Tag Archives: detroit tigers

Wondering What 162-0 Might Feel Like

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
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From MLB

Yes, it was a shocker. Even for those of us who live and die with every Detroit Tigers pitch, swing and off-field transaction.

Yesterday, in a deal that involved not only general manager David Dombrowski but also owner Mike Illitch, the Tigers announced that they had signed free agent Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder to a nine-year $214 million contract.

Major League Baseball called it the fourth richest contract of all time.

With the signing, the Tigers can now do various things with their batting order and fielding alignment. They can use Fielder and Miguel Cabrera as co-first-basemen.co-designated hitters. Fielder plays 81 games and is the DH for 81 games and vice-versa.

Or they can play Fielder at first, move Cabrera back to third (his original position) and go and find another DH such as Vladimir Guererro or Johnny Damon, to replace the injured Victor Martinez. Of course, as Harold Reynolds suggested on MLB Network last night, there is no reason Cabrera couldn’t play leftfield as he did in his last season with the Marlins.

Regardless, this makes the middle of the Tigers batting order massive. After all, Fielder once hit a home run to the upper deck at old Tiger Stadium — when he was a 12-year-old goofing around with his dad, Cecil.

I guess we’ll go out and have a Little Caesar’s Pizza to celebrate. And help Illitch pay the bills.

Wow, I always wondered what 162-0 might feel like.

Just kidding. Jeesh. 160-2.

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Bomber Almost In Playoffs and Yet The Jets Just Get Bigger.

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Today is an amazing day here in Winnipeg.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are now 8-3. Even though they had struggled for a couple of weeks, they won a dandy game over Montreal, 25-23, on Sunday and pretty much put an exclamation point on first place in the East. In fact, the 8-3 Bombers not only lead second-place 6-5 Montreal by four points, they have all but locked up a playoff berth considering the lowly Argos are now 2-9 and there are only seven weeks left. In fact, a win over Toronto this coming Saturday night at Rogers Centre and the Bombers will have locked up a spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

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The Tigers' Justin Verlander, now 24-5

Meanwhile, the NFL season has started and my Detroit Lions are 2-0. My Detroit Tigers have clinched the American League Central and, depending on the year, any one of Jose Valverde, Justin Verlander or Miguel Cabrera could be American League MVP. NHL training camps are not only underway all over North America, but the pre-season schedule has already started. Man, it’s a pro sports wonderland.

And yet the only topic of conversation here on the edge of the prairie is the Winnipeg Jets. Even my friends — who for years have been faithful followers of the Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs or Montreal Canadiens — have suddenly become die-hard Jets fans (that list does not include Toronto fan Kevin Arnst or Boston fan Al Castell who loved their teams even when the old Jets played in Winnipeg and say they still do). They have fallen in love with everything there is about the Jets. They love the logos, the colors, the schedule, the ticket prices, you name it , they love it. In fact, if you dare to criticize anything about this team, they will literally tear your face off with their vitriol.

To prove it, this past Saturday at MTS Iceplex, I saw something that never, ever would have happened during the last incarnation of the Jets — 2,000 people crammed into a tiny Junior A hockey rink to watch their favorite team practice.

They stood and cheered when Nikolai Antropov was the first Jet to take to the ice. They stood and cheered when a goal was scored during a scrimmage. They cheered a great pass. They cheered a not-so-great pass. The last time the Jets played in Winnipeg, there were a handful of people who would show up at the Arena to watch practice, but not very many.  If there was a special day, three or four thousand would show up, but that’s it. Saturday was simply the opening of training camp and yet the place was jam packed.

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Evander Kane

“This is going to be a lot of fun,” said Jets star Evander Kane, when asked about playing in Winnipeg. “I think it’s great. It’s a lot different from Vancouver or Atlanta. The fans here are just outstanding and from what we saw on Saturday, very enthusiastic. People are very friendly. I think we all really appreciate the support we’re getting from the city.

“I just wanted to play in Canada. It really didn’t matter where. And Winnipeg is going to be a great place to play.”

