Zakk_Wylde

Yup. 2006 is what I think of when watching this playoff run. Just the context that 2006 happened in. In 2003 we were the laughing stock of sports. In 2004, we signed Pudge. Guys like Dmitri Young, Carlos Guillen, and Pudge made 2004 fun to watch but clearly we didn't have the pieces to make a winning team. In 2005, we got Ordonez and had a promising start to the season, but there was a lot of clubhouse drama and in general, was a less fun year than 2004, and a step backwards. In 2006, Kenny Rogers was our big free agent signing and nobody had any expectations. But Chris Shelton came out of the gate like the second coming of Babe Ruth, Bonderman, Maroth and Robertson were pitching WAY over their heads. Rogers was a fantastic mentor. Verlander starting to come into his own. Nobody expected anything, and suddenly we were tearing the league up. Coming out of nowhere and beating the Yankees in the ALDS was something I don't think any Tigers fan will ever forget, especially when the team came out and partied with the fans. Seemed like such a down to earth team, relatable to the fans and nobody in their wildest dreams expected it. Anyway that's precisely what the 2024 tigers reminded me of.

This season was more than I possibly could have asked for. Fantastic entertaining baseball into October. Back in April, who would have ever thought? The question is, can we catch lightning in a bottle and do it again next year? Or was this year a fluke?

Well if you combine all 3 games, we've scored 6 runs this series. Incidentally, Cleveland has scored more runs this series, but I'll take it!

We've made this series into a best of 3, with the Tigers having a home field advantage. Very winnable series. Let's do this!

So I know the concept of using "openers" instead of "starters" has been around for at least 5-6 years. I don't know that's ever been done with as much success as we are seeing from the tigers. Hypothetically, if the Tigers catch lightning in a bottle and actually win the WS, or at least make it to the WS, do you think there could be a major trend of more teams adopting this system? Like to the point where ace starting pitchers are completely obsolete and obscure? As I said, openers aren't a new concept, it's just that Hinch is the one who has figured out how to do it 'properly.' Can other managers follow his lead? Is this just all a fluke, or is this something that is repeatable? I grew up with stars like Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, etc. Is a world where Starting Pitchers are no longer a thing really something that could happen?

Ibanez is a brand of guitars, widely used by metal/shred guitarists.

Would giving up the tying run for a double play have been the correct play, to prevent further damage with nobody out?

TIGERS WIN!!!!

Man, was looking forward to watching this one, but alas it's an afternoon game and I'll be stuck in the office. Nonetheless, Go Tigers!!

More familiar names in here, glad to see. Another name I remember well, JonBenke, whatever happened to him? Didn't he get released on the old board for some reason? Trying to think of others ... OldTimey, Tyrus, spikesglaring, Florida Tigers, The Truman Show .. dt35456884 .. shauntacular .. Of course there was estrepe (RIP), probably the greatest asset this board had back in the day. Really miss his posts. And really really miss the old MTS days! Seriously though, if somebody still has a copy of the picture of slicknickshady's new Tigers hat, sitting on his un-made bed, please post it. That was one of the most iconic images on here, back around 2005-2006.

Appreciate the Welcome, everybody. It seems some remember me. So many great users in here. Trying to think of some of the other posters of the past .. Edman85, is he still around? kpking? DaBishop? I remember one guy I loved reading, I think his name was sabertooth, he always had a lot of interesting mathematical analysis on everything. And trying to remember funny stuff from the past. Remember that one guy TripleSeven or whatever, I can't remember how he formatted his username, but I remember he was the one who thought that Dave Dombrowski read his posts on the message board and took advice from him, he recognized his profile picture and even nodded to him at the stadium? I forget the full scenario. Then there was that other guy, his name was The_Strategy_Expert or something like that. He had some made up statistic, called the OE% which was apparently the ultimate way of rating the true value of a player to a team, but he wouldn't tell anybody what the formula was or how he came up with these numbers, claiming the formula was worth way too much money and he was holding onto it to sell to GMs to use. I'm trying to remember. Anyway it makes me happy to see that a lot of the old crowd are still around. Hopefully more people return like I did due to the excitement of this year.

My apologies for not remembering all the names, these are just the ones I remembered off the top of my head.

Hey Everybody, Not sure who remembers me, I was a regular on MotownSports and joined way back in like 2003. I remember the countless inside jokes over the years, SlickNickShady's 'hat on bed' pictures, Library Monkey/Titus Tigers famous animated gifs in the game threads. And so many more memories of the old days. I really miss all the sabremetric discussion. There were some really brilliant math-oriented people who used to post here. Hope there is still a lot of that. I remember most of the old posters, Yoda, Biff, Yooper, Chasf, Oblong, Tiger337, etc. I hope many of the old crowd is still around. Unfortunately, life just got in the way and I had to step away for a long time, but seeing this run the Tigers are making inspired me to make my return. Anyway, sorry for the useless thread, it will be the only one of it's type that I create, I just wanted to say I missed you all and am happy to be back.