2025-2026 Tigers Off Season Thread

[gehringer_2]

20 minutes ago, casimir said:

I remember the artificial tree my parents had.  It was stored in these humungous heavy/compressed cardboard barrels.  These things were humongous to me as a small kid, they were probably similar in size to a 55 gallon barrel.  And they seemed like a hassle to haul up and down the basement steps, but maybe they were just awkward rather than heavy.  There was the base, the trunk/"spine", and then the limbs.  The limbs were all color coded on the thick wire attachment part to set into the same color coded holes in the base.

my dad loved gadgets and hated the arguments over picking out Xmass trees so when the first silver aluminum ones came out he had to have one. It had the floodlight with a rotating color wheel that shined on it. They were pretty hilarious in retrospect but seemed pretty cool at the time. The boss and I have evolved in several stages from cutting live down to a 4' fake that goes up in about 5 min. Should have started there years ago.

Edited Wednesday at 04:31 PM by gehringer_2

[1984Echoes]

2 hours ago, casimir said:

...  Am I the only one that remembers these teachings from Catholic school?

Way too far into the past for me...

50 years or so...

Besides... for some reason I guess they didn't actually stick...

Oh well!

Merry X-Mas, Festivus, Christmas, Hannukah, Solstice...

Whatever works for ya'!!!

[1984Echoes]

2 hours ago, casimir said:

Sigh.... I'm just trying for a little light hearted and terrible humor...

The first one I got ("Oh stuff it!")...

The second one I wasn't certain about...

I couldn't tell one way or the other...

But I am in a wonderful light-hearted mood these days so...

Good all around!

[1984Echoes]

27 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

Did it have the spinning disc with different colors that ...

Transition apartment since the divorce many years ago and I haven't purchased a house since... although I am looking for a permanent (house) spot in (or near) Lakeland Florida next year so...

One day I may do a live tree again. Once I have a house instead of an apartment.

But for the past few years, my small artificial tree (about 4 1/2 feet) works perfectly well.

To Cas's consternation with live trees... no mess no fuss.

And yes... spinning disc with several colors going through the fiber optic cables to light up the tree.

SO...

UNCOMPLICATED!!!

And my daughter loves it!

[Cruzer1]

10 hours ago, casimir said:

Hello, water into wine.  And he took a stale half loaf of bread and some fish sticks and turned it into a Long John Silver's.  Am I the only one that remembers these teachings from Catholic school?

Jesus Made joke.

[romad1]

10 hours ago, casimir said:

Hello, water into wine.  And he took a stale half loaf of bread and some fish sticks and turned it into a Long John Silver's.  Am I the only one that remembers these teachings from Catholic school?

There is a comedy bit to be had with buying Long John Silver's gift cards for people.  Where are they?  I haven't seen one of those restaurants in the wild in over a decade.  I travel a bit around the country. 

I see none within the DC Beltway.  I looked at the Detroit Metro and of course there are a couple.  One on Cherry Hill and one on Telegraph. 

[IdahoBert]

For several years we would drive up to Silver City from Boise Idaho. Silver City is an abandoned former mining town kind of eerie with a creepy cemetery.

The locals would get permits to cut trees in the national forest and they were sold as a fundraising project to keep the parts of the town that were historic monuments from crumbling away.

It’s a precious memory and if you got there early enough in the day you didn’t end up with a Charlie Brown tree; you got a great tree for 20 bucks 

[IdahoBert]

I guess if we’re talking about this kind of stuff there’s not much going on in terms of baseball at least for us. 

[papalawrence]

22 minutes ago, romad1 said:

There is a comedy bit to be had with buying Long John Silver's gift cards for people.  Where are they?  I haven't seen one of those restaurants in the wild in over a decade.  I travel a bit around the country. 

I see none within the DC Beltway.  I looked at the Detroit Metro and of course there are a couple.  One on Cherry Hill and one on Telegraph. 

There's a LJS in the mall of America 3-4 miles from my house. I've lived here 26 years and have never had their food 

[romad1]

7 minutes ago, papalawrence said:

There's a LJS in the mall of America 3-4 miles from my house. I've lived here 26 years and have never had their food 

I am a fan of fried food in all its forms and do enjoy a Fish and Chip when i see it on a menu.  And yet I would not go out of my way for LJS in any scenario.  Its fine.  If it was in front of me and I was ready for dinner and I didn't have to worry about what my kids wanted.  