Winnipeg fans, your Jets have noticed. Tuesday night, when they face the Columbus Blue Jackets at MTS Centre, most of the players are expecting a welcome that they’ve never received before — at any time in their careers.

And they can’t imagine what’s going to happen at the opener on Oct. 9.

“Playing that first game in Winnipeg is going to be an incredible thing,” said former Boston Bruins leftwinger Blake Wheeler, now a Jet. “It’s going to be one of the biggest, loudest, most memorable games any of these guys have ever played. I think we’re all really excited about it.”

In case you forgot, it’s Oct. 9 against Montreal. 4 p.m. CDT. But, I’m sure everybody knows that by now. Heck, every Canadian probably knows that by now.

*   *   *

GREAT SERVICE AND SELECTION AT RIVER CITY SPORTS

I’m going to take a moment to brag a little about the folks here at River City Sports.

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Betsy Taylor and her Jets hoodie from River City Sports St. Vital.

My 27-year-old daughter Betsy lives in Orlando and wanted to make sure she had some Jets gear when she attends the Jets-Tampa Bay Lightning game on Oct. 29, at the St. Pete Times Forum (by the way, tickets for that game are selling for $8.00 each on Stub Hub) in downtown Tampa. So off she went to the River City Sports outlet near my home, the one on Dakota St. in St. Vital.

As you can see in the accompanying photo, she got exactly what she wanted — a girls hoodie that was nicely fitted and had the “Jets” script, as opposed to the logo.

“People in Florida won’t know what the main logo means,” she said  with a laugh. “I wanted a hoodie with ‘Winnipeg Jets’ on it and this was great. I like the fit and the stitching is cool and the service was great.”

Obviously, if you need Jets gear, see the folks at River City Sports. Betsy’s hoodie is top shelf.

 

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Another Crazy Week in the Trenches

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

It’s sometimes hard to believe how dumb people can be, but then you watch the news media and you realize that, well, they are.

We were treated to a beauty this past week. Seems the Canadian Pediatric Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics believe that amateur boxing,  not professional boxing, but amateur boxing, is a major cause of head injuries in children and should be discouraged. They didn’t quite go so far as to say “banned,” but to them, “discouraged” seemed to be an appropriate stance.

At first, the report was simply thought to be “laughable,” by people who have worked so hard to make amateur boxing safe, enjoyable and socially important. After all, if you talk to boxers and MMA fighters who got into the gym and off the street, most will tell you: ”Boxing saved my life.”

“Knowing what we know about head injuries, I would hope that parents and the kids themselves would think long and hard about participating in a sport where blows to the head are rewarded,” Dr. Claire LeBlanc told the Canadian Press last Monday afternoon.

LeBlanc is co-author of the Pediatric physicians’ statement on boxing and one certainly understands where the good doctor is coming from — a world of rich, white, entitled people.

“The CPS and AAP are calling on pediatricians and other health professionals to strongly discourage boxing participation among their patients and guide them toward alternative sport and recreational activities that do not encourage intentional head injuries,” the report says.

“Canadian and American boxing agencies do not track injuries of participants, but the report says based on hospital reports, amateur boxers are at serious risk of face and brain injuries, including concussions.”

Huh? Are they at risk or have the hospitals been treating an inordinate number of amateur boxers? The answer is: neither.

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Kent Brown (left) Coaching Team Manitoba

It is those sorts of blanket statements without any definitive proof that have driven boxing coaches – especially aboriginal and African-American boxing coaches – around the bend.

“When I heard it, I was so angry I couldn’t speak,” said Team Manitoba boxing coach Kent Brown, who is about to open a new amateur boxing gym in Winnipeg.

“These people know nothing. They don’t know how safe amateur boxing is. They don’t know that amateur boxers get better medical attention than football or hockey players. The world knows that there is a greater risk of head injury in football and hockey than there is in amateur boxing. I wish these people would do some research.

“But I also wish that the national media would have ignored a statement that is so ridiculous. Amateur boxing and the gyms that serve the sport, save the lives of young men and women at risk.

