Tiger Lifer

On Monday, February 25 th , the Tigers broke out the sticks yet again, as they tallied 15 hits at the Orioles’ Ed Smith (that’s right, Ed Smith) Stadium in Sarasota.   A weird collision at home plate between Jeimer Candelario and O’s pitcher Kevin Gausman in the first nearly marred the otherwise successful day.    Fortunately, it has been called a bruised knee, and Candelario is listed as day-to-day.   Leonys Martin continued his bid for a roster spot by lacing three singles in four at-bats, while James McCann, JaCoby Jones, and Jim Adduci each drove in a pair of runs.   The best news of the day was that Michael Fulmer was popping 94 mph pain-free sinkers in his Spring debut.   Despite giving up a solo shot in the first, the Tigers’ ace needed just 14 pitches, 10 of which were strikes, to get through two innings of work.   Baltimore’s stud 2B Jonathan Schoop smashed a 3-run jack off Tigers 2014 2 nd round draft pick Spencer Turnbull his first ever M...

This season’s spring action got underway on Thursday, February 22 nd , when our Tigers took on Division II collegiate outfit, the Florida Southern Moccasins, at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland.  Eight Tigers pitchers obliterated the overmatched hitters, en route to 19 strikeouts on the day.  Four Tigers errors, including two of the throwing variety from catcher James McCann, enabled the Mocs to carry a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the 7 th .  That’s when Florida Southern’s centerfielder lost a couple balls in the sun that led to a 3-run inning.  Three more insurance runs in the 8 th sealed the victory.  We’re not going to read into this one on any level. A day later, the Tigers traveled to Steinbrenner Stadium to take on the Yankees in front of 10,000 senior citizens.   The pitchers continue to be ahead of the hitters, as the two squads combined to go 2 for 19 with runners in scoring position.  The Tigers managed just one run, on an RBI si...

By the time I was nine, I was a pretty good ballplayer, relative to my peers in the Enfield Little League back in Connecticut.  At this age, in recreational Little Leagues, each team is usually stocked with one or two kids who can really play; a handful who aren’t entirely incompetent; and a few who really don’t want to be there.  I could really play at that age, and thus I spent most of these formidable years of my youth at shortstop.  Shortstop is a really fun position on 60-foot base paths.  Most of the hitters are right-handed, so there’s lots of action.  While it’s technically a longer throw than the one from third base, it’s a smoother transition from fielding the grounder, coming up for a crow-hop, and delivering an accurate toss across the diamond than the one from the hot corner.  At least I always thought so.  The catcher may be the leader on the field, but the shortstop is his vice president, keeping the chatter alive, communicating the...

It didn’t take long for that same “coach” to realize that, at age six, the greatest value in having someone who could consistently catch a ball thrown his way was at first base and not catcher.  Although I’m pretty sure we weren’t keeping score and every kid got an at-bat every inning, even a parent volunteer can’t resist his competitive nature sometimes and wants to put his best lineup out there.  So I spent my first and only season ever at first base.  First base was the only position I never really felt comfortable playing.  I was always worried that the base runner was going to stomp on my Achilles for some reason.  Furthermore, I was born with an eye condition known as amblyopia (or lazy eye, if you want to be a jerk about it).  Structurally, my right eye was completely normal.  However, the pathway between my brain and my right eye never developed properly.  Thus, my vision out of that eye has always been extremely blurry and basically ...

I don’t remember much from when I was six years old.  But I do remember some snippets from my first season of organized baseball.  At the first practice, the coach was trying to assess who could play catcher without constantly having to run to the backstop to retrieve passed balls.  “Does anybody want to catch?” he challenged the group of little kids, most of whom had never touched a real baseball before and were wearing plastic gloves, potentially on the wrong hand.  “I can catch!” I quipped, raising my hand.  The coach thought I misunderstood the question, and that I was declaring that I had the ability to catch a ball that was tossed my way – not that I was specifically stating my willingness to play the catcher position.  So he followed up my answer with a clarifying version of the same question.  “I meant to say, is there anyone who wants to play catcher?”  I always resented that guy for that.  I knew what you meant, pal, and I was prep...

