Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Things have just been crazy around the household lately. I apologize for the lack of writing, but my computers been moved, we’re trying to finish up with some major renovations in the house (including a two foot hole that was put in our wall by the guys installing out carpet). For those of you looking for carpet, I’m not naming names, but the company I went through, let’s say they rhyme with Tempire, was major pain, even after the guys put a hole in my wall.

But, the free agent market has been heating up. It seems to be Red Sox vs. Yankees before the season even starts, but this is going to make for some great baseball next year. With the Red Sox getting Schilling, and assuming he bounces back from his injury, they’ll have one of the top staffs in baseball. Schilling/Pedro/Lowe brings back memories of the Braves’ staffs in the 1990s.

And I’m not quite sure what’s happening in Arizona. They’ve made two big deals, and neither one of them seem like they’re going to help them very much. They gave up way too much for Sexson inmy opinion.

And for now the Tigers are the sidelines. I’ve read about them offering a deal to Fernando Vina. I think this would be a bad move. Vina has only played in more then 150 games in his 11 year career 3 times. Granted in all of those three years he hit over .300. He doesn’t strike out much, but he also doesn’t walk much. He had been winning gold gloves, but those were in 2 of those 3 seasons where he played most the year. And only twice has he had an OPS+ of greater then a hundred, and one of those was 101. The thing that he seems best at is getting hit by pitches.

So this would be simply a stop gap. Not a bad move, but if the Tigers are good three to five years down the line, Vina probably won’t be there.

And that’s the dilemma. Tram and Dombrowski could be playing for their jobs. You just don’t know. Vina would be an upgrade at second base. Do we pay him, pray he doesn’t get hurt, and maybe lose 103 games instead of 105? Or should we be looking at throwing all of our money into one basket and taking a gamble.

Whenever Tiger fans around my age look back, 1984 is obviously the year that’s cherished. But only three years later, in 1987, the Tigers would make another great run. Best known for the final week of the season, the Tigers were down to the Toronto Blue Jays by 3 1/2 games going into the final 8 games of the season. By winning 6 of their next 8, including sweeping the Jays in a weekend 3 game series, the Tigers would go on to the ALCS.

Of course they lost. So it’s not 1987, but 1984 that’s looked back upon. I actually remember more of 1987. The final week of the season was intense, and I was glued to the TV that last Sunday of the season, watching the Tigers win 1-0 in a nail biter.

Of course Tiger fans of the previous generation look at the 1968 season with a nice gleam in their eyes. But it was only 7 years earlier, in 1961, when the Tigers made their first real run at winning the pennant since the teams of the mid-40s.

The 1961 Tigers won 101 games that season, which tied the franchise record. Unfortunately they finished second to the Yankees, who behind Roger Maris’ record breaking 61 homeruns, and a great year by Mickey Mantle, won a mind boggling 109 games that year.

Going into a weekend series against each on September 1, the Tigers stood a mere one and half games behind the Yankees in their quest for the pennant. But after that time, the two teams would take pretty much different paths. The Yankees went on to sweep the Tigers, and go on to win a total of 13 in a row from that point on, while the Tigers would lose their next 8.

The 1961 team also had some great individual performances. It’s the only time two Tigers hit more then 40 homers in the same season (Norm Cash and Rocky Colavito), and Norm Cash would go on to win the batting title with a .361 average, the last time a Tiger has won it. Equally impressive about Cash’s season was a led the league in OPS, beating out both Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. Also, three of their starters (Mossi, Lary, and Bunning) all had ERA’s below 3.25 and pitched in over 240 innings.

And with that, Tigerblog is happy to announce that they’ll be sponsoring the 1961 Tigers page on Baseball-Reference.com. If you’ve never visited the site, make an effort to. Between that site, and Retrosheet, you should be able to find just about everything and anything you’ll ever need.

I’m happy to welcome Steve B. to the Tigerblog staff. Steve’s first piece takes a look at the controversy surrounding A-Rod winning the MVP.

