oblong

One team wins. One team loses. That’s the way it has to be. The Tigers beat a division winner twice on the road. They beat their own division winner twice. If you team loses so you want them to get blown out or lose a close game? The Tigers lost twice this postseason in close games. That’s a positive. They also won 4 games when the score was close. That’s playoff baseball. It’s what we asked for in mid September.

I think they will for certain players but it won’t be automatic. For comparison sake someone like VMart wouldn’t be extended. I think if looking at Chris Ilitch for guidance the Red Wings signed Seider and Raymond long term and that team is on a hard cap. They will try harder with Skubal than they did with Scherzer. The Keith signing too can be an indication. A cheap org could have just been “whatever” but they took on a but of a risk with that.

My prediction. A solid game from Skubal with one mistake. A 2-0 game, Cleveland adds another against our bullpen, the Tigers rally in the 9th but come up short 3-1 with tying runs on base. I am at peace with what might end up being the most enjoyable season I’ve experienced. 1984 was better and I was around for it but let’s be honest… we follow the games differently today. I was 10. I went to maybe 4 games that year, not every game was on TV, and I was outside playing a lot. It wasn’t a day to day thing like now. Even when this team was at its low points the games were still competitive. I said that repeatedly this year. What it tells me is what the org is doing is working. It’s the players as much as the system. They finally figured out how to identify and grow just league average players which is what good teams need. This organization has turned the corner. It’s not a Lions situation where there’s a core that is going to grow. The Tigers will remain competitive by plugging in guys year to year that can compete for the playoffs and enter the crapshoot and hopefully fall into a title at some point.

I am wondering how that will play for people who don’t the story? Is it too much inside baseball? I think it could have made an interesting miniseries if you go back to its inception of a concept… with Johnny demanding they quit showing reruns. Are they squeezing too much into one movie that I read is played out in real time. I can’t wait to see it.

They do but for injuries, to prevent malfeasance, in order to replace a player you need permissioin from the commissioner's office, and that player can't play in the subsequent round. It's to stop people from monkeying around with poor performance or matchup issues or overworked bullpens. Nagging injuries are part of the game and if Kerry is truly hurt then in the regular season he'd go on the 15 day, which is what this is the equivalent to. If it's not that serious then deal with it like a grown up ballclub 🙂

We go to Yates. For 20 years we went to a new place every year. We finally settled on that one. It's far enough away from us to feel like a road trip and we love the trail along the Clinton River that you can walk on.

Damn... that's too early. I wanted 4 or 6 pm. We promised our son a trip to the cider mill....

I'm more disappointed than I thought I would be with a loss.... But they lost the way they've been winning... by a base hit here or there or a key HR. Seriously.... when was the last time you were bummed out they lost? It wasn't game 1 because we had Skubal in game 2, plus 2 games at home. The Chicago games on Saturday/Sunday? No because they already cinched a playoff spot. I think for me it was the Thursday Colorado game a month ago with Skubal starting where they had a chance to sweep. That's when playoff talk started on my radar a little bit. AJ's moves will work until they won't and then people who hardly watched this team will blame the moves. Doesn't work like that. He's maximized their value but at some point it will run out and.... that's ok. I just want another round.

You could but then I believe Carp wouldn't be available in the ALCS.

It was popular with people who haven't been in the city of Detroit since 1987.

I don't think it's wrong to consider your own experiences with people you talk about this with in your own lives. I know people who did vote for Trump who are not going to now. And I strongly suspect there's a group of people who didn't vote at all in 2020 who are now voting for Harris. That makes it hard to reconcile that this election will be as close as 2020. But I'm also not someone who claims to be an expert. I know it's anecdotal.

I thought it was a story about someone who dressed as PAWS killed someone or someone who killed one of the people who played PAWS.

The Kennedy women suffered greatly...

What is this? I can't hear any audio.

It won't be easy..... we face their ace. He's not Skubal but he's pretty good and did a good job in game 1. This series ain't over. Today will be tough. Indians had some opportunities yesterday and didn't deliver. The Tigers did and got the hits.

What you see on the field are beds that were set up for first responders and utility workers.

I get sad in particular with what happens in Florida because we vacation on the gulf side a lot and this is all very familiar looking when I see the buildings and destruction. I think about all of the people we encountered who lived there and worry that they and their families are ok. I talked last time to a 32 year old from Ann Arbor who just picked up and left and moved to the Tampa Region to open an ice cream joint on John's Pass.

Yeah I agree it started to get to that a little bit previously. Starters had shorter leashes for sure. JV came out of the bullpen in 2017 at one point, although that kind of thing has been common in must win games. I mean if the Tigers were to get to a game 7 in the world series and for whatever reason Skubal didn't start that game or game 6.... he'd be your closer, right?

My facebook memories the other day had me bitching about him doing a game on MLB Network in the playoffs, must have been 2017... He'd lost it then. It was as if he didn't watch baseball since NBC lost the TV contract and he assumed none of his viewers had watched it since then either so he had to catch everybody up on what's happened since then. "The game's more global now...."... really Bob? We hadn't noticed. He referrred to Carlos Beltran as "Albert Belle" according to my post.

I gotta say…. I’m exhausted. The kind where you are too tired to go to bed. I had a physical this morning and got my flu shot and covid booster. We got down there around 12:30 and just hung around and found some friends. We parked a 20 minute walk away. I drank plenty of water and had 2 lighter beers from about 1:30 to the end of the game, while filling up my water bottle numerous times. The sun was behind us and my neck is burnt a little. I’m glad tomorrow is a 6 PM game. I need to recover and also don’t want to be out until 10 pm either.

Plus we beat them in the playoffs.

Tonight was the ELO concert at LCA. Guy sitting next to me was going to that. Tomorrow is red wings home opener. Sometning was going on at the Fox tonight as I saw two your buses in the lot. for parking I found a $10 spot next to elephant and company (former founders location) for today and tomorrow. I don’t mind walking and you can find good spots the further north you go on cass. You avoid alll the BS by the stadium with a 18 minute walk.

If the Tigers were to advance and happened to beat NYY with the pitch chaos theory, MLB will change the rules immediately. I don’t think Vogt is the type to complain about it but you just know it’s burning up some people in the league.

that's exactly it. It's why Vance is coming to the swing states.

There is a distinct break in the Dearborn population. The leaders are threading a line. Don't endorse, but still vote for her because the other guy is worse. But they won't explicity say that. There's been some ads on digital billboards here that say Harris is the best friend to Israel. THe group behind the ads are also running ads in red counties saying Harris is the best friend to Palestinians. It's a GOP front.