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I was born in 1952 and started following the Tigers in 1961 and was huge huge into it through 1968 — baseball cards, glossy photographs of the players on my wall, pennants, all the paraphernalia symbolizing magical amulets that sort of it made me feel good made me feel a part of something bigger and better than myself. After the World Series victory in ‘68 I had got what I needed in life and was generally disinterested because I was a young man living a young man’s life and that was more nourishing than being a boy and liking a baseball team. It was like in the Bible where you put away childish things. In 1973 I moved to Arizona couldn’t pick up Ernie on the radio and the team sucked so often even a box score disinterested me. I pretty much missed The Bird and only saw him on national TV broadcasts. I was in my 20s and livin’ the life in the mountains and desert and it was better than the baseball team I worshiped as a child In 1984 in Tucson where half of my best friends were from Detroit we followed that magical season with shared passion. After games my friends who had lived in Detroit would tell me about going to bar in Corktown and seeing the players there. Gibby once crashed at friend’s house after a night of partying in Ann Arbor. I felt like I was sort of in the mix with my pals that year. I moved to Idaho in my mid-30s and ‘87 was a good year then hugely disappointing and I totally forgot about the team. Then in 2004 a fast and surprising start and my discovery of MTS through the Internet brought me back into the fold. The responsibility of life in my 30s was exhilarating and oppressive and going back to something from my childhood made me feel better. Now I’m back to generally not giving a shit. I’m 70 years old I could die in the blink of an instant because people I know are doing that all the time and my time could be better spent on something other than a profoundly unsatisfying team. The only thing that keeps me interested is you morons because I love you more than this stupid blanking team.

Born in 1956, never lived in Michigan. As a kid in upstate NY we would visit aunts and uncles by driving across Canada every year. My favorite relatives lived in Dearborn and they made me a Tigers fan (no Yankee love - who needs an overdog). Fast forward to 68 and I am in junior high in central Illinois - pretty solid Cardinal country. One of my teachers had the radio on during class for a game, I don’t recall there being another Tigers fan in the group. That was a sweet victory in so many ways and cemented my fandom. Lots of lean years followed but 84 was magical. And the final week of the 87 season- by then I was in the PNW and it was hard to keep up with games. I would buy The Sporting News and get excited about players (Marshall had great SO numbers!) that seldom made it in the bigs. I still have Bill James abstracts and books from back then. Watched Cecil drive a massive HR against the W Sux with my Dad when we drove up for a game during a visit to Illinois. 2006 was redemption for all the bad years, although, like others I was in to the firepower from the nineties teams. Loved Tony P and others. And the run after 2006 was a lot of fun for the most part. As a final Tigers note, my first born is named Lew (never liked the Lou spelling), partially for Lou. Took him to see the Tigers beat the Yankees when he was getting started at UM. Lots of great memories, although I am getting fuzzier on many of them. And having this forum (old one included) has been wonderful. When I joined in 2002 or 2003 I had no idea it would be such a regular part of my life. The people on it and the hugely beneficial connection and information for a fan so Far away. Thank you all. Well, almost all. 😎

Still waiting apparently

Whether it's Joe Biden fist bumping the crown prince or Donald Trump selling nuclear secrets, both sides have had a controversial relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Excited for Norris tonight. God help me

Bert is a lot older than I am, 10 days I think. I started following the team in 1962 because that was the first of 3 years that I played for the Tigers. Kaline, Cash and Colavito. I was the only Tigers fan at school, everybody was Yankees, with a smattering of other teams. In 1963 we went to a game at War Memorial Stadium, the Rockpile, in Buffalo to see the Bisons play the Syracuse Chiefs who were the Tigers' AAA farm team. So yes, I saw Purnal Goldy play. In 1968 we were playing a high school football game and someone had a radio - a transistor radio - on the sidelines for one of those afternoon World Series games. My 2 best TV memories were both in hotel rooms. In 1976 we had just moved to Winnipeg and didn't have an apartment yet, so I was in a hotel for Fidrych's curtain call after the Yankees game. In 1984 I was in Edmonton for work, and I turned down going out for drinks in the evening so that I could go back to my hotel and watch Gibby drill one into the upper deck against Gossage. I loved those early 90's teams, but it all fell apart by 1996. I still enjoy it, but as others have said I wouldn't follow it as much without being able to hang out with this group of people.

