lordstanley

Walk, single and bunt hit. Tigers load the bases Guardians style.

Scoreless here but a lot of runs on the out of town scoreboard. Texas leading Cleveland 4-2, Yankees trailing Baltimore 3-2, Toronto tied with Tampa 2-2

So the City Connect jerseys of the “Red” Sox are green. That would be like the Tigers’ City Connect jerseys having elephants on them.

Apple’s color guy just called the Tigers a “great team” so I guess that word is being used loosely tonight.

Apple TV is calling Duran’s catch a great play. Dan D called it a total misplay and recovery.

I’m going to go for a pre-game walk and every time I see a college-aged girl on Robson St. wearing a Red Sox cap, like I inevitably will because that’s their thing, I will snarl at them.

The Tigers need to sign a senior citizen (or maybe let’s not give Harris any ideas) so he can write an inspirational and heartwarming letter to the team, like this 80 yard old man from Nova Scotia who plays on a men’s softball team.

Good to hear. These days I hardly pay any attention to the Grapefruit League, NFL training camps or NHL Septembers. Instead I piggy back on the effort of others to keep tabs on developments, ha. Keeps me fresh for opening day and the long season ahead, lol! I continue to lurk on this thread and will probably go through the whole thing the morning of the first regular season game.

I remember in the '90s some Tigers fans who weren't necessarily hockey fans would look at the then-high flying Wings' success and bash Illitch for devoting too much time to the Wings, which in their minds was at the expense of the Tigers. Then when both the Wings and Tigers were bad the past 10 years, the same people used that to bash Chris Illitch as being obviously incompetent.

I've seen a few people mention Malkin. If Barkov is out for the season, which is he with the ACL surgery today, the Panthers have a new $10 million to play with.

Seattle feels a bit different though. Even if the roof is "closed", it's really just a lid that stops raining from falling on the field. You still feel the wind and the cold and the odd raindrops.

How much does this increase the Wings’ chances of winning the Atlantic?

I would like for the Tigers' decision to be driven by whatever increases my chances of seeing them play in person. Since that would be Seattle in the ALDS, if Seattle stays where they are as #2 seed then do whatever you can for the Tigers to be the #3 seed. If Seattle slips past NY and Toronto for the #1 seed, then the Tigers winning the wildcard round as the #6 seed would suit me best. Just so they know.

I'd save Skubal if the wildcard is clinched but the division is in play. Because it's not like Sunday would be a winner take all for the division. If the Tigers need to gain a game on Cleveland, they could pitch Skubal and win and a Cleveland win would make it meaningless anyways. If the Tigers were a game up on Cleveland, they could rest Skubal and lose and a Cleveland loss would give them the division anyways. Monday's game by contrast would be directly within the control of the Tigers.

I expected the Lions to put up points against the Ravens. I'd say I was more pleasantly surprised about the defense, afraid going in that Lamar would run rampant. Instead, I think the 30 points flatters the Ravens offense. They wouldn't have had the 7 points right before halftime if the Lions had simply run out the clock, and then there was a garbage time TD with like 20 seconds to go. After the very 1st Baltimore drive of the game, the Lions defense really stepped up.

I remember for a few years in the late ‘70s were a huge deal. And I’d say taken more seriously by some than just horoscope superstition. https://www.vice.com/en/article/biorhythms-the-1970s-fad-that-won-a-super-bowl-killed-clark-gable-and-made-america-gaga-for-computers/ For a while in the 1970s, these charts were everywhere. Las Vegas bookmakers like Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder factored them into betting lines. Newspapers routinely interviewed experts to see how biorhythms would play out in big games and even big elections. The ability to draw up these charts for yourself was a major selling point for the earliest personal computers. The first team to exploit computerized scouting, the Dallas Cowboys, was also the club most heavily invested in biorhythms. All of which leads to a question: How did they get so big, and how could a tool with this much supposed explanatory power disappear so completely? Gamblers got the idea—and newspapers found it useful as well. Suddenly, sports pages were running headlines like “Biorhythms Favor Dallas,” “Biorhythms: Dodgers Must Win in 5—or Lose in 7,” and “Stabler’s Biorhythms Portend Raider Win.” The last story went on to note, “Bio-stat finds Ken Stabler peaking on physical cycle … and pluses in emotional and intellectual cycles. Franco Harris’ bio-stat finds a minus physically, a plus emotionally and a minus intellectually. Terry Bradshaw just passed through a physically critical day Saturday before the game.”

Does that bullpen cop from 2012 still work Fenway? I’d like to see Carpenter plunk one right off his head.

The Tigers are a game behind Boston and would win the tiebreaker, tied with Cleveland and would lose the tiebreaker, and a game ahead of Houston and would win the tiebreaker. Possible wildcard round opponents are Cleveland (home or on the road), NY Yankees (on the road), Toronto (on the road), Boston (home), or Houston (home).

And surely if they clinch a playoff spot by Saturday night they will save Skubal for the wildcard on Monday, even if the division is still in play.

Nice! I had almost forgotten what that looked like

Trailing in the division race deep into the final week of the season, the Tigers have come back to tie the race up with a weekend to go.

Monkey off the back! A massive W. Finally.

2 down!

1 down!

This seems like the season, once and for all.