The most frightening remark that LeBlanc made, however, had nothing to do with the alleged dangers of amateur boxing.

LeBlanc and her colleagues stated: “Other sports, like tennis, basketball and swimming, can build fitness and character without requiring anyone to be struck in the head.”

You can take basketball out of the argument because getting hit in the head under the basket, fighting for rebounds, is a right of passage for any player. But swimming and tennis? Tennis?

“Tennis is a great sport but do you know how much it costs to play tennis?” said Brown. “There aren’t many kids in my neighborhood buying memberships to tennis clubs. Of course, there aren’t ANY tennis clubs in my neighborhood.”

And that’s the problem with the report. Even though hockey and football are much more dangerous sports for young people to play, boxing has been scapegoated once again by wealthy white doctors who have no idea what the sport has done for inner-city youngsters and kids at risk. Boxing has been an important part of the social fabric of Aboriginal and Asian communities in Canada and African-American and Latino communities in the United States.

“That report was laughable,” said Winnipeg-based Marc-Andre Drolet, columnist and editorial director with fightnetwork.com. “For one thing, amateur boxing – and remember, we’re talking about amateur boxing, not professional boxing — is a lot safer than football or hockey. For another thing, boxing has virtually saved the lives of at-risk, inner-city kids. These people have no idea what they’re talking about. They’re trying to blame boxing because they don’t have the guts to blame hockey or football.”

While the boxing report from otherwise very intelligent people was the dumbest thing we saw all week, there were others…

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Miguel Cabrera Hits Walk-Off Winner

1) I love it when sports announcers get it so wrong you have to laugh just so you don’t cry.

Matt Vasgersian and Mitch Williams were going off about how sensational Chicago White Sox closer Sergio Santos had been since the all-star break. Williams went so far as to suggest that the Detroit Tigers would be lucky to get a sniff against him. After all, said Williams, “Nobody hits this guy. Right now, he’s the best closer in baseball.”

Of course, when Santos struck out lead off man Wilson Betemit in the ninth, his legend grew exponentially.

Funny isn’t it, how legends die so quickly on the ball field?

Austin Jackson doubled, Ryan Raburn homered and then, on the next pitch, Miguel Cabrera homered. In just two pitches from Sergio Santos, the Tigers went from a 5.5-game lead in the AL Central to a 7.5-game lead in the AL Central.

The White Sox had an 8-1 lead over Detroit and blew it. The unhittable Sergio Santos gave up three runs in the ninth to take the loss.

Meanwhile, Vasgersian and Williams  are national broadcasters. They should know by now that in Major League Baseball, nobody is unhittable and when you suggest that someone is, you’ll probably get burned.

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Blue suit on a blue field.

2) Let us assume that the NCAA is correct in its decision to ban the Boise State Broncos from wearing their blue uniforms on their blue football field.

Let us assume that the uniform color is too close to the field color and therefore it’s hard to see the Boise State players at home.

Let us assume that it’s a good decision.

In that case, why does the NCAA allow Oregon to wear their green uniforms on their green field? The Ducks’ dark uniforms are exactly the same color as the field on which they play.

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Green suits on a green field.

One of the biggest problems facing the NCAA and all their football scandals is that the rules appear to be different for everybody. In the case of the Boise State uniform controversy (one created by the NCAA, by the way), it’s wrong to penalize Boise and let Oregon get away with it.

I’m not sure that the original decision to ban Boise’s blues on Boise’s field is a good one, but if it is, then the same rule should apply to Oregon.

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B.C. Runs Over the Argos

3) It’s Sunday, two days after the B.C. Lions went into Toronto and whipped the Argos 29-16.

Toronto is now 2-7 on the season. They’ve lost to a team that was 2-6 — in their own building, no less — and only 19,593 people bought tickets (they might have purchased tickets but they weren’t in the building) to watch it.

