IdahoBert

I was looking back on the 1982 season of the Dodgers, which I inadvertently followed closely on radio in Tucson that season, and it was such a different kind of baseball than we know today. First of all Fernando started 37 games. Nobody does that anymore. It was still the era of the four-man rotation. He pitched 285 innings and had 18 CG’s. Sheesh. Everybody aside from the catcher and an outfielder played 150 games or more with of course Garvey doing 162. I’m going to count Dusty Baker’s 147 games as 150, rounding it up. Not much platooning. Doesn’t look like there was a lot of “overmanaging“ going on. Nobody struck out over 100 times. Most were striking out 60 times and everybody was walking 50 to 60 times. Garvey was of course the outlier and only able to walk 20 times in 162 games. Nobody was striking out one guy per inning as a rule. The game is just so different now.

I don’t know, I may be even less qualified than you, so let’s have a race to the bottom.

I’m really saddened by the passing of Fernando Valenzuela. It feels personal. When I spent six months recuperating from a bad motorcycle accident in 1982 and couldn’t go anywhere I listened to all 162 of Vin Scully’s broadcasts which was the only baseball available in Tucson, Arizona and Fernando was a big part of that. The Dodgers ended this season, I think, one game out of first place behind the Atlanta Braves, and I was honestly disappointed. It’s not like Ernie Harwell’s broadcast could reach all the way from Detroit to Tucson. So, for one year I was a Dodgers fan and a huge Fernando fan. Then of course in 1984 and no longer laid up and fully recovered I was able follow our own season as well as possible from such great distance — and with three new friends who’d recently moved from Detroit to Tucson — I forgot all about the Dodgers easily. But forgetting Fernando is hard. I will easily pull for the Yankees in the World Series, though, simply because of Sue.

I gotta tell you this made my day. 🤩

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/bally-sports-parent-company-fanduel-partner-regional-sports-networks-rebrand?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0kgLPT1lbVg7oB_n38kHW3fXVUiWyvCjgdh5gDVqAgyUAu6WKc8LX2Q3c_aem_51u_xD0V8axohExIiJ-IQg yes, there will be Detroit baseball on TV this coming year. FanDuel Sports Network Detroit. [I guess this is old news, but I only just now found out about it]

OMFG Whew!

Oh my heck! Nice!

Goff 12/12

Charlize Theron is not married. You gotta at least try.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/amateur-scouting-director-shane-farrell-leaving-blue-jays-to-join-tigers/sn-amp/

Commenting on something like this is way above my pay grade. But I’m assuming this is some sort of improvement although I have no direct knowledge of the context within which this is all unfolding. The fact that people want to join the Tigers is good. The fact that Detroit is a destination is good.

On Facebook, a thing called “Detroit Tigers Legends“ informed me that the former “head coach“ of the Tigers Ron Gardenhire was retiring. They also misspelled the city’s name as DETRIOT.

A lame and artless attempt at trolling like this is generally unworthy of comment, and is only interesting because of its infrequence. Trolling has really gone downhill. I guess Karl Marx was right about history repeating itself first as tragedy, and the second time as farce.

I’m fine with other teams signing 30+ year-olds to huge long term contracts. It’s the equivalent of sending geriatrics up in the Hindenburg, as far as I’m concerned. Heck, we have young guys who are constantly hurting themselves anyway thanks to too much strength training or whatever. Let those other teams lose their souls.

It immediately refers you to an AI summary without regard for the various contexts in which it has searched. It’s like an 11- year-old’s cheating version of “research.”

So at Comerica Park they’re putting in all new grass and new seats, and behind home plate an upscale club for the elite. I haven’t read that there are any plans to change the dimensions of the ballpark though. The stupid Google AI that was the first thing Google gave me when I searched doesn’t understand sequential time scales and reported that the changes to the outfield fence that were made in 2023 were being made for 2025. I hope this isn’t the same AI that will drive our cars and solve all our problems for us. It doesn’t even understand the basic mechanics of time when it’s researching data.

I really dislike the lag time between the end of the regular season and the end of the World Series before anything substantial happens; because, to be honest, we aren’t included in the World Series all that often. I look forward to the awards and the deals and I don’t like waiting for them.

In the late 1970s, I was into politically edgy British punk, the Talking Heads, and Tom Waits and didn’t like disco. Now that I’ve gotten older I’m OK with disco and consider it “dance music“ even though when it was then a current trend my friends and I disparaged it as “bourgeois crap.” We were sort of full of ourselves.

Alan Tram-ELL. Sweet.

I’m also curious about what it means for Torkelson to demonstrate that he’s improving during the off-season. Does this mean winter ball? I’m not sure how reliable non-game related training regimens are in providing tangible clues as to his advancement as a hitter.

I thought it was interesting how they noted that any external acquisitions, either through free agency or trades, had to be guys who would blend into the Tigers’ existing clubhouse chemistry, which is a polite way of saying they’re not looking for mercenaries or big stars with attitude. They believe in what they’re doing and how they’re doing it and that is not going to change.

It’s hard for me to summon up interest in the postseason races now we’re no longer in them. I used to feel a rooting interest in the AL winning the All-Star game or the World Series because my team is in the AL but it’s something I’ve never been able to sustain. I’m not against other people doing it, and I admire those who can make this adjustment from one team or sport to another. But I can’t successfully transfer the weird alchemy I have for the Tigers to other teams. I’m a one trick pony. A lesser version of it can go towards Boise State football or the Lions, but the highs are never as high, nor the lows as excoriating as they are for the motherland of the Tigers. The Tigers are my blue ice and it’s not even a choice, it’s just what it is. Wishing you all the best until next year. Cheers.