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The Most Valuable Player Awards seem to stimulate a lot of debate each year and this year is no exception.

The American League MVP voting was very close with Alex Rodriguez receiving 6 first place votes and both Carlos Delgado (2nd overall) and Jorge Posada (3rd overall) each receiving 5 votes. Shannon Stewart received 3 first place votes and finished 4th overall and David Ortiz received 4 first place votes finishing 5th overall.

Not one person can call into question Alex Rodriguez’s statistical output or integrity as a baseball player. Yet, many people will debate his receiving the award because of Texas’ last place finish. If you see Jayson Stark’s most recent article and Rob Neyer’s rebuttle, it will give you the parameters of that debate. The irony of Rodriguez receiving the award during a time when there are many trade rumors surrounding him is not lost on me. If he were truly the Most Valuable Player, would the Rangers be trying to liquidate his contract? In his time with the Rangers, they have had to continually cut payroll and have attempted to build a respectable team after a series of poor moves and an overall lack of pitching talent. Rodriguez himself has been linked to the Rangers overpaying for Chan Ho Park as a free agent (Park and Rodriguez have the same agent). One has to feel sorry for A-Rod (excluding his bank account, of course) because he has quickly established a Hall of Fame caliber career, but among baseball fans seems to be losing respect for his accomplishments, even though they are still as eye-poppingly gaudy as they are.

Personally, if I had been able to vote I would have been split between Shannon Stewart and David Ortiz, ultimately voting for Ortiz. Ortiz was a valuable clubhouse presence on a playoff roster who was discarded in the off-season by the Twins and was able to resurrect his career in his new environs. His stats were comparable down the stretch to A-rod’s (again see Jayson Stark’s ESPN.com article) and his salary will not be the one that limits the Red Sox ability to make off-season acquisitions. Ortiz is a good baseball story and hopefully he will be able to replicate this year’s performance so that he will be considered for the award in future years. Stewart appeared to be the catalyst for the Twins successful run down the stretch, but that could be equally attributable to the fact that the AL Central is the worst division in baseball and the Twins finally emerged from their early season coma.

Ultimately, the bearing this has for Tiger fans is somewhat limited, I would like to picture what Dmitri Young’s stats would have been like had other members even had a pulse performance wise this season. The fact that only 6 players even had an OBP above .300 (none above .332) makes Young’s performance that much more remarkable.

As the off-season rolls on, I find myself with less and less time to not only write some of my bigger entries, but to also keep up with things on a daily basis. So with that, if anyone is interested in writing for the site, feel free to drop me an email. Whether it’s a random entry here and there, or an established column, feel free to let me know what your thoughts are, and I’ll give you a public forum to express them.

For now, send me an email stating your interest and what you’d like to write about. Although I write predominately about the Tigers, I sometime deviate and write about what’s going on in general. This would be acceptable, but the more Tigers, the better.

While listening to AM 1270 tonight, Doug Karsch made a statement saying that the Tigers announced they would attempt to pursue Vlad Guerrero or Miguel Tejada as free agent signings.

Needless to say, this would be huge. Karsch lost some credibility in my eyes by saying Tejada would be the better signing of the two, but needless to say, either one would be a major coup for the franchise.

Of course I’ll see it when I believe it.

Roy Halladay won the Cy Young. No surprise there, and the guy I would have voted for. He led the majors in innings pitched, and could possibly be pitched as an MVP candidate as well. Although my vote there would go to A-Rod.

Baseball season has been done for a little over two weeks.

I miss it.

I was down in Florida this weekend, and although I was in Tampa, I noticed very few Marlins shirts from the locals. I’m not sure if it’s team loyalty to the Devil Rays or what, but you’d think they’d get a little more excited about a World Series down there. Maybe if I had made it down to Miami I would have seen more.