So here we are, February 6, 2018.  I’m in Columbus, OH, as usual, where we are expecting 1-3” of snow mixed with some sleet tonight.  One week from today, however, in Lakeland, FL, the forecast shows 84 degrees and the Detroit Tigers’ pitchers and catchers will be reporting for Spring Training.  Spring is the time of renewed hope when you’re a Tigers fan, a time when I can wipe away the sorrows that linger from the torturous experience I left behind in 2017, and every other year of my life as a baseball fan for that matter.  Is this the year the Tigers finally bring home the hardware?  I have no tenable prognosis for this club that suggests it will be.  It doesn’t really matter though, because the journey of Father & Son navigating the undulation of emotions in a single baseball season supersedes the significance of wins and losses.  This is a year in the life of two eternally linked Tigers fanatics.    I’m not quite sure how Dad...

Fast forward to 2006, the year my daughter Sydney was born, when Jim Leyland took the reins and finally got the Tigers back to the postseason.  Detroit promptly smashed the Yankees in the Division Series and took a 2-0 lead on Oakland in the ALCS, and we started thinking, “Maybe this is the year!”  I left work on October 13 th and headed to Comerica to see Game 3 of the ALCS.  My wife and I watched Kenny Rogers flip 7-1/3 innings of 2-hit ball.  Series MVP Placido Polanco laced a single up the middle off Rich Harden to score Curtis Granderson in the bottom of the first and Craig Monroe blasted a solo shot in the fifth to cement the victory.  Magglio Ordonez’s 3-run, walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth off Huston Street in Game 4 sent the Tigers back to the Series for the first time since 1984, and the first time in my appreciable life.  Tony LaRussa’s St. Louis Cardinals, the same franchise the Tigers edged out in the legendary 1968 Bob Gibson W...

In 1974, my parents were in their early twenties, and 39-year old, rightfielder Al Kaline was on his farewell tour with the Tigers.  The rocket-armed “Mr. Tiger”, having never played a day in the minor leagues, was relegated to a full season at designated hitter and turned in a pedestrian but respectable line of .262-13-64 in his final Major League campaign.   On June 19 th of that season, the Tigers wrapped up a 3-game set in Texas against the Rangers.  Joe Coleman scattered five hits over six innings of work, allowing only a single run.  John Hiller blew the save in the eighth, but held on to win it in the 11 th on a double by shortstop Ed Brinkman, who plated Mickey Stanley.  The following day, June 20 th , 1974, while the Tigers were en route to the Bronx for an upcoming set with the Pinstripers, my mom gave birth to her first son, Kaline John Carter.  Fortunately for my brother, he never developed a love for America’s pastime.  Let’s f...

Why am I a Detroit Tigers fan?  Well, that part is simple.  My dad was a Detroit Tigers fan and he was the coolest guy on my planet.  I wanted to be just like him.  Why is my dad a Detroit Tigers fan?  That part is more complicated, full of intrigue, and riddled with legends that have been passed down to me over the years.   Some of it I might have made up myself, or just dreamt up over the years.  One contention is that Dad’s Little League team was named the Tigers, and so the Big League version became his team by extension.  I also heard that he went to spend a summer with an uncle who lived in Detroit, and he developed his affinity then.  I have a vague remembrance of him telling me that he could get Tigers games on the radio, even in New York, and listened to Ernie Harwell’s calls as a kid.  I totally could have made that up.  The most interesting rendition has less to do with the Tigers and more to do with the Yankees...

Today is Tuesday, February 6 th , 2018. Philadelphia Eagles fans are entering Stage 2 of their hangovers, following their dramatic Super Bowl victory over the Evil Empire.  Stage 2 is the point where the physical agony of overindulgence succumbs to the grouchy, tired reality that your desk job is still there waiting for you.  This used to be the moment on the calendar in my sports-following life when I would shift all of my focus to UConn basketball – or just college basketball in general.  That was when UConn was still in the Big East, college basketball wasn’t watered down with one-and-done freshmen, big men actually had some moves down in the low post, and it still resembled the beautiful game I remember watching as a child of the late 80’s and early 90’s.  I still love my Huskies, and I still prefer the college game over the NBA.  Yet there is still a lull that fills the month of February with clouds and misery that even a mild gambling addiction and some E...