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Great tweet today that I read. Ted Turner spent 20 years making it easy for a kid in Montana could watch the Braves. MLB has spent 20 years making it harder for a kid in Atlanta to watch the Braves.

Is it just me or does it kind of look like he’s got little cartoon stars right above his head like he just got conked with a polo mallet or something

By May 15, 1976 I was a pretty passive baseball fan. I was 11 years old I went to a few games with my dad. I collected baseball cards, but I really wasn't that into it. On that cloudy, cool Saturday my dad took me to a hardware store. Not a chain store, a really small and crowded store on Van Dyke south of 14 Mile Road. My dad was one of those guys that would want to talk shop with the hardware guy. Pretty boring for me. But while he was doing that, I stayed at the front of the store, where they had a little black and white TV. The Tiger game was on. There was this kid I'd never heard of pitching. Skinny and tall. All arms and legs and he was just kind of goofy-looking. Circling the mound after every out, getting down on his knee to pat down the mound. The catcher would throw the ball back to him and the next pitch would come right back. No pitch clock needed with this kid. One little, Two little, Nine little Indians made one out after another. I think my dad finally got done with the hardware guy and we left in the 5th inning. We lived 3 miles away. He made one quick stop at the store. I got home and turned on the TV and there was only two outs to go. The game was already over and that goofy kid was still pitching. Six weeks later the rest of the country was introduced to Mark Fidrych on Monday Night Baseball. In just six weeks the Tigers were selling out games he started and after that Monday night game - FIdrych was selling out road games too. He didn't even really know who Babe Ruth was. He was an instant Superstar, but he was genuine. It was innocence. It was real. He is the reason I fell in love with baseball. That Summer was wild. We had 3 All Stars (Fidrych, ,Ron LeFlore, Rusty Staub). The Bird started the game in Philly. I'll never forget the stats 19-9, 2.34. We thought it would last forever but it was over in less than 4 years. But I will never forget that Saturday - 50 years ago today - that changed my life. I'll never get tired of watching this clip. Here's the box score from that game. Wow 50 years man. Where the hell did it go? https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET197605150.shtml

To paraphrase an old Danny Murtaugh quote on fans and players and apply it to GMs

I wish they weren’t here.

Get ready. Numbers out showing wholesale prices up 6%. This is what happens when a criminal operation is put in the White House led by a lifelong conman that’s built an empire on fraud. “Starting on Day One, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring the prices down on all goods.” - 8/9/24 at Bozeman, MT rally “Starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down and we will make America affordable again.” “We’re going to get your energy prices down. We’re going to get your energy prices down by 50%.” - both at an 8/17/24 Wilkes-Barre, PA rally. “Energy is going to bring us back up. That means we’re going down and getting gasoline below $2 a gallon, bring down the price of everything from electricity rates to groceries, airfares, and housing costs.” - 9/5/24 Economic Club of New York Of course, I could go the same with the Epstein files, but instead this Administration chooses a criminal cover-up in a situation where Trump’s name is mentioned at this point 38,000 times. This is what happens when you elect a person who has been a con man his entire life.

well, as crap as this team is going right now...my daughter just got nominated for an acting award for Northern Virginia HS theater programs. So, there is that.

Does this reflect the expected return from a trade of Jack Flaherty?

The value you get back was not significant enough to sacrifice contention in 2026. They signed Framber and wanted to win.. Trading him was a bad business move.

First of all, I reject the premise often repeated by some fans that Scott Harris is merely sitting on his hands and doing nothing, implication being that he as a major league PBO does not care about the losing as long as the calendar continues to turn on whatever his plan is. That doesn't pass any reasonable smell test. But mainly, I have to believe that there is only so much Harris can do anyway, especially in the middle of a season. He can't just go out and pick up an average major league starter, let alone a team-changing All-Star, off the free agent pile or waiver wire whenever he wants. And he can't simply acquire one in trade in which he is giving up nothing of any value to us. To believe as much is just magical thinking. Scott Harris fielded this particular iterational team reasonably expecting that there would be offensive improvement in those guys with ceilings, and hoping that most of the remainder would hold some of their gains from last year. What he didn't do was to stockpile an entire major-league-starting-level replacement team in reserve if/when his first team players start populating the injured list like rabbits, and he didn't do that because practically nobody does that, because that takes resources almost no team has. So I believe he can hardly be fairly criticized for that. It's hard (or perhaps more like inconvenient) to remember now, but before guys started going down to injury, our offense was doing a pretty good job, as Jay Jaffe pointed out on FanGraphs: And this is with the team fielded this year by Scott Harris. I get that this may be an unwelcome reminder to those fans who demand dramatic (or drastic) action NOW. But that kind of action may not even be necessary even with this 40-man roster, especially as guys start coming back off the list to help out. But maybe all we have to do at this point is wait for the guys to come back and get our roster a lot closer to what it was always supposed to be this year. And also, imagine if Scott Harris takes the action those fans want, starts replacing players and field management willy nilly, and fails because the new players, coaches, and manager are all worse. Are those fans going to be understanding of that and conclude, well, we're still losing, but at least he tried, so I'm back on board with him?

