We apologize, but the regularly scheduled game blog can’t happen. Looks like the Tigers encrypted their network earlier this week and Gary wasn’t able to get on his laptop while in the pressbox so we’ll see if we can do this again soon.
Final comments:
The crowd of 44,588 seemed a bit subdued for such a huge win with lots of offensive fireworks today. Maybe half of them fell asleep while Texas pitchers were walking hitter after hitter…
The Texas media bio of K. Benson says he’s married to Anna. Now I can rest securely…
To misapply the words of great, underrated Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas’s home run call… I am outta here!
Kris Benson: 5 IP / 10 H/ 8 R / 7 ER/ 2 BB / 3 K / 66 strikes (mostly BP fastballs) / 35 balls. Losing ugly if ever I saw it.
Josh Rupe: 1.1 IP/4 H/3 R/ 3 ER/ 3 BB / 0 K / 18 strikes / 20 balls. Ugh!
Miguel Cabrera: 5 AB / 1 R / 3 H/ 6 RBI / 1 HR season-to-date BA .611 (his 3-for-5 day actually lowered his AVG from .688 to .611)
Texas pitchers season-to-date ERAs:
meat puppet. n. A very, very bad pitcher. [Insert JPG of Josh Rupe]
On the Comerica Park scoreboard (underneath Texas lineup):
58 Rupe P 54.00 (ERA)
Gag me with a rosin bag. I can’t believe Texas skipper Ron Washington left that humpty out there so long. What does he have against Detroit fans?
This guy couldn’t pitch BP to Paul Bunyan and get the ball in the strike zone.
Error. n. A muff or misplay by a fielder that allows a batter to reach base or a batter or runner to advance an extra base.
In order for a fielding play on which a batter reaches base or a batter or runner advances an extra base can be scored an error, it must meet four conditions:
1) The batted ball or throw must hit the fielder directly in the nuts or in the glove;
2) The fielder must drop the ball;
3) The fielder must either kick the ball or drop the ball a second time while trying to pick it up; AND
4) If a play resulting from a batted ball, the fielder must throw the ball at least six feet over the head of the first baseman, second baseman, etc.
Without ALL of these conditions being met, it cannot be an error.
Not that I need to state the obvious, but the standards of official scoring in the past decade have become so low that no self-respecting weasel would ever take the job.
I offer as Exhibit A the “base hit” by Ordonez in the 3rd inning that went right under the glove of TEX 3B Michael Young. There was nothing unusual about it–it wasn’t hit like a cannon shot, it wasn’t a bad hop, it was just a play that the former SS didn’t make–probably due to his lack of experience at the hot corner.
That wasn’t the first hit-error of the game, either. In the second, Jeff Larish hit a swinging bunt that dribbled weakly a few feet down the 1st base line. TEX C Jarrod Saltalamacchia picked up the ball and threw wildly passt first. Clearly an error on the throw, which would have had the lumbering Larish if it had been on-target.
But the scoring was “single plus E2/TH” not simply “E2/TH.” What a joke–except that the joke is so frequent, it ain’t funny anymore.
How dull the world would be without our favorite Big Brother, Google! I was trying to find out just now if Blue Collar Dog Food is still being sold so’s I could make a comment about Detroit’s blue-collar hero, Brandon Inge.
So I don’t get any hits (at least on the first page of results) for the dog food I remember from the 1980s that a friend of mine who had a farm used to buy. IIRC, it was sold in huge brown bags with a blue line drawing of a pointer on the front.
IIRC, it was inexpensive and its slogan was, “for working dogs” or something like that. (This setup is getting too damn long…)
So I try Googling “blue collar dog food” and get bupkes. So I try “bluecollar dog food” just in case. And I get this as one of the top results:
Dog swam 6 miles through shark-infested waters, survived 4 months on a desert island
WTF?!?
Horseshit. adj. The quality or state of being bad, wrong, or misleading. As in a “horeshit fastball” or a “horseshit opinion.”
“Happy horseshit” means a fatuously stupid opinion. Abbreviated “HHS” in polite society.
Not to be confused with bullshit…
Bullshit. n. or v. Untrue. A lie. As in “That’s bullshit.” Or “Stop bullshitting me.”
Opening Day in the press box is like an annual reunion for the grizzled scribes and electronic “journalists” in the media. Lots of old-timers who don’t show up for most of the rest of the year, plus the usual complement of celebrities…
Al Kaline and Willie Horton, of course–who both work for the Tigers–are here. Ernie Harwell always shows up to greet his many admirers. Sonny Eliot strolled thru to the glad greetings of many.
Still lookiing for Anna Benson, however. Is she still married to Kris? If she were, I wonder how she would get along with the team culture in Texas, which has to be waaaay more conservative than in New York or Baltimore.
‘course, if she were still married to Benson, she’d have to get divorced because he’s such a horseshit pitcher.
