lordstanley

I can’t recall a better Stanley Cup Final.

I had given up Edmonton for dead, at least for this game. Now it is 3-3 late in the 2nd. Game on.

I was at the next urinal to Wayne Gretzky when I was 14 and he wasn’t too much bigger (taller) than me.

Methodically winning series after series. 2 of 3, 2 of 3. That gets it done.

Your concern may have been well-founded.

I’m dumb. NOW he is. But 82 pitches so yeah, no Maddux tonight. One more inning.

Skubal with an outside attack a Maddux. With a shutout through 6 on 66 pitches. But I think that even with 2 more scoreless innings, he’d be pulled after the 8th at around 95 pitches.

Twins got blown out so the lead is 7 1/2 games. But the Mets also won so they have the best record in baseball by a game over the Tigers. For viewers in Detroit, this game is also being aired on regular tv on WJBK Fox 2.

RIP Brian Wilson. Saw him in concert, solo, around 5 years ago. Health wasn’t great but he sang some, told good stories and had someone come on (his son IIRC?) for the high notes.

Is Yzerman trying to replicate Hinch's pitching chaos of last September with its bullpen days? Let's have a 1st period goalie, a 2nd period goalie, a 3rd period goalie, a penalty kills goalie.

Torkelson is 4th (16) in AL in home runs, 4th in HRs (17) and T-11th in OPS (.853).

Tork bomb!

Hurter was so close to giving the Tigers 3 shutout innings. 1-1.

Here is one of the funniest clips on the Internet. It’s real, but a joke outtake “special” episode of Manager’s Corner with Weaver and host that obviously never made it to the air.

Boog Powell. Bobby Grich. Brooks Robinson. Al Bumbry. Paul Blair. Rick Dempsey. Eddie Murray. Mark Belanger. Jim Palmer. Mike Flanagan. There, I just wanted to see how many '77 Orioles I could name off the top of my head, from when I was 10 years old playing the All Star Baseball spinner game. https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BAL/1977.shtml Not as good as I expected. Paul Blair was gone from the Orioles after 1976, Powell after 1974. Yes Robinson was still on the team but the starter at 3B was Doug Decinces. Bobby Grich left after 1976 - who the hell was Billy Smith? Did get Bumbry, Dempsey, Murray and Belanger. But forgot about Ken Singleton and Lee May. Got Palmer and Flanagan but missed SPs Rudy May and Ross Grimsley. Didn't even take a stab at relief pitchers. Oh well, still may be more than I could name from this year's Orioles without first sneaking a peek at tonight's starting lineup.

A Jason Beck story on Serwa's knuckler and his Whitecaps debut. https://www.mlb.com/news/knuckleballer-kenny-serwa-promoted-to-tigers-double-a-affiliate This is what the knuckleball can do to hitters. For Serwa, it turned his Double-A debut last Thursday at UPMC Park into an introduction for several Richmond Flying Squirrels to his bread-and-butter pitch. He fanned four in a five-batter span from the third inning into the fourth. He then allowed a two-out walk and a ground-ball single, hit a batter, then gave up a two-run single on a fastball. Serwa finished his Double-A debut with six innings and a victory, allowing four runs on four hits with two walks and four strikeouts. It was an impressive debut for a pitcher making his 11th appearance and sixth start in Minor League ball, the latest stop in a journey that included four colleges and two indy ball teams, most recently the Chicago Dogs last summer.

The Tigers are playing .000 ball (0 for 3) this season in games when they have a chance to move 20 games over .500.

The two personal conflicts/standoffs I recall from Yzerman's days in Tampa were with Jonathan Drouin and Martin St. Louis. Drouin was traded to Montreal for Mikhail Sergachev who did put up several good years with Tampa. Drouin has had his moments with the Habs and more recently the Avs, but never really lived up to the potential he was thought to have had when drafted #3 overall in 2013. The latter was because 38-year old St. Louis felt snubbed when Yzerman didn't pick him for the '14 Olympic team and demanded a trade. He was traded to the Rangers for Ryan Callahan and a few picks, one of whom was Anthony Cirelli. https://www.rawcharge.com/revisiting-the-martin-st-louis-trade-tree-tampa-bay-lightning/

I listen to 80% of the games on radio instead of TV, so in my mind the seats are jam packed with fans roaring on every pitch.

I don’t like the empty seats behind home plate. Empty expensive seats are normal in hockey and basketball but are usually outside my line of sights or on the fringes of it when I’m watching a game on tv. For Tigers home games I do think they are an eyesore on every pitch. But I don’t think the empty seats mean that the Tigers aren’t popular or are out of touch with the fanbase though.

I subscribe to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Times of London, Vancouver Sun and the Globe & Mail (Canada national). But I do use them frequently. Most have sweet deals if you threaten to cancel.

The Wings could use some outside leadership in the dressing room. Just like the Wings' seemed to get a bump from its winning culture in the glory years, maybe there is a bit of a loser or doomer mentality within the club when you haven't got out of the regular season in 9 years. Two straight March collapses in a row, or three if you count '23 when they got blown out by Ottawa a couple of times right before the trade deadline. No one knew how to stop the trainwreck.

At 43-24, the ‘25 Tigers are 6 games behind the ‘84 Tigers through 67 games but are even with both the ‘68 Tigers and ‘06 Tigers through 67 games.

What I am listening to? Shosholoza. It's a traditional South African song, mostly in Zulu language, that was sung by laborers in gold and diamond mines. The title translates as "Move Forward". But why am I listening to it now? Today was the Comrades Marathon, an event like no other. Despite the name, it's actually a 56 mile race/89 km. It's a road ultramarathon in South Africa that had 22,000 participants. Gets national TV coverage every year. Starts in the dark at 5:45am. Hard 12 hour cutoff. Every year there's great drama as a gun goes off at the 12 hour mark and if you're even 10 yards short of the finish officials jump in front of you and block you from finishing. Anyways, at the start, right after the national anthem they always play Shosholoza and people I know who have run it say it is an absolute goosebumps moment. The bottom of the three videos was posted hours ago and "Gerda" would go on to win the women's race. I've been to South Africa 4 times. South Africa has a lot of problems and has been the subject of bad press lately, but this moment always brings a smile.

Two plays that will haunt me until a championship is won are the Ortiz grand slam in the '13 ALCS and the Reynolds 4th down drop in the NFC Championship. Beautiful 1st half and there were no complaints with how the 3rd quarter was unfolding. Held the Niners to a FG after the kickoff to open the half, offense moved the ball smartly downfield in response, and if Josh Reynolds makes the catch he had been making all year the Lions would have snapped on 1st down from the SF 20 with 6 1/2 minutes to go. Worse case a FG would have restored the 17 pt lead and they'd have reduced a 30 minute half to around 18 or 19 minutes. Everything just snowballed and an hour later I'm waiting in a long transit lineup outside the Santa Clara stadium wondering what hit me.