Angel Berroa and Dontrelle Willis are your Rookies of the Year. Berroa I like, because he had a great season. Willis had some great moments, and the good start, but really looked mortal by the end of the year. Brandon Webb had in my mind a better year in a hitters park, but chalk one up to the hype machine. This makes me think Pujols is going to win the MVP over Bonds.

There have been some seasons where the lineup for the Rookie of the Year voting was stacked, and then some that you had to look long and hard to find someone to even claim the award with some degree of decency. And sometime these even happen in consecutive years. The 1987 AL ROY, although the first place votes were swept by Mark McGwire and his 49 homeruns, had a great field. The Tiger’s Matt Nokes came in third, despite playing catcher and hitting 32 homeruns. Devon White set a career mark by hitting 24 homeruns in his rookie season while stealing 32 bases. These good numbers only garnered him a fifth place finish. Runner up Kevin Seitzer had 207 hits, hit .323, and scored a 105 times. Any one of these guys could have won it this year.

And then you have the 1988 ROY. Walt Weiss dominated the field by hitting only .250 (and a .633 OPS, but he can play defense). Runner up was Bryan Harvey, who had some pretty good seasons as a reliever for the Angels, and then would play on the very first Florida Marlins team.

So this category is really hit or miss. The infamous Jose Canseco won the award in 1986. He did by having the lowest batting average of any hitter who would win the award, hitting a paltry .240. The 33 homeruns definitely helped.

The free agent market officially opened today. ESPN has their Top 50 List. I was a little surprised to see Colon so high on the list, but I guess he is the best pitcher available, and is still only 30. One interesting prediction had Keith Foulke going to the Braves. Unless they move Smoltz back into the rotation, you’d be looking at the best one-two relief punch in the game.

I know the predictions are just guesses, but the most discouraging thing was ESPN not thinking any of the Top 50 would come to Detroit. Not that I’d want Jose Mesa (listed at number 50), or even Brian Jordan (number 49), but it shows the so called experts don’t think Dombrowski is going to get anyone to come to Detroit.

Way back in March, I was approached by the Baseball Hall of Fame to write a story for their website as part of a World Series special they planned on putting on. It was supposed to commerate the 35th anniversary of the 1968 Tigers Championship Team, and it centered around Mickey Stanley’s move from the outfield to the infield.

For whatever reason, the story never was put up on their website, and I’m not sure if it’s ever going to be. So, I’m going to put it up here for your enjoyment. Constructive criticism is welcome.

I’d like to thank Dan Holmes, who gave me the assignment and is in charge of the Hall of Fame’s website. He was a big help, and is a good guy. Also, my Uncle David (an English teacher) proofed it for me and helped get it most of the way there for me. Something about the second paragraph bugged me, and I couldn’t quite get it right. But here it is…

Short at Short – Mayo Smith’s World Series Gamble

The City of Detroit had gone 23 years without a Tiger’s team even playing in the World Series. In 1967, the Tigers missed out on a chance to win the pennant by the slimmest of margins. Could Mayo Smith bring his team around and challenge for the pennant again in 1968? Many thought the Tigers were the better team in 1967 despite coming up short, so the 1968 team had a lot to prove going into the season and down the stretch..

The 1967 American League pennant race was regarded as one of the closest pennant races of all time. Four teams, The Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, and Minnesota Twins, would still have a shot at the pennant going into the final week of the season. In the final game regular season game against the California Angels, the Detroit Tigers finished by losing the second game of a doubleheader. In the final at-bat, Tiger’s infielder Dick McAuliffe grounded into a double play with runners on first and second base with the Tigers down by three runs. This was only the second time in 675 plate appearances that McAuliffe grounded into a double play during the entire season. A victory in that game would have forced a one game playoff with the Boston Red Sox for the AL pennant. Unfortunately, this Tiger team would have to wait one more year to get their chance in the World Series.

