IdahoBert

The Mr. I Era is the context; it’s elephant in the living room; it’s the dog barking outside your window that keeps you awake at night that eventually becomes white noise; it’s the sound of footsteps coming from the inaccessible attic of the rental cottage in the woods where you’d hoped to get away from it all. It’s the slip of the tongue where you say what you really mean instead of what you intended to say. When I first heard the “drunken sailor“ comment I thought “wow that’s bold.” Then I thought “this is not a good choice of words in this situation. He should know better.”

Because I am interested in Sigmund Freud as well as in your mother Trabek.

All joking aside, framing the Mike Ilitch era in relation to the deportment of a “drunken sailor” is an extremely disrespectful and impolitic thing to do, regardless of how accurate this description may be in an off the cuff sort of way. Being off the cuff in this manner about Mr. I seems unprofessional. Al Avila should be capable of a less caustic, less derisive way of framing the Mr. I era. The fact that he didn't speaks volumes, presumably, about the way he and Chris Ilitch view that era. We have all been gnashing our teeth about it for years but most of us aren’t managing an asset of the magnitude of the Detroit Tigers and I would expect a more circumspect manner of phrasing things than a low blow about a “drunken sailor” would imply.

I just want to go on record as being outraged, totally outraged, at the marginalization, belittlement, and criminalization of drunken sailorism.

I’m not proud of rooting for teams that would rain on the parades of the entitled teams and their fan bases and the corporate entities that feed off these marque events. It’s like being a dog who if he can’t eat something buries it so no other dog can have it. But I’m OK being like this. I’m not proud of it but I’m OK with it.

The Cards beating the Dodgers and Max Scherzer is the stuff of dreams.

Milwaukee vs. Tampa Bay would be a dream series to stick it to the man.

Ah feeelll yur pain. It’s the same as mahn.

GO RAYS!

Ha Hah Hah Hah Hah Hah Hah Hah Hah Hah Hah Hah Hah Hah

If Verlander came back would he have to be treated like a rookie with limits on innings and pitches per game?

Gracie. He used to talk about Gracie. He was old when I was a kid in the late 50s and early 60s.

The Tigers are finally the Jeffersons. Moving on up to a deluxe apartment in the sky.

Detroit Tigers hire Gabe Ribas as organization's director of pitching By | 23 minutes ago DETROIT, MI – The Detroit Tigers today announced that Gabe Ribas has been hired as the organization’s Director of Pitching, reporting to Vice President of Player Development, Ryan Garko. Ribas, 41, joins the Tigers after spending the last four seasons as a Pitching Coordinator in the Los Angeles Dodgers system. While with the Dodgers, Ribas worked across many areas within player development, including coaching staffs, performance science, strength and conditioning, baseball analytics and others to construct and maintain a highly individualized and comprehensive pitching development program. Coordinating operations across these departments allowed him to develop and implement growth structures for all pitchers in the club’s farm system, while also assisting coaches at each affiliate in formulation and execution of data-driven development plans.

Looking at the overall batting statistics one thing caught my eye: 0 stolen bases and 0 attempts in 130 games by Cabrera which is what you would expect but the same could be said for Candelario in 149 games. Since almost everybody — and I mean almost everybody unless they were a pitcher — stole a base. I didn’t realize Candelario was that flat-footed. If a guy can’t really steal a base or even play hit and run this team doesn’t waste a runner on base. Almost everyone got a stolen base one way or the other. Even Jake Rogers got one and Zach Short got 2 and neither was caught stealing. The team was fourth overall in the AL in SB and 11th in CS. Both indications of being on the better side of each divide. The whole stolen base thing is something that’s relatively new for this team as a whole. It’s one of those things that made the season exciting.

Scoot is the captain of the ship and he will never lead us into a fruitless attack on the great white whale. Arrrg!

It’s so weird for there to be no game. When the regular season is going on I can look forward to watching them or I can look forward to ignoring them. Either way I find a level of pleasure in either possibility, both which are now impossible.

Haase. Haase. Gone are the days when a guy could come back to ST with a bull neck and veins popping out while adding an extra 30 pounds of solid muscle.

If Verlander rejoined the Tigers there’s a good chance I would cry.

Isn’t it usually 20% more each year? If so 180 innings sounds pretty reasonable.

I didn’t realize that A.J. Hinch, George Lombard and Chris Fetter all have psychology degrees. I don’t know if that means anything on its own or what its practical utility may be. At best it means they have not only a natural curiosity but that they also have goals they thought psychology would help them achieve.

I almost bought a used copy of that but I’m actually wondering if this is something I want to relive in detail. it was painful. That was the year I coined the phrase “Where’s my six runs?” because there were such high hopes and every baseball publication chose the Tigers to win the World Series. Some thought the Tigers win score 1000 runs. But it was last place. Last place.

Same here. I wish the Rays luck, but I just can’t watch a team I’m not connected to. The only World Series I’ve watched with interest — other than when it’s the Tigers — was the 1975 Boston v Cincinnati. I was kind of pulling for Boston and I hated Pete Rose. That was enough to give me a reason to care. It’s been 46 years since anything other than my own team has been worth investing the time and emotional energy it takes. It’s like being set up by friends for a date with a woman in whom you’re uninterested and with whom you are utterly incompatible. “Oh, but you have to like her, she has a pulse.” No I don’t. I’m not proud of being only a Tiger fan instead of a baseball fan but that’s just the way it is. Honestly, baseball bores the piss out of me unless it’s my team. If I lived in a major league city I would probably find a way to get into the local team but I never have lived in such a city.

The Yankees vs. the Dodgers is about as appealing to me as a Ron Jeremy special on A&E Biography.

I’m going to relent in my childish resistance of supporting an American League team because they have all in one way or another hurt my precious feelings. At least the Tigers won the series against Tampa Bay and they’re a team with a low payroll that overachieves. The Tigers also handled the Astros well but I have a bad taste in my mouth about that. I love Sue but not enough to root for the Yankees. And the Red Sox can just bite me. I also have a close friend who grew up in Detroit who lives in Clearwater and even though he loves the Tigers he wants the Rays to win. If someone other than the Rays wins the AL I’ll have to think about it. But in reality I’ll probably ignore the whole thing as I usually do when I have no skin in the game.