Barker, the team’s head coach, has already scapegoated his defensive co-ordinator, Chip Garber, and replaced him with Orlondo Steinauer, who was a great player, but is obviously not much of a defensive coordinator. It’s a mess and it’s pretty obvious that Barker has to go (yeah, just nine games after he was named coach of the year for 2010).

The Argos are awful at a time when the CFL needs a good team in Toronto. Sadly, the only thing the Argos are doing is making people in Ontario pine for an NFL team of the their own. That’s not good.

(We’ll be back later to talk Bombers-Riders)

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What a Saturday! One of Those Days You Don’t Forget.

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Donna Chief is one of those people who is hard to forget. Saturday night, I finished the day talking to Donna Chief. People who know her today, know her as  the vice-principal at Seven Generations Education Institute in Northwestern Ontario. But 27 years ago, she was an enthusiastic young woman from Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation who gathered the courage to call Roy and Evelyne Holenski and ask if they could use another pitcher on their Smitty’s women’s fast pitch team.

Saturday night, she was inducted into the Manitoba Softball Hall of Fame along with a team called McKay United — nine Metis brothers from Crane River, Man., who made up a national championship team.

“This is a really big deal,” Chief said, just before the official Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Canad Inns Polo Park in Winnipeg on Saturday. “It’s a big deal because I didn’t realize I had a career.

“Then, when I sat down and kind of put together everything I’d done, it occurred to me that I did have a career. I was 19 and playing for me team from Dryden-Fort Frances and we were playing a tournament that Smitty’s was playing in. I was pitching and we beat the Kern-Hill Jays and I kind of thought that maybe I was good enough to play for Smitty’s.

“So I worked up the courage and called the Holenskis and they said they had room for me. I was so excited. I pitched for them for two years and then something amazing happened. Evelyne got a call from Susan Schultz, the coach at Mayville State University, who asked, ‘Is there anyone on your team who is good and isn’t doing much with their lives,’ and Evelyne said, ‘Yes, Donna.’ Well, I thought I was doing a lot with my life, but it turned out to be the greatest thing that ever happened.’ I pitched in a tournament in Fargo a couple of weeks later and Susan offered me a full scholarship at Mayville.

“I went down there and stayed for 12 years. I also got my degree and became a teacher and now I’m a vice-principal. None of that would have happened without softball and without the Holenskis.”

Talking with Donna was a great way to finish a spectacular Saturday, a Saturday that might be hard to forget:

1. Detroit Tigers righthander Justin Verlander threw a no-hitter at the Toronto Blue Jays. It was a masterpiece: One walk erased by a double-play. 27 Up, 27 Down.

It was Verlander’s second career no-hitter and one senses there will be more. People are already talking Hall of Fame. If he doesn’t blow his arm, there is little doubt.

2. A 20-1 longshot named Animal Kingdom (boy, were the Disney people ever happy with this winner) won the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby. Paid $43. John Velasquez, who was supposed to ride Uncle Mo until he was scratched, gave Animal Kingdom a sensational ride, proving jockeys can win races with courage and skill.

The jocks who ride at the Derby are the big league ballplayers of the horsey crowd. Saturday afternoon, Velasquez proved how good they can be.

3. Manny Pacquiao is now 53-3-2 in his illustrious career after winning a lopsided 12-round decision over Sugar Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao dropped Mosley with a left hook in the third round and the challenger was never a factor in the fight again. With the easy win, Pacquiao retained his WBO Welterweight title, but more importantly, he also maintained the title of “the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.”

4. The Cleveland Indians won again. This time 5-4 at the Big A in Anaheim. The Indians are now 22-10, tied with the Fightin’ Phillies for the best record in baseball. After falling behind 2-0, the Tribe came back to win thanks to big hits by Shin-Soo Choo, who is hitting .226, and Carlos Santana (the greatest name ever for a guy playing in the home of the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame) who is batting .217.

I still don’t believe they will keep this up. But it sure is fun watching no names, has-beens and never-weres eat up Major League Baseball.