1968 has been coined the year of the pitcher. Between Bob Gibson’s 1.12 earned runned average, Denny McClain’s 31 victories, and Carl Yastrzemski’s .301 batting average, the lowest ever to win a batting crown, the league would eventually lower the pitchers mound from 15 inches to 10 inches. 1968 was also the final year before going to a divisional format and the institution of a playoff system to get to the World Series.

The Tiger’s clinched the 1968 American League pennant on September 17, 1968. From the time the Tigers clinched the pennant to the time they squared off with the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, one of the more unusual managerial decisions in baseball history would be made and eventually validated.

Throughout the season, Mayo Smith shuffled his four exceptional outfielders, Willie Horton, Jim Northrup, Mickey Stanley, and the future Hall of Fame player Al Kaline, in order for all of them to receive playing time. Al Kaline would eventually end up on the disabled list, limiting him to 102 games during the season. Mayo Smith was also plagued by poor hitting from his shortstops. Roy Oyler played the majority of the time at shortstop. Oyler was an exceptional defensive shortstop, but he hit only .135 during the season. Tom Matchik (.203) and Dick Tracewski (.156) also played shortstop as Mayo Smith struggled to find someone who could provide offense at that position.

With the season coming to a close, Mayo Smith moved his Gold Glove center-fielder, Mickey Stanley, to shortstop while allowing his other three outfielders to start every day. Mickey Stanley had only played infield sporadically during the year, with most of his time at first base. Smith was hoping that Stanley, one the best pure athletes on the team, would be able to fill the spot. In the remaining six regular season games, with the American League pennant already clinched, Mayo Smith played Stanley at shortstop to see if he could play the position.

The experiment got off to a rocky start. Stanley made two errors in that first of six remaining regular season games, but Smith’s decision begun to bear the fruit of validation. In the final five games of the regular season, Stanley went on to start all five, not making an error in any of them.

In Game One of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, Mayo Smith, with the advice of Tiger’s general manager Jim Campbell, started Stanley at shortstop. Stanley went on to be the starting shortstop in all seven World Series games, and made errors in only two of those games.

The 1968 Detroit Tigers had many heroes in their come from behind seven game series with the Cardinals. Most notably would be Mickey Lolich’s three complete games victories. Although it’s hard to evaluate exactly what Stanley’s move to shortstop made on the overall makeup of the World Series, the Tigers offense definitely came up big when they needed it. Stanley went on to hit a modest .214 in the World Series, but Horton (.304 batting average, 6 runs scored, and 3 runs batted in), Jim Northrup (.250 batting average, 4 runs scored, and 8 runs batted in), and Al Kaline (6 runs scored, 8 runs batted in, and a team leading .379 batting average) made major offensive contributions during the series. It was the Game Seven starting centerfielder Jim Northrup, playing in Mickey Stanley’s usual position, who hit a two run triple in the top half of the seventh inning to put the Tigers ahead for good. It was also Al Kaline, the starting right fielder in Game Five that saw the Tigers down three games to one, who hit a two run seventh inning single, that gave the Tigers a 4-3 lead, allowing the Series to continue on for one more game. Whether Kaline would have even seen much time in the Series would have been in question had Stanley played centerfield.

The end result was the first Tiger’s championship since 1945. Mickey Lolich went on to be named the series most valuable player, but, it’s another Mickey who went on to make an interesting footnote in one of the most dramatic World Series’ to date.

The Tigers signed Padres’ minor league left handed pitcher Cliff Bartosh today. Not a bad pickup in my opinion. Bartosh has a wicked curveball, and posted a 4.29 ERA, with 51 strikeouts in 71 1/3 innings for the Padres AAA afillitate, the Portland Beavers. One nice thing about Bartosh is he only gave up 4 homeruns in those 71 1/3 innings, very similar to the season before when he gave up the same number in 70 2/3 at AA Mobile.