At 67 years young, I do find it pretty cool that there is so much diversity age-wise here. Somewhat to Bert’s point, this board is a therapy of sorts for those of us who suffer at the hands of the Tigers prolonged reign of futility. It’s a refuge in times of angst and woe. This place is like the local bar in some ways. You’re free to vent frustrations among other exercises that gives one the impression they’ve actually accomplished something just by showing up.

More of this please!

College managers abuse pitchers with high pitch counts and short rest. I follow this team very closely and have seen none of that. The pitching injuries are bad luck. The rest of this disaster is on Hinch, Avila, and everyone else.

My son’s comment about Trump trying to whatabout Obama: “it’s amazing when you are immediately ratioed by the National Archives “

I'm here to jack bombs and weed your garden and I'm all out of weeds.

These are the kind of no nonsense players we need. Lets keep an eye on him!

interesting piece by Farhad Manjoo about what really provides the oxygen to keep the conspiracy hawkers like Alex Jones going:

Ive only been here since 2010, lurked for about a year prior though but with me seeing my friends less and less these days, my brothers living in across the country and the vast majority of my co workers not being sports fans I find myself discussing sports with everybody on here far more than I do anybody else and when the board was down last year I felt lost not being able to "talk" to people about the things in the sports world. Sure there is Twitter and I do interact with people there but it's not the same as interacting with posters that you have interacted with for in my case 12 or so years.

some of you are very young.

That era was a great time to go to games because you could sit pretty much wherever you wanted. I remember being third row behind home plate when they played the Expos and marveling at what a beast Vlad was. The ushers gave me some grief for sitting there but when I told them that if the seat owners showed up, we'd gladly move. They didn't and we enjoyed the whole game from those seats.

If the FBI can conduct a search of former President Trump looking for (checks notes) nuclear secrets... imagine what they could do to you

Undrafted free agent and one of the best baseball stories of the 70s.

Why hire Luhnow when you can hire someone else who can also win for you? I get that guys like Theo Epstein and Jeff Luhnow have a track record, but there was a time where they were once unknown executives who earned jobs in this league as well. I just don't know that this whole "Epstein/Luhnow or bust" mentality is right. I do obviously agree that independent voices would help in ascertaining who the right person is, but the right person doesn't necessarily have to be the big name guy. Go find the next Epstein or Luhnow...

Fire everyone!

Agree

Espionage Capital crime

Seeing Morgan there made me think of McCarver, so I typed in shutupmccarver.com. it's long gone.

right. He could perform an abortion on live TV of a 14 year old girl he impregnated and his cult will slut shame her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Byrnes The more and more I read about Josh Byrnes, it seems like he would be a pretty ideal fit if they went the President of Baseball Ops + GM route.... also has AJ connections + comes from the Dodgers, from whom they've done a lot of hiring the past few years. He's not Theo, but he looks like a guy who can fill that kinda role.

without a doubt that would have to be a graphic novel.

Yeah my Dad would get tickets from a client some 20 times a year in that era, they were like 3 rows behind the visitors on deck circle so awesome seats but they were right where the netting stopped so it was impossible to get a foul ball so me and my brothers would change seats throughout the park every inning. Never did get a ball but it was a fun experience wandering the park and getting different vantage points throughout the stadium. I don't recall an usher ever saying anything to us.

For whatever reason, I really enjoyed following the Tigers during these years. Other names through this era would be Deer, Gladden, and Gregg Jeffries. I think Fryman was still in the mix then as well. That Sparky was managing the team and they were still in Tiger Stadium made it more fun as well.

It would finally be the end of the line for Trump and the cult if the feds actually found the nuclear docs at mar-a-lago. Unfortunately, I’ve seen this movie too many times before to know they most likely came up empty.