I wonder if “horseshit hubby” is legal grounds for divorce in any state?
CoPa is almost full now, though there are still a few empty chairs in the upper deck. The Pepsi Porch, which last year had a tier of temporary bleachers installed on it, is crowded with gawkers hanging over the railing. The temporary bleachers under the LF scoreboard, new last year, remain, however.
Appear to be quite a few SROs around the park–many of ‘em drunk or on-the-way to getting loaded white guys with $8 cups of beer-flavored H2O in their hands and a frozen grin on their faces…
I understand how the club can sell sRO tix to a big game like Opening Day. What I don’t understand is how they can get $20 for an SRO ticket.
Weather is 56 degrees with a little breeze now; 51 degrees at 1st pitch. Not great, but certainly a lot better than if Detroit had opened at home a week ago.
Still a fair number of the $5 “Skyline” seats open in the far corner of the LF upper deck. If you’ve never sat up there, you should try them sometime when the park is mostly sold-out. Nice view of downtown, generally some breeze even on a hot summer night when the lower deck is stifling, and while they’re not close to the action, for my money they beat standing in an aisle getting elbowed by drunk frat boys by a mile.
A lot of people complain about Comerica’s open seating, especially in the lower deck when it can become a frying pan when the sun it hot in midsummer. But the corresponding part of this design is that Comerica is a lot more pleasant on days like today than Tiger Stadium was, where so many people in the lower deck sat shivering in the shadows when the temps were in the 50s.
I’ll be posting my observations today during and after the game–not so much about the game itself as about the carnival that surrounds it.
The pre-game was a bit more interesting than usual. Normally, participating in pre-game ceremonies is a favor shown to VIPs or sponsors. Today Kid Rock was part of the ceremonial first pitch(es), along with three autoworkers representing beleagured Ford, GM, and Chrysler.
In the spirit of “we’re all in this together,” the GM Fountain in center field now displays Ford’s trademark blue oval as well as Chrysler’s pentastar…oddly enough, however, the shiny new GM cars normally displayed on ramps at the top of the fountain are MIA for Opening Day…
Before the game, a moment of silence was observed in memory of Hall of Famer George Kell. I wasn’t really a fan of Kell as a broadcaster, but I do have a funny story about him behind the mike I’ll squeez in a sthe game goes along.
Although the level of excitement–as well as drunken behavior–is certainly toned down a lot from a year ago, Opening Day in Detroit is always special.
Editor’s Note – With extensive quotes from Sparky Anderson, Kirk Gibson and former Tiger’s beat writer Bill McGraw, freelance writer Bill Dow weaves an interesting tale with a narrative of game five of the 1984 World Series. Bill’s work can be regularly found at the Detroit Free Press and he’s also written for Baseball Digest magazine.
Editor’s Note – As an editor, this is probably one of the tougher pieces to proof because there’s so many facts coming from other teams. Fortunately it wasn’t all that bad because blogging stalwart Bill Ferris provided some top notch commentary. The longest running Tigers’ blogger out there, Bill Ferris covers everything related to the Tigers at the Detroit Tigers Weblog.
One thing to keep mind, while I went through the other content on this site, I tried to tweak it as much as I could to account for the fact that some of these were written as early as last November. Just a quick note that I kept this one as is so you can see what Bill thought of the division back when he wrote this in January.
Editor’s Note – Dan D’Addona covers, amongst other things, the West Michigan White Caps for the Holland Sentinal. By far the most consistent Tigers’ affiliate, West Michigan once again made the post season although their championship streak did end in 2008. There’s some interesting names that spent time near Grand Rapids with two of them being two of the Tigers most effective minor league pitchers of the season.
Editor’s Note – Another piece by Matt Wallace at Take 75 North, we take a look at the lone Tiger’s affiliate that’s actually owned by the major league ballclub. As you’ll see, the Flying Tigers record wasn’t terribly impressive, but the guys who came through this club during 2008 is a laundry list of a lot of the Tigers’ top prospects.
Editor’s Note – Double A has widely been regarded as the place where near Major League ready prospects make their mark and the fact that Erie struggled at times last year shows how thin Tigers farm system is. Still, the 2008 SeaWolves tell an interesting story. Lee Panas, who penned this column, covers the Tigers and their minor league affiliates at Detroit Tiger Tales.
Ain’t no need to watch where I’m going, just need to know where I’ve been.
Mater, from the movie Cars
Editors Note: This is the first of four minor league affiliate reviews. There’s no better place then to start at the top, with Matt Wallace’s review of the 2008 Toledo Mud Hens. Matt covers all of the Tigers’ affiliates in amazing detail at his blog Take 75 North.
Editor’s Note – Gary Gillette, Brian Borawski, Matt Wallace and Lee Panas all contributed to this year’s prospect profiles. A few of these guys are still at big league camp so if you run across a name you’re not familiar with, then this is a great place to go if you want a quick synopsis.
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