Reading the negativity spewed about today's lineup right now is fun.

It's political Christianity, not spiritual Christianity, the difference between them being easy to tell because even they know Jesus would never say or endorse any of the **** they do.

I do love the idea of other execs griping that Harris wouldn’t accept their ****ty prospects and AAAA guys in exchange for Eduardo and Jack a few years ago, or his refusal to include Kevin and max and Melton in rental deals last year. The same execs mad that he wouldn’t accept the ****ty prospects are the same ones not accepting Jace Jung and Hao Yu Lee last offseason.

If calling somebody ugly is rhetoric that causes people to become violent, I can think of a certain person whose favorite pastime is doing just that. Now what's his name again?

I just love how the public falls for these non-sequitor arguments. *if* you actually could prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon with all this noise, they you could argue about the value of that vs gas prices. But the premise is false. We couldn't prevent Pakistan from developing a weapon, we couldn't stop India from developing a weapon, we couldn't even stop N. Korea from developing a weapon. If a country as large and well educated and financial sound as Iran wants a weapon, they will get it. They could already have had one by now it they had really wanted a program that was more than a bargaining chip for them. The objective truth is the only real way to stop Iran from eventually developing a weapon is for them to decide they don't need one - that the costs aren't worth the payoff. You sure as heII don't accomplish that by attacking them constantly.

SlickNickShady?

That pedestrian bridge over 75 - there was a building on the other side of it. It was called Superior Color - a printing company and my dad worked there. During Summer Vacation from school, when the Tigers had a day game, he'd come home for lunch, pick up me and my friends and go back to his job and give us a $20 and we'd go to the game. The game would usually let out about the time he was done with his work day and he'd be waiting for us to drive us home. His company printed the gameday programs and would just drop them off. The ushers at that gate knew my dad, so if one of them recognized me, he'd just let me and my friends in the game for free. Even when we did buy the bleacher tickets - with the tickets, the hot dogs, peanuts and soda - for 3 of us - we'd have change for my dad. They also used to print some of the yearbooks. During the winter, when I was sick with pneumonia and missing 2 weeks of school, he came home with the 1977 year book (before it was published) and he hands me the yearbook with a roll of postage stamps and a stack of envelopes and he told me the addresses for every team are in the back of the yearbook and I should write a letter to each team asking for a pocket schedule. He knew I needed something to do while I was sick. Most of the teams sent stuff back. I would say all but 3 or 4 teams. The Mets sent a huge enevelope stuffed with schedules, stickers, special baseball cards, refridgerator magnets - so I really liked the Mets after that. (Plus I liked the orange and blue uniforms).

Not for nothing but Oprah needs to be held accountable somewhat for unleashing Dr Oz and Dr Phil on us. I don’t know how. Maybe just shaming.

You’re close—more like, they’ll explain it to you like they’re a four-year-old.

“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” —Frank Wilhoit

Sparky Anderson once said that it's too soon to judge a team until after their first 10 games following a 4-21 stretch.

I think this particular team, as it came north, should have, and could have, won the Central this year, except for the unusual number of injuries which cost us dearly, not only in some expected number of wins, but also in the effect it had on the psyche of the remaining team. I do believe there might be a corollary to Newton’s law at work here: a team that’s winning stays in motion toward winning, and a team that’s losing stays in motion toward losing. I really do believe that kind of momentum is a real thing. After all, we are talking about human beings here. That said, I also believe that this particular team, as currently constructed, was never supposed to be the team Scott Harris had in his vision as the one he would win with long-term. That team is still at least a couple of years away. This team, or more exactly the fans’ reaction to it, is the result of the dramatic overachieving of the last two years. I know a lot of people would like to see Harris and Hinch fired (and perhaps even literally set on fire 😉), but that’s not going to happen, nor should it. A organization that would fire its management mainly because 40% of its 40 man roster went onto the injured list is an organization wallowing in chaos and confusion, and I don’t want to have to root for that team anymore.

I remember 1976 being a really big deal. That is all anybody talked about for a couple of years and I was excited about it. After that, I remember thinking, I am going to 63 when the next big number comes and that would be really old! I don't feel THAT old, but I couldn't care less about 250 for the reason you said.

hard to celebrate democracy when the party in control of the White House, the Senate, the House and the SC is gleefully destroying the country.