[papalawrence]

2 hours ago, romad1 said:

I am a fan of fried food in all its forms and do enjoy a Fish and Chip when i see it on a menu.  And yet I would not go out of my way for LJS in any scenario.  Its fine.  If it was in front of me and I was ready for dinner and I didn't have to worry about what my kids wanted.  

I love fish and chips and get it often when eating out. Even fast food like Culver's has fish that's 1000 times better than long johns imho

[oblong]

The LJS on telegraph was recently remodeled too.  

[CMRivdogs]

I don't see any listed in a reasonable distance from me. I haven't been to one in over 30 years. A couple of local places here serve much better Fish & Chips anyway

[romad1]

39 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

I don't see any listed in a reasonable distance from me. I haven't been to one in over 30 years. A couple of local places here serve much better Fish & Chips anyway

So, the joke is that the gift cards are almost every kiosk I looked at in my neighborhood.  Its like, how mean would it be to get that for someone?   Here is the thing that is marginal as food, that you can't get, that means I didn't spend this money on the thing you did want. 

[Sports_Freak]

2 hours ago, romad1 said:

So, the joke is that the gift cards are almost every kiosk I looked at in my neighborhood.  Its like, how mean would it be to get that for someone?   Here is the thing that is marginal as food, that you can't get, that means I didn't spend this money on the thing you did want. 

It would be even more mean to get somebody gift certificates from this place;

[Arlington]

On 12/22/2025 at 2:47 PM, Shades of Deivi Cruz said:

Mine is only six days prior.

So was Mr. Kaline's, as I am sure you are aware.  Mine is 7 days prior as was Tyrus'.  We shared one birthday on the earth together and then he passed on my wife's birthday in 1961.

[CMRivdogs]

Christmas and wedding anniversary fall within 5 days of each other. It's really not a problem as we've started doing one "big" gift for the house or one we both can share.

I did do a couple of "Christmas related "gifts' this year. Tickets to a Voices8 concert just before Christmas, along with a couple of other musical events related to Colonial Williamsburg. We also decided on a nice Christmas dinner out yesterday,

After 38 years, it seems to work well for us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[casimir]

12 hours ago, Arlington said:

So was Mr. Kaline's, as I am sure you are aware.

As was my grandpa’s.  He’d always talk about it being his and Al’s birthday.

[casimir]

Ok, ok, enough fish ‘n chips and birthday chat.  Let’s get back into which is the more extreme, Scott Harris’s awesomeness or Al Avila’s awfulness.

[casimir]

At this point I think Keith gets the Opening Day 3B gig.  I’m fine with that.  Give him a defensive role, let him grow into it.  I think the bat will be fine and I think it’s good enough where he’s not a platoon bat.  SS is the only spot on the IF in flux right now, and at worst Baez’s glove still plays there.

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, casimir said:

At this point I think Keith gets the Opening Day 3B gig.  I’m fine with that.  Give him a defensive role, let him grow into it.  I think the bat will be fine and I think it’s good enough where he’s not a platoon bat.  SS is the only spot on the IF in flux right now, and at worst Baez’s glove still plays there.

Assuming no roster changes, I think we would also see Vierling and McStinky at third. There will be roster changes, though.

[Tiger337]

34 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Assuming no roster changes, I think we would also see Vierling and McStinky at third. There will be roster changes, though.

There will be changes, but necessarily ones that will affect the infield situation.  I do agree though there will be lots of mixing and matching as usual.  

Edited 16 hours ago by Tiger337

[casimir]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

Assuming no roster changes, I think we would also see Vierling and McStinky at third. There will be roster changes, though.

I think McKinstry’s playing time will decrease.  I think Vierling will get most of his playing time in OF.  Keith won’t play 162 at 3B, so sure, Vierling, McKinstry, others will find some time there.  I don’t know, I just suspect Keith becomes more of an everyday lineup guy by Memorial Day.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, casimir said:

I think McKinstry’s playing time will decrease.  I think Vierling will get most of his playing time in OF.  Keith won’t play 162 at 3B, so sure, Vierling, McKinstry, others will find some time there.  I don’t know, I just suspect Keith becomes more of an everyday lineup guy by Memorial Day.

I suppose guys will sort themselves out with their bats.  Agree Colt will probably get the most patience if he scuffles early, but I don't think even Colt will get that much run if he doesn't hit.

Edited 14 hours ago by gehringer_2

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

I suppose guys will sort themselves out with their bats.  Agree Colt will probably get the most patience if he scuffles early, but I don't think even Colt will get that much run if he doesn't hit.

I am more skeptical of his fielding than hitting.  I think he'll hit well enough to be in the line-up somewhere.