Being born in 81 my first real Tiger fandom was those Cecil Fielder teams of the early 90s, I was a "fan" before but I was of the age that I didn't really care all that much, I was more of a fan of baseball in general than the Tigers at that point. I remember rooting for the A's in the late 80s just because that was my little league team and I basically treated my little league team like they were the lowest level farm team for the A's.lol But by 1990 when Cecil came here and had that magical 51 HR season I became attached to the Tigers. Even though they weren't great those early 90s teams were fun to watch even as a pretty young kid. It wasn't until the mid to late 90s where everything went to shit.

Let’s say we give Carpenter more than two games despite the early eye sore.

I don't think Sportz is involved with that account. Anyway, I have noticed that whoever runs it is not especially knowledgeable about the game. I think it might be a kid.

This. But unironically.

Crappy performance across the board aside if there is any truth to Javy's quote then Coolbaugh and Co. should be fired for that alone. Yeah a good hitting coach isn't going to turn a nobody into Ted Williams but what the good ones can do is identify what a player is doing wrong and correct it. Just like a PGA Instructor isn't going to turn somebody into prime Tiger Woods but those Instructor's usually can fix or identify what the player is doing wrong and maximize their abilities. By the sound of things Coolbaugh and Co. aren't doing anything of that nature. I get the sense that their "coaching" consists of a 1 size fits all tutorial or thought process and isn't catered to a specific players needs or problems. Of course I'm not in the clubhouse so it may be unfair for me to make that accusation but between that Javy quote and seeing virtually every player under his watch get worse with no real signs of progress makes that a pretty fair assumption until proven otherwise.

Whether the scouts have a good take on the guy at the point Carpenter reached is pretty much irrelevant. If a guy has an OPS >1000, there isn't much he going to gain from looking at more AAA pitching - so he's either going to break through or not. Either way once he's no longer challenged at AAA there really is nothing more to do other give him his shot and see what happens. Your development system doesn't exist for the benefit of AAA, it exists to determine if the guy can make it or not. In Kody's case, his minor league clock is running out - same deal, you have to prove what you do or don't have. In Baddoo's case, I'd have been fine with him staying in Toledo until he had proven more. My complaint with the handling of Baddoo is that wherever you have him, he needs to be playing every day

maybe we should start a countdown, like: "It's August 11, why is Scott Coolbaugh is still employed?......"

Still worthwhile to bring him up and take a look.

Maybe not “clean”, per se, but funny!

It's not about Miguel for me.... it's about a new GM. One imagines that there is going to be a lot of turnover on this roster this offseason (and probably within the org), but there's a tension in that Miguel, who himself isn't a replacement level player at this point, is perceived to be an untouchable. That's an issue for an incoming GM... maybe it gets resolved with a Pujols like role next year, but it's an issue that will have to dealt with regardless.

I used to love Cabrera hit as much as any Tiger in my lifetime. Not anymore. He's been a replacement level DH for 6 years. He has reached his milestones and it's not much fun watching him anymore. I am pretty sure he'll be back again next year though. Assuming he is back, I hope he has a Pujols type role where he is part of a revolving DH position.

why retire russell's jersey all over the league? that seems really excessive. he was a great player on a great team, just like a lot of other players in league history.

I dont see his bat speed as an issue. I think he is in his head a lot right now. This is a guy who has never struggled for long at any level. I believe he needs to get out of his head in the batters box as he looks indecisive which has not been an issue in the past. I don’t know if it’ll be later this year or next year but I believe his bat still has huge upside for us, even if he’s not had the start everyone was hoping that he would be right away.

Hey look, baseball front office database https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dasp3eeIDl-BGt57LbGRkmBRNwq8lV0nQJgcgdZYoa0/edit#gid=0 Oh, I found the 2022 Tigers Media Guide. You can get a good idea of the hierarchy as of the pre-season. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EzGnip9jU2Om4hTJFPQD1ilYvq1E2djY/view?usp=sharing

Nice area.

I think we can speculate about pretty much anything here without hurting anybody except for relatives of minor leaguers.