see this week’s Amazing Sports Stories? It’s a really cool story about Houston Colt .45 third baseman Bob Aspromonte who befriends a young boy blinded by a lightning strike while playing a little league game.

“Hit a home run for me, Bobby!”

Catch it this week on FSN.

Look for the return of Dontrelle Willis next week and the first start of the season from Freddy Garcia… should be interesting.

I wish both the best of luck!  

Well, it’s on to the southside of Chicago. The White Sox are waiting!  Both weekend games are nationally televised. Saturday is on Fox at 3:55 ET and Sunday’s game is ESPN’s Sunday night game.

Skip