Author Archive

Frank Tanana turned 55 on Thursday.
I was ecstatic when the Tigers picked up Tanana on June 20, 1985. For years — since the days of Mickey Lolich, in fact — Detroit lacked a long-term lefty in the rotation. Unfortunately, Bob Sykes didn’t pan out as we’d hoped.
But along came Tanana in a one-for-one swap [...]

The Score: Mariners 4 - Tigers 1
The Gist: Erik Bedard looked like the pitcher the Mariners thought they were getting in the offseason trade with the Orioles and the Tigers fell back in to old habits. You know, leaving gobs of runners on base in key, tight-game situations; wasting a stellar performance by Kenny Rogers, [...]

Remembering The Trade that started the shaping of the current Tigers…
On July 5, 2002, the Yankees obtained P Jeff Weaver from the Tigers in a three-team deal. New York sent P Ted Lilly to the Oakland A’s while the Athletics sent first-baseman Carlos Pena to Detroit. The Tigers also acquired P Franklyn German and a [...]

Bruce Kimm, Mark Fidrych’s personal catcher, turns 57 today.

Eddie Miller played 14 games for the 1982 Tigers and got one hit in 25 at bats; that’s an .040 average, folks. He turns 51 today.

Dizzy Trout was born on this date in 1915. The righty pitcher won 27 games for the Tigers in the 1944 season [...]

The Score: Tigers 4 - Rockies 3
The Gist: Dane Sardinha tripled for his first big-league hit and drove in two runs to power the Tigers to a sweep of the Rockies. Kenny Rogers allowed three runs in six innings and raised his record to one above the .500 mark. Marcus Thames went 3 for 4 [...]

The Score: Tigers 7 - Rockies 6
The Gist: Ryan Raburn hit his first career grand slam and Miguel Cabrera’s bottom-of-the-ninth laser to right center drove in the tying and winning runs to save Todd Jones’s neck. Saved, that is, from the choking hands of Justin Verlander or, quite possibly, Jim Leyland. Verlander allowed two runs [...]

I’m leaving Cleveland in about six hours and getting cozy with U.S. 23 and I-75 for most of the day on the way back to Charlevoix. So, I wanted to clear out the mental notebook.

Did you see that Chris Shelton got designated for assignment by the Rangers? In almost two months in Arlington, Big Red [...]

ESPN highlights available here (eventually).

The Score: Tigers 7 - Rockies 1
The Gist: Eddie Bonine continues to impress in the most understated manner and Curtis Granderson — two triples, four hits and three runs scored on Friday — is darn-near hitting .300. Result? A more exciting brand of Tigers baseball. And how about Clete Thomas? [...]

Still in Cleveland, still at the SABR Convention.

Heading out to the Indians-Reds game tonight with fellow SABRtooths. It’s raining right now but because I already purchased my ticket, I’m going to this game come hell or high water. Come to think of it, one or both could occur.

Overheard (and paraphrased): “Isn’t there a disconnect [...]

Oh, how those September call-ups can distort reality.
In nine games with the Tigers junior varsity (i.e., after they clinched the division), Simmons batted .433 (13 for 30). Move over, Larry Herndon, right?
Nah.
The Tigers’ second pick in the 1981 draft, Simmons (#37) hit 10 homers for the ‘85 Tigers. On April 29, 1986 Detroit [...]