betterREDthandead

If Sean Casey and Dmitri Young got into a footrace, they'd put away the timers and break out the sundial.

I have yet to see a Clemson team live up to expectations. The only good thing a Clemson player ever did was to run out of bounds next to Woody Hayes.

Nah, I may not even be in town yet. I don't have plans to see any games at the Big House this year....in fact, this may be the first year in a while I haven't gone to a football game. There's still hope, though.

Our pansies could beat your pansies Anyway you're probably right....overall, MSU has the tougher schedule. They have to play Michigan.

Now there's a schedule to make anyone quake. I shouldn't talk much. My beloved 'Hoos are playing Pitt, Wyoming, Western, and East Carolina for a non-conference schedule. But then, our final three games are Miami, Florida State, and Virginia Tech, so I'm not sorry. The ACC is no joke.

Yeah, I can see that. They purchased Gomez's contract from Toledo, so I think it's more permanent....so he'll likely be around for September. Then bring Clevlen up when the rosters expand. What I love is that Miller is a lefty. Perfect complement to Zumaya. If he pitches in Detroit like he did in Lakeland (granted, the jump from Single-A to the bigs is pretty enormous)......but still....being able to bring in Zumaya, Miller, or Rodney from the pen like that....we will OWN the late innings of games. And Walker, not forgetting about him....there isn't a left-handed batter in the league he can't get out. Grilli will be there in case the starter gets shellacked, he's a nice luxury to have because the starter can come out early before the trouble really starts and you can get three or four innings out of Grilli before you turn it over to the best fastball in all of baseball. And lets be honest....the ol' Rollercoaster has a deceptively high ERA, because it's only been in a couple innings that he's really been hit hard, 5 runs here and 4 runs there....for most of the season, he's been lock-down. Our bullpen is unfair.

Miller is getting the call-up, along with Alexis Gomez, for Tuesday's game. Colby Lewis and Brent Clevlen will be sent down. Why Clevlen? He's been hitting like he deserves to stay in the majors for 20 years and his defense has been stellar, especially his arm. Gomez is a lefty at the plate, that's the only reason I can think of.

I don't know how much better the Shock players are than the rest of the league, because I don't really care about women's basketball. If I wanted to watch a bunch of players run around the court not dunking, I'd go find the closest high school team. Sorry, I'm chauvinistic that way. Yay Detroit, I guess, better the Shock than anyone else. But, I wonder how Laimbeer would do as an NBA coach? If the Shock win this title, it's Lam's second. Offers to join up with a mens' team surely must not be far off?

I don't like this stretch. How do we lose 2 of 3 to Cleveland? Ugh. Still.....82nd win makes it a winning season, officially.

Oops. Fact is, I'm doubly wrong: I think when Wells takes the mound, there's enough of him there to be two pitchers. Edit: Victory again. Jubilations! 14th shutout of the year as nary a White Sock crosses the plate, Kenny Rogers rediscovers the arm he had in May, and Thames triples to deep center and homers to left-center. No more losing season!!! Tomorrow Miner goes against Freddy Garcia to try for the landmark 82nd win and make the winning season official. Hopefully this will be the first of many in a row. Edit again: HA HA HA.

Tonight's huge. Tonight is our first crack at breaking the 12-year streak. Win tonight, and it's official: the first season since 1993 the Tigers do not lose more than they win. How long ago was that? Only one player off the 1993 roster is still active in the bigs: Chris Gomez, currently with Baltimore.

People will pay anyway. The place will be full. I'm glad we're not like Atlanta. 2003 NLDS: Game 5 against the Cubs is on Sunday in Atlanta. Friend of mine gets idea on Thursday - let's go to the game! Found four tickets - this is three days before the big game - from the actual box office, for $20 each. Lower deck. And the place was at least a third full of Cubs fans. I promise you this doesn't happen at Comerica.

It's still too early to write anyone off just yet. But Boston definitely moved to the bottom of the heap. Chicago and Minnesota are in the lead for the wild card....our job this week is to help bring Boston back into the race.