He also improved on his control, walking 22 this versus 32 the year before. So at best, he makes the team next year and is used to spell Walker as a left handed set up man. Whoever does the best could possibly get the main lefty reliever job in 2005. At worst, he spends another season in AAA, and we have for insurance if we don’t resign Jamie Walker after this current one year deal expires.

Nothing major, but baby steps. This could be a good solid pickup, and the Tigers need a break. Lefties are never something to look past.

Nothing too major, but they inked Jamie Walker to a one year deal for $775,000. Not a bad price. Walker was the only Tiger who was arbitration eligible this season.

Walker had a decent season for Detroit last year, used mainly as left handed specialist out of the pen. He got his batting average against left handed hitters down to .212 after a rough start, but gave up 6 homeruns in the equivalent of 32 innings against lefties.

Plus, Walker has some trade value. So come next year’s trade deadline, we might be able to use Walker to garner a prospect from a team looking for a lefty to round out their bullpen.

With the end of the World Series comes new found hope for every team. Prior year records are wiped out, and each team starts with a clean slate and hopes to be able to build their team into the next Marlins.

And as every day goes by, more and more players file for free agency. Some are less spectacular then others (Steve Sparks), but there are some also some very big names. Kevin Millwood turns 29 in December, and appears to be well past his shoulder problems. Not a bad guy to anchor your pitching staff around.

But one name sticks out. Former Cy Young winner Pat Hentgen, while well past his prime, has been rumored to be a Tigers target this year. The Detroit area native looks to be coming back home. Hentgen didn’t pitch great in 2003, the closest he’s come to pitching a full season since 2000. He gave up a number of homeruns (25) in 160 2/3 innings, but he posted a modest 4.09 ERA with a .247 batting average against. Hentgen is hardly a star, but he would be the best pitcher the Tigers have, and would take some of the heat off of Maroth, Bonderman, and Cornejo. He would also provide some good veteran leadership that was missing from the starting rotation last year.

And wouldn’t this be a blockbuster? Alfonso Soriano for Carlos Beltran. I don’t have ESPN Insider to read the story, but this would be huge. Beltran in my view is one of the best players out there. Five tool, and coming off one of his best seasons as far as patience at the plate (72/81 BB/K ratio, vs. a career ratio of only 279/540). Beltran is on the verge of becoming the next superstar, and appears to have all of things Soriano doesn’t. Of course with the acquisition of Beltran, you wonder what the Yankees would do with Bernie Williams.

So baseball lives on. Just as interesting as ever. Just now it’s GMs wheeling and dealing, versus the players actually showing their stuff on the field.

…the more they stay the same.

I just finished a pretty good article by Rob Neyer. If you can get past the Yankee bashing, it’s pretty interesting. One thing he didn’t touch on was the brush back pitch, which hitters have been complaining about for the last century.

And for those of you who have made it over from my old domain, I say welcome. This should be the last move, as Tigerblog becomes about as official as it’s ever going to be. My thanks go out to Jay for making things very smooth as far as the transition.

The baseball season is completed, but baseball is definitely not done. Every day, more and more players file for free agency, have their options taken, or what seems to be even more likely, declined. And the Tigers, with Dave Dombrowski at the helm, have to build a baseball team for next year.

And for those of you who make it here on a regular basis, I’m going to be spending some time taking a hard look at each position, and what I think the Tigers are going to do to fill that spot. As the winter rolls on, I’ll update these position analyses so you can come back in February and have a pretty good handle the Tigers team as a whole.

And I’m hoping to learn a few things in the process as well. Maybe/Hopefully, there’s a hidden gem buried in the minors somewhere. The Tiger’s Hank Blalock, someone who comes out of nowhere and turns into a solid player to build a championship team with.

I’ll be looking at the catchers first, and then probably move my way around the infield. As always, your comments are appreciated.

And the Marlins are your 2003 World Champions.