5. Speaking of no-names, has-beens and never-weres, how about the Nashville Predators? Sure, the Preds aren’t out of the woods yet, they still trail the Canucks 3-2, but on Saturday night, for the first time in franchise history, they won an elimination game (they were 0-5 heading in).

With a pair of third-period goals by Joel Ward (who?), the Preds beat the Canucks 4-3 in Vancouver and extended the Western Conference semifinal to a Game 6 in Nashville on Monday night.

If Barry Trotz pulls this one off, there will be absolutely no doubt that pound-for-pound, Trotz is the best coach in the NHL.

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Musings After a Week in the Trenches

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

It’s been a long week. For one thing we had to keep listening to the NHL’s rationale for keeping the Coyotes in Phoenix, Eric Belanger’s brain-dead comments about Winnipeg (until now, I didn’t think hockey players were that stupid) and the American media’s desperate screams about Barry Bonds.

On top of that I had to call three hockey games (none of which was in Winnipeg), finish a magazine, complete the sports section of a newspaper, do the sports every morning on two radio stations, start a new book (working title, Quiet Hero: The Ken Ploen Story) and try to get rid of this pleurisy/pneumonia/Black Plague thing I have going on. Not whining. Just tired.

In the meantime, there was no shortage of bat-shit crazy going on out there and that will make today’s posting a little easier.

1) Love the U.S. media trying to make Barry Bonds’ ex-lover Kimberly Bell some sort of saint. She was his mistress through two marriages. I can think of a word other than mistress, but I wouldn’t use it in mixed company.

I often listen to ESPN radio on my XM service and they had that guy Mark Fainaru-Wada on, talking about the salient points made by Bell during her testimony in the Bonds case. In case you’ve forgotten, Fainaru-Wada wrote a book about Bonds, The Game of Shadows, using more than 200 anonymous sources (believe it at your peril). Bell was one of the few people he actually quoted on the record. When your entire career clings to the veracity of the testimony of the former mistress of a big league baseball player, you’d better go on the radio and tell people she has an immense intellect and no bitterness ’cause anyone with a brain bigger than a walnut isn’t going to believe it.

As Fainaru-Wada tried to tell people, “ex-girlfriends never lie,” all I could do not to puke all over the steering wheel, was sing Winnipeg Most’s new song as loudly as possible. The American media wants Bonds to be convicted so badly, it no longer has any credibility whatsoever. In fact, anything a sportswriter tries to tell you about Barry Bonds is probably a lie.

2) My wonderful wife is a Cleveland girl, born and raised. As a result, her disposition is often dictated by the success of her beloved Browns and Indians. And that’s not a bad thing. The more her teams lose, the funnier she gets.

So on Friday, as the Indians were losing 14-0 to the White Sox after four innings in their 2011 season opener (they eventually lost 15-10), Sally decided to go to Facebook to vent her frustration.

“I wonder if there is a ‘Cleveland Indians Suck’ page,” she asked.

Moments later I hear, “Gee, that’s harsh.”

Sally found the “Cleveland Indians Suck Big Black Monkey —–,” page.

“No wonder I don’t like Facebook,” she said, and went back to watching her game.

3) Right now, I’m watching the Tigers-Yankees game on FOX. Commentator Ken Rosenthal is an idiot. Miguel Cabrera does not owe anyone a second or third apology for his February DUI —  in English or any other language. One apology is plenty. Rosenthal is far too self-centered, self-absorbed and self-important.

By the way, why doesn’t Joe Buck just wear a Yankees jersey when he calls a game? Gawd, his pro-Yankee game calls are insufferable. And Tim McCarver? He’s now blind as well as terrible.

Thank gawd for the mute button.

4) Here’s what’s wrong with baseball and with every sport that doesn’t have a salary cap. Alex Rodriguez will make $32 million playing for the Yankees this season. The Kansas City Royals’ entire payroll, including players on the DL, is $36.1 million.

The Yankees payroll is $2o1.7 million. They should win EVERY game.