By the way, WTF happened to the Red Sox? Five-game sweep by the Yankees....AT FENWAY. I think we can finally go back to seeing Red Sox fans act the self-pitying whiners, instead of the smug world-loves-us narcissists they'd become. Best part is, a friend of mine who is a Red Sox fan has been dogging me since May that the Tigers' pitching will collapse in August. So what happens in August? The Bosox lose two of three to the Tigers (Schilling and Beckett, no less) and give up 10+ runs to the hated Yankees in three straight. Pitching? In Boston? Not for us, thanks. 'Tis truly a great year to be a Tigers fan.

I notice the astronomers are still having trouble classifying planets. Their task didn't get any easier tonight, as they keep having to revise the charts. In addition to the most recently proposed objects - Charon, Ceres, and Xena - they are now having to add yet another proposed planet to the list: Craig Monroe's Home Run.

I expect to be all by my lonesome self.

According to FSD, the Tigers have acquired utilityman Neifi Perez from the Cubs for minor league catcher Chris Robinson. More capable backup than Santiago is what I hope they're thinking. Perez doesn't really have anything on Infante, although he's better defensively on the left side of the field.

Himelfarb is the only one really running out of time. He's 23. The rest, I think, are not yet 20, so they've got a few years to put it together. Himelfarb needs to have a very solid year with Grand Rapids or be stuck with the "career AHLer" label.

ESPN has been saying a lot of the same stuff. Great baseball town, fans very excited, downtown revitalizing, etc. But what really sounded nice was when they kicked it back to the announcers from the studio after an update with "back to Dude 1 and Dude 2 in Detroit" and Dude 1 or 2 says "and we wouldn't want to be anywhere else." Now that's something I've never heard from an announcer. They proceeded to lavish praise on the ballpark, city, fans, team, manager, general manager, and team history so you'd almost think they were talking about the Red Sox. Nice to watch back-to-back Tigers games on ESPN. Especially when they're the featured attraction and not the Yankees or Red Sox for the thirtieth time in a season. Oh! Almost forgot: Baseball Tonight will have Web Gems from the Tigers history, to include highlights from Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Al Kaline, George Kell, and so on. I can't wait! EDIT: argh, the announcers hyped that up to be a lot bigger than it was. Still fun though. According to the BBTN crew, none of the top 3 Tigers Web Gems include Lou & Tram: #3: Al Kaline robs Red Schoendienst of extra-bases with a leaping catch at the wall in 1957 ASG. #2: Craig Monroe (wow) robs the Mariners' Jose Lopez of a home run in September last year. #1: Willie Horton throws out Lou Brock at the plate in a bang-bang play, with Freehan blocking the plate, during Game 5 of the '68 Series. Betcha when they do the Cardinals, Curt Flood's Game 7 blunder misses the cut I want to see when they do the Yankees. I've seen the video of the Willie Mays catch in the Series against Cleveland in 1954, but certainly for the Yankees, #1 will be Mickey Mantle's running down a rocket shot in the '56 Series against the Dodgers to preserve Don Larsen's perfecto. I'd love to see that highlight.

Huh? You sure you don't have weddings mixed up with funerals?

Went to my friend's wedding last weekend. I've decided that friend's weddings are way better than family weddings. Family weddings, you have to act nice, pretend you like the family members that you actually don't, and in general attempt not to embarass the family. Friend's weddings, there's more leeway. You can drink more champagne, heckle the best man when he offers a toast, and there's a better selection of lovely ladies to dance with 'cause you're not related to either side.

Early report from the News is that there's no broken bones in Polanco's shoulder, so that's encouraging. They think he may return for the playoffs. More will be known in the next day or two. Clevlen gets a start tonight against lefty Wells, and Pudge leading off tonight, for the first time in his career, says ESPN. More importantly, tonight is a special night for umpire Bruce Froemming, who is umpiring his 5,000th major league game. He's only the second to do it - Bill Klem is the other. That's really, really something. Froemming worked on a crew, at the start of his career, with umpiring legend Al Barlick - who in turned began his career working on a crew with Klem. It's fun to have so few degrees of separation to the past like that.

Polanco may be done for the season

Dunno about that. I think the water bottle full of Grey Goose was enough to make Clarett the butt of many an NFL joke. I still wonder how the dude expected to make an NFL team while chugging vodka in the weight room :nonono:

Indeed it was. Oopsy-daisy