Decent series, but it didn’t hold my interest like a Cubs/Sox series, or even if one of those teams go in there. And this year, the player who made a name for himself was Josh Beckett. Josh was pretty good during the regular season, but injuries limited him to 23 starts. And although his 9-8 record wasn’t impressive, his 152 strikeouts in 142 innings were.

So now we fast forward to the playoffs, and Beckett was exceptional. His numbers look really good (2.11 ERA, .139 BA against, 47 strikeouts in 42 2/3 innings), they’re even better when you take out his one bad start in game two against the Cubs, and they look even better. Two complete game shutouts in the post season is no small task.

And although I didn’t write this on my board, some friends can attest to the fact that I thought McKeon was making a good move starting Beckett on short rest (and we’re still arguing about it). I felt that whoever won game 6 would go on to win the series, and that the Marlins needed their hottest hand in there to shut down the Yanks. It worked grandly for McKeon, and he can add his championship to his resume, including most likely a Manager of the Year award. Not too bad for a guy who coached George Brett when he first started in the majors.

So now the season is done, and for the Tigers we have a few important questions:

Will Dave Dombrowski stay?

Probably, but not by choice. Rumors are flying about Dombrowski and his problems with Denise Illitch. Hopefully they’re just that, and Dave can continue/being working on rebuilding this team like he did the Marlins.

Will Mike Illitch stand by his word and spend some money to improve the team?

This one is the classic “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Bringing in a guy like Luis Castillo would be a coup, and would be an immediate improvement. If they do more “hole filling,” then there are going to be a ton of disgrunted fans.

Will the Tigers be better next year?

I can say this with 99% confidence that the answer is yes, but only because they can’t be any worse. Even if the fielded the same team, everyone has a year under their belts. I think they could field the team they have, and probably only lose 110 games.

But something has to change. Since the Marlins became a team back in 1993, they’ve had a record of 797-918. Hardly impressive, but not bad for an expansion team. And when you take into account the two championships, then it’s even more impressive.

The Tigers during that same period of time has been 707-1,008. That’s winning percentage of .412. So an average season over the last 11 years for the Tigers is 67-95.

The more you look at the numbers, the more depressing things appear for the team. Something has to change, and hopefully the Illitch family can finally right some of the wrongs.

And the Yankees find themselves in a must win situation. Down three games to two, the Marlins are one win away from being crowned world champions.

The Yankees got off to a rough start last night when David Wells came out after an inning with back spasms. Forced to go deep into his bullpen, the only consolation is that Joe Torre’s team gets a day off to rest.

As usual, the Yankees made things interesting in the ninth, by getting two runs and cutting the lead to 6-4. They just didn’t have enough gas to get through one though.

Only two games are left, and only one might be played. It’s always sad to see baseball go.

It’s always a thrill to see one of the greatest players of all time do his thing. This year I’ve had the great fortune to see Roger Clemens pitch twice in person, and it was a special treat.

Tonight, if he holds to his promise, Roger Clemens will lace up his shoes for the last game of his major league career. Definitely a first ballot Hall of Fame, Roger Clemens could possibly be given the tag as the greatest pitcher of all time. Hopefully he’ll be able to go out on top one more time.

Let’s start with the controversy. Or the closest thing to it that I can get on this board. Last week, after the Yankees dramatic victory, I was one of the few people to come out and defend Grady Little’s decision to keep Pedro in the game. To further back up my statement, I’m going to give you a hypothetical.

Say it’s Game 7 of the World Series. It’s the top of the eighth, and it’s been a dramatic, scoreless pitching duel. Your starter gives up a single, then a double, to give the opposing team runners at second and third, with nobody out. You decide to stick with your starter, and he goes on to give up a two run single, and you lose the game 2-0. Correct?

Wrong. Very wrong. You get the next guy (who happens to be the number three batter, and the best power hitter on the team) to ground out to the first basemen, holding the runners where they’re at. You intentionally walk the next batter, so now the bases are loaded with only one out. Because you don’t go with your reliever and stick with your tired starter, the next guy hits a grand slam and you lose the game 4-0. Right?