The parent team is doing poorly and honestly the prospects aren't doing too hot either, quite a few top ones are injured and the ones that aren't well most of them aren't living up to the biliing but there are some bright spots I want to focus on. Thayron Liranzo - The statline looks not great at first and he was injured to start the year but he has turned it on in May. Sporting a .235/.346/.529 (.875 OPS) line over 19 games, he has 6 HR in that time frame. I think a lot of people were down on him last year due to the performance but I think we have to remember that he is still only 22 and is playing in a league where he is 2 years younger than the average. Ben Jacobs - Last years 3rd round pick, started in Lakeland now in WM, over 8 games he is sporting a 2.05 ERA with a 0.88 WHIP and a 13.2 SO/9 John Peck - Considered the best defensive SS in the system he has turned on the bat a bit. .276/.313/.521 shows a player flexing some power but the lack of walks and the elevated K's are concerning. Jhonan Coba - SSS alert but in the FCL he has a 1.69 ERA with a solid 3 pitch mix. Someone to keep an eye on.

Reminds me of the famous LBJ quote, which I'll paraphrase from the language of the day... "If you can convince the poorest white man that he's better than the best black man, you can pick his pocket. Give him someone to always look down on and you can rob him blind"

The end of Colbert’s show was great. Goose bump inducing then this last night. He did joke about it during his last monologue.

Maybe he can apply for some of that $1776 Billion Trump Money

Hobbes is going to get fat if he doesn't dance soon.

Stats: The Tigers have a 74 Rc+ in May...dead last in AL in slugging..dead last in Fangraphs WAR. The pitching will eventually stabilize. This is the offense..nobody is coming to save it aside from Gleyber coming back and producing more. Javy will help with defense and removing an unnecessary platoon guy...Tigers keep punting a decision on what Tork is..but they still need him to be average and he can't consistently do it. Carpenter regressed and is hurt again..Greene, McGonigle, and Dingler are good. They don't have enough mid players. The rest of the team just drops off to awful.

It's very telling how you always comment on this cherry picked nonsense and completely avoid talking about the blatant corruption going on with Trump and his kids. For as much as you cared about Hunter Biden being on the board of an oil company, you sure don't seem to care about Trump's kids making hundreds of millions of dollars with shady deals. Why is that?

I have long thought that range is one of the most underated things in baseball. Range is to run prevention what getting on base is to run scoring.

I’ve been in Taiwan and Japan the last week and I believe the Tigers have gone 1 for Asia while I’ve been here. But one pleasure has been the all-night indoor batting cage a 5 minute walk from our Shinjuku hotel. $3 for 25 balls. Baseball not fastball or softball, unlike the cages near me back home. It is humbling to see how stiff my swing looks on video though.

Reed has his fingerprints all over this run

Whoever posts it, it wasn't done on a Trump phone.

So on the ESPN Tiger site right now, Buster has an interview with Boras. So what Boras says is that the deal here is that they did not use an arthroscope on Skubal, they used a new micro device (come kind of fiber optic micro canula) that isn't much larger than a hypodermic needle. That is why they are looking for less than 'std' return possibility. The story is the new even-less-invasive-than-a-'scope treatment tech provides a possibility for faster recovery.

One thing that concerns me for game #2. Most felt they would put Mobley on Ausar so he could roam and spy on Cade. With Allen in foul trouble all game they weren't really able to do that since Mobley had to guard Duren while Allen was out. They still handled Cade fine. I wonder if that gave them enough confidence in their ability to guard Cade without Mobley spying on him. If so, they could take Mobley off of Ausar and have him guard Harris instead. Going from Harden guarding you to a former DPOY winner guarding you is a big change. Harden guarding Ausar would likely see Thompson go crazy on the offensive glass. Harden is 5 inches smaller and can't jump like Thompson. But I doubt Thompson can do much scoring wise to hurt Cleveland, just get Detroit extra possessions.

Barack Obama once said "you didn't build that" and what he said was taken completely out of context. We had to have an entire election cycle's worth of TV ads bashing President Obama on his out of context statement and weeks worth of stories on Fox News about it. This was back in the 2012 election cycle, so in my libertarian days, I was probably one of the critics, criticizing Obama for it. Shame on me, I was wrong for it if I did it back then. But the amount of things that Donald Trump says on a daily basis, minute by minute, that would have torpedoed Obama's campaign is just insane. On gas prices alone over the last month, he's up to at minimum, half a dozen statements or so, that would have spelled disaster for Obama. It would have meant their campaign would be in damage control for multiple news cycles and we all collectively would have had to suffer through months worth of TV ads, digital ads, mail pieces attacking him on it. It is mind boggling how all in the name of "fairness", "bothsidseisms", and "revenue from ratings" we have to suffer through Trump saying these things while suffering minimal to no consequences as a result of what he said. It's frankly ****ing exhausting having to live through this blatantly obvious double standard.

A pitcher trying to bulldog his way back from an elbow injury asking for big trouble. Curt Schilling? Maybe, Skubal can put ketchup on his sock when he gets back. 😀

the confusion about the SOH is real, and the media is not really interested in figuring out what is actually happening. Problem is, do you believe the corrupt, totalitarian regime? or do you believe Iran? No good choices.