Meanwhile, when Baltimore manager Buck Showalter went off on the Boston Red Sox, the American media all jumped to the defence of their beloved poster-child- for-all-things-holy, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein. Trouble was, Showalter’s comments might have been impolite, but they were also pretty close to true.

“I’d like to see how smart Theo Epstein is with the Tampa Bay payroll,” Showalter told Men’s Journal. “You got Carl Crawford ’cause you paid more than anyone else, and that’s what makes you smarter? That’s why I like whipping their butt. It’s great, knowing those guys with the $205 million payroll are saying, ‘How the hell are they beating us?’ ”

Actually Boston’s payroll is about $162 million, but really, what’s the difference?

Oh yeah, A-Rod.

5) This story was e-mailed to us from a reader of the Detroit News:

Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland is a crusty old soul who has little use for the media on a good day. But let’s just say he’s really pissed now.

Player X is an ESPN the Magazine blog written, allegedly, by unnamed players from the various sports. In his inaugural entry, the baseball Player X takes a few unflattering shots at Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera:

“In any group, there’s always the crazy uncle who just can’t seem to figure it out. Cabrera, who’s been charged with DUI, is that uncle. I guarantee any one of his teammates would have picked him up if he’d called. Ditto his GM. …

“But, really, why isn’t Cabrera paying a guy $100 a night to drive him around? Plenty of guys do that. That he didn’t is a slap in his teammates’ faces. Even if it costs $36,000 a year, we have watches worth more than that.”

Even though the remarks make good sense, the comments set Leyland off and I agree with him. Frankly, if you can’t put your name on it, if you won’t take ownership of what you say, you are a gutless swine.

“To me that’s a gutless (jerk) that doesn’t put his name to it,” Leyland said. “If somebody would have said, ‘Hey, this is Jim Leyland and this is what I say, he should do this or this, then that’s fine.

“But when you (another expletive) hide behind somebody else’s expense, that’s chicken (expletive) to me. But you guys know your business more than me. Maybe that’s ethical, I don’t really know. But I’d be (pissed off) if I was Cabrera.”

And that’s why I really, really doubt a player actually wrote it. My sense says ESPN wrote it and declared that a player wrote it. I follow a lot of players on Twitter and if a player wants to say something, he will, and he’ll put his name on it and he won’t care what people think.

I believe Player X is an anonymous blog made up by ESPN The Magazine so that spineless reporters can hide behind somebody else.

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Our Fearless MLB Predictions for 2011

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

I will be the first to admit, these predictions aren’t that fearless. I mean, really. When you select the Boston Red Sox to meet the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2011 World Series, you ain’t goin’ too far out onto the limb.

However, I do believe the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins will challenge the BoSox, I believe the Orioles will finally get to .500 and the Colorado Rockies and Atlanta Braves will bettle it out for the National League Wild Card.

So without further adieu — after all, the first pitch is in about two hours — here are our annual Fearless Predictions for 2011.

THE AMERICAN LEAGUE

EAST

1)  Boston Red Sox – If the Red Sox stay healthy, this is the best team in the American League. Offensively, they have Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury, Adrian Gonzalez, J.D. Drew, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz. On the mound, it’s Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester, John Lackey, Diasuke Matsuzaka and Josh Beckett. Easily No. 1 in the East.

2) New York Yankees – We only pick the Yanks in two spot because they are the Yanks. After C.C. Sabathia, the pitching staff is a big question mark. A-Rod was sensational in the spring, Derek Jeter will be better than last year, Robinson Cano might be MVP and they will hit, but will they stop anybody else from hitting? Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia are the fourth and fifth starters.

3) Baltimore Orioles – This team finished 34-23 down the stretch last season and improved big time in the off-season bringing in Valdimir Guerrero, Mark Reynolds, J.J. Hardy and Derrek Lee. If the young pitchers mature, the Orioles will challenge the Yanks for second. Buck Showalter might be the best manager in the game.

4) Tampa Bay Rays – If Manny Ramirez grows up and Johnny Damon stays healthy, the Rays will have some lineup help for Evan Longoria. For this team, it’s all about the pitching. If James Shields, David Price, Wade Davis and Jeff Niemann. That’s a lot of ‘ifs.’