Wrong again. The starter gets the next batter to ground out of the double play, getting HIMSELF out of a major jam. He then goes on to pitch a hitless ninth inning, and the game goes into extra innings at 0-0. Not wanting to get off your horse, you ride him into the tenth, where once again, he gets the opposing team to go out one-two-three. He’s all ready to come out in the eleventh, but your team scores, and he doesn’t have to. You win the World Series, and the pitcher who threw this gem goes on to be series MVP.

This is EXACTLY what happened in the 1991 World Series. The pitcher was Jack Morris. Maybe it’s the fact that I grew up watching baseball in the 70s and 80s, but I still expect pitchers to finish their games. Had Twins manager Tom Kelly gone to the pen, he might have lost the game, and the Series. But he rode the best guy he had, and he won.

Pedro Martinez had a chance to be a hero. Unlike Morris, he had a two-run lead. He just didn’t get it done. As for Grady Little and his deciding to keep Pedro in there, I agree that Matsui turned on one good, but it’s hardly like Posada hit the snot out of the ball as he blooped one into center.

Things are getting underway in Miami, and everything is tied up. I went back to see how important a game 3 is when the two teams have split going into it, and if history repeats itself, it’s critically important. Since 1983, surprisingly only 6 World Series have started 1-1. The seasons were 1983, 1984 (yes, the Tigers), 1992, 1993, 1997, and then last year. Of those 6, every team that won Game 3 went on to win the World Series. And the math supports it. You win game three, you can go .500 the rest of the way and still take it home. You lose, and you HAVE to win 3 of 4.

It should be a good pitching matchup as Josh Beckett tries to continue his run of good pitching by going up against the veteran Mike Mussina. Bottom of the first, and it’s 0-0.

Plain and simple, what a game, as once again, the Red Sox fall short of winning their first World Series since 1918. To make matters worse, the team that beat them is the team that took the Great Bambino from them for cash that started the silly curse way back when.

I stayed up and watched this one, and despite hoping the Red Sox would win it, I wasn’t dissappointed. The Yankees had a ton of heroes. Jason Giambi, who was dropped to 7th in the lineup, kept them close with two solo shots. Jorge Posada came up with a big two run double to tie things up. Mariano Rivera came in and shut the door and turned the lock, pitching three shutout innings. And then finally, in his first at bat of the game in the 11th inning, Aaron Boone, with brother Bret Boone watching in the announcer’s booth, simply crushed a Tim Wakefield knuckleball to win the game.

I was terribly dissappointed in the announcing. 17 years to the day, Roger Clemens won game 7 of the ALCS for the Red Sox, and against the Angels, to put them into the World Series against the Mets. Roger Clemens is arguably the greatest pitcher of all time. He’s definitely one of the top 10, if not the one of the top five, greatest pitchers of all time.

And in what could have been the last game of his career, the announcer (I’m not sure if it was Buck or McCarver) doesn’t bring up all the Cy Youngs. He doesn’t bring up the 300 wins and 4,000 strikeouts. He brings up the fact that Clemens manager accused Roger of pulling himself out of a pivotal game 6 of the 1986 World Series because he had a paper cut. Clemens denies the story, but, even if true, this isn’t how you send off one of the all time greats.

I also didn’t like how they questioned Grady Little’s decision to keep Pedro Martinez in the game, and this is something they kept coming back to. “Why didn’t they put in Embree?” Simply put, Pedro is one of the best pitchers in the game today. They went out to see if he was okay, Pedro gave him the nod, and he kept them in there. He was still hitting the mid-90s when he wanted too, and his pitches were still moving well.

I was pleased when, in the 8th inning, they didn’t jump all over a fan who interfered with a Matsui double down the right field line. Had it not been interfered with, and if it didn’t bounce into the stands (it didn’t look like it would to me), Bernie Williams would have scored easily. Instead he was stopped at third base. Fortunately it didn’t matter, because Posada got the double in the next at bat. But, the Fox announcers didn’t even acknowledge that it happened, much less point it out 15 times like they did for the Cubs game.