5) Toronto Blue Jays – If Jose Bautista hits 54 home runs again, I’ll eat the Rogers Centre. Getting better, but just not good enough.

CENTRAL

1) Detroit Tigers – So much for a DUI ruining Miguel Cabrera’s career. He has been lights out this spring, hitting .357 with a .714 slugging percentage, six doubles, three homers and a team-high 12 RBI. With Magglio Ordonez hitting in front of him and Victor Martinez behind him, it will be a big year in Detroit.

2) Minnesota Twins – Justin Morneau is getting healthy and Joe Mauer is already back to form. Throw in a solid pitching staff and Minnesota and Detroit will battle for 1-2 in the Central.

3. Chicago White Sox – The Sox added Adam Dunn’s bat to a lineup that includes Paul Konerko, A.J. Pierzynski and Alexei Ramirez. But do they have enough pitching?

4. Kansas City Royals – The Royals might have the best farm system in the game but it won’t matter this year. Kansas City will hurt the contenders occasionally, but not often.

5. Cleveland Indians – Manager Manny Acta said if his young players show what they’re made of, the Indians will have a good team. They will eventually, I suppose, but it won’t be this year. I was told in Florida by someone who follows the Indians closely: “Anyone who thinks the Indians have a hope suffers from D & D – a case of dumb and delusional.”

WEST

1) Texas Rangers – These guys hit a ton as Josh Hamilton, Elvis Andrus, Nelson Cruz, David Murphy and Ian Kinsler lead the way. It certainly won’t hurt if Adrian Beltre gets healthy, too. The pitching will suffer without Cliff Lee, but that won’t stop the Rangers from repeating in the West.

2) Los Angeles Angels – Dan Haren, Jared Weaver, Scott Kazmir and Ervin Santana give the Angels a great rotation. The addition of Vernon Wells will help the order. L.A. will challenge Texas.

3) Oakland A’s – Can Hideki Matsui find happiness in Oakland? Can the A’s finish better than third? Look out for starter Trevor Cahill: 18-8 with 2.97 ERA last year.

4) Seattle Mariners – How can a team with Ichiro Suzuki and Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez go 61-101? That’s what they did last year and it’s hard to imagine the Ms will be any better this year.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

EAST

1) Philadelphia Phillies – With a rotation that goes like this: Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton, it doesn‘t matter if they hit. However, if they can’t replace the injured Chase Utley and the gone Jayson Werth, there is a chance even the Phils won’t hit enough.

2) Atlanta Braves – If Chipper can still play (and stay healthy all year) and manager Fredi Gonzalez is as good a manager as we think, the Braves might threaten in the anemic East. Craig Kimbrel and Jonny Venters will share the closer’s duties and it’s hard not to like a lineup that includes Brian McCann, Martin Prado, Jason Heyward and big Freddie Freeman.

3) Florida Marlins – This is a typical Florida Marlins team: Young, promising and cheap. Rookie Mike Stanton is the player to watch.

4) New York Mets – All questions, not enough answers. Will Jason Bay adjust to Citi Field? Will Carlos Beltran get healthy? Will Johan Santana return to form? Will they be sold? If the answers are positive, this team could threaten.

5) Washington Nationals – Better than last year with Jayson Werth in the lineup to protect Ryan Zimmerman, but still an afterthought.

CENTRAL

1) Cincinnati Reds – With MVP Joey Votto and loads of offence, the Reds will score. A lot depends on the rotation of Edinson Volquez, Homer Bailey, Bronson Arroyo, Travis Wood and Mike Leake. Dusty Baker will keep them in the race.

2) Milwaukee Brewers – The addition of pitchers Zach Greinke and Shaun Marcum will make the Brewers better. They’ll win a lot more than 77 games (2010). Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun and Corey Hart give the Brewers a solid middle of the lineup.