The World Series starts on Saturday. At first I thought I’d have little interest in a Marlins/Yankees World Series, but with the dramatics of last night, I’m definitely going to check it out, and predict the Yankees in 7. Not only that, but after next weekend, this will be the last baseball until March. Sigh.

I was really rooting for the Cubs to get in, but it just wasn’t to be. And I hope they stop blaming this fan for the complete choke job they pulled two nights ago.

Kerry Wood, the man who helped get them here, fell apart last night. He tried salvaging things, even hitting a two run homer himself, but it just wasn’t to be.

I have no interest in seeing the Yankees play the Marlins in the World Series. No offense to either team’s fans, but that series just wouldn’t hold me. So I’m hoping Pedro gets his revenge tonight and takes home game seven.

You do have to give the Marlins their due. With no real, identifiable star power, they remind a lot of last years Angels for whatever reason. Not that their lineups are similar, but that they were a decent team that managed to find a way to win. And to think at the trading deadline they was talk of giving up and dumping players.

It’s less then 15 minutes before the Cubs and Marlins square off in game 3, and the Cubs chances sit right now with Kerry Wood. He’s been phenomonal so far, as has Prior, and you could be looking at two teammates who, from here on our, compete for the Cy Young like Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson have the past few years. If it goes to game 7, Wood will also get the call.

The Marlins remind me a lot like Anaheim last year. For whatever reason (and I’m sure Marlin fans would resent this) they seem to win, despite having an unspectacular lineup, and an only good but young rotation, they took out the Giants, who I felt were going to win it, and have whittled things with the Cubs down to a 5 game series.

And hopefully the first two innings of yesterdays game don’t come back to haunt the Red Sox. How you get seven men on base, and are only able to score one run is pretty baffling. Maybe we should be giving Andy Pettitte more kudos then he’s gotten.

I’m rooting for the Cubs. I predicted in March that Kerry Wood would win the Cy Young, and was wrong at least as far as which Cub would win the Cy Young. Wood and Prior are exciting, and I’d love to see these two bright young stars shine and bring home a championship most Cub’s fans have never known.

Very exciting game last night. It looked like the Cubbies were going to coast to an easy victory after getting to Josh Beckett in the first inning, but Carlos Zambrano let the Marlins back into it with three homeruns in the third inning.

Both teams went deep into their bullpen last night, so the next few games could get interesting as far as what Baker and McKeon can do. Tonight you’ll see Brad Penny square off against potential Cy Young award winner Mark Prior.

The Yankees and the Red Sox also start up tonight. One of the most heated rivalries in baseball will definitely make for an interesting AL pennant series.

It’s funny noticing all of the former Tigers, and they’re not that far removed. Three of the four teams have at least one Tiger who played for us last year. Randall Simon for the Cubs, Damian Jackson for the Red Sox, and Jeff Weaver for the Yankees all donned the old english D last year. You have to go back a couple of years to find an ex-Tiger on the Marlins, and that’s Juan Encarnoncian, who hit a solo shot in last nights game.

Sometimes in the playoffs, that’s all it comes down to. Or one time you don’t slide into home. Or another time you don’t pay attention to the umpire and go after the catcher instead of going to home plate.

And when those mistakes are made, the team that makes them usually ends up going home.

Boston squeaked by the Athletics last night, riding a huge three run blast by Manny Ramirez and some good clutch pitching by Pedro and Derek Lowe to take the series 3-2. There was a lot of good stuff in this series, and also a lot of ugly.

And with that, in my divine wisdom, I now only have one team left that I predicted would win their series. So, my newest revised prediction is, the Red Sox vs. the Cubs, and before a winner is crowned, the world ends in a bizarre twist of irony for both ball clubs.

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