3) St. Louis Cardinals – If Albert Pujols just goes nuts with his free-agent winter coming up, he could lead the Cards into the playoffs himself. However, with Adam Wainwright out for the season, the pitching staff suffers mightily. Pujols is clearly the player to watch in the Majors this year.

4) Chicago Cubs – Well, it’s “next year,” again. This is a team likely to win about 82 games and yet again, fail to win a title.

5) Houston Astros – This is a team that finished strongly in 2010 and then just didn’t get better. No threat. If Hunter Pence and Carlos Lee blow up, they could finish ahead of the Cubs.

6) Pittsburgh Pirates – This is a Triple A franchise. They scored only 587 runs last year while giving up 866. If they win 50 games it will be a miracle. Although I do love Andrew McCutchon.

WEST

1) San Francisco Giants – The Giants have enough pitching to prove the 2010 World Series was not a one-hit wonder. Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito, Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Cain will be fine. The only question is: Do the Giants have enough offence after Pablo (Kung Fu Panda) Sandoval.

2) Colorado Rockies – The Dodgers, Rockies and Giants will battle for No. 1 in the West all season long. With Dexter Fowler, Troy Tulowitzki, Todd Helton and Carlos Gonzalez, this team will score a lot of runs. Can Ubaldo Jimenez carry the worst pitching staff of the Top 3 teams in the West? I love them as the NL Wild Card team.

3) Los Angeles Dodgers – The pitching should be good enough, but players such as Juan Uribe, Andre Ethier and James Loney have to get more done over the long haul. Will new manager Don Mattingly do more with this bunch than Joe Torre?

4) San Diego Padres – Should have enough pitching, won’t have near enough hitting with the loss of Adrian Gonzalez to Boston.

5) Arizona Diamondbacks – Justin Upton and nobody else. Will be young and will be out of the race by June 1.

Playoff Teams:  AL — Boston, Detroit, Minnesota, Texas; NL — Philadelphia, Cincinnati, San Francisco and either Atlanta or Colorado.

AL Champions: Boston Red Sox

NL Champions: Philadelphia Phillies

World Series: Phillies over Boston in six games.

 

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A Week in the Trenches: How the Media Makes Mountains Out of Mole Hills.

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Sometimes you read a newspaper and just shake your head. Sadly, far too many people read them and then read irrational things into them.

Obviously, that’s what they’re going for, those old broken down newspaper folks. At a time when the daily reading of newsprint has lost its lustre because, well, everything in it is yesterday’s news, you have a dilemma.

The question: How to entice readers? The answer: Two ways. Either make stuff up or take stuff that isn’t made up and make a bigger deal out of that stuff than is warranted.

Mountains out of mile hills, as they say. And we’ve had a week of it.

1) When Detroit Tigers all-star first baseman (and almost American League MVP) is picked up on a DUI this week, the American newspaper world goes wacky. Apparently, having a player drink scotch and then get caught behind the wheel of a car after drinking scotch will alter the chemistry of a team. That’s what the newspaper pundits said this week. A collection of dudes who can neither throw nor catch decided that Cabrera’s drunk-driving charge would end all hope for the Tigers to win a Central Division title.

Really? Seriously? Not according to Tigers manager Jim Leyland. Leyland told the Detroit Free Press “I know for a fact, without getting into this situation, I know for a fact Miguel Cabrera is in the best shape of his life. He’s stronger than he’s ever been, and he’s quicker than he’s ever been . . . I think Miguel Cabrera is probably going to have the biggest year of his life.”

Of course, the Free Press didn’t agree with him. Certainly not Mitch Albom, who destroyed Cabrera in his column.

Leyland went off. Most of the Tigers players barely noticed. Even other Free Press reporters admitted they couldn’t find any trouble in the Tigers clubhouse

“It’s not going to affect the team at all,” Leyland said. “All these people that are getting dramatic about this . . . and all this negative impact. It’s not going to affect this team one bit. Trust me. That’s all reading material, everybody getting all upset and getting real dramatic.”

Here’s the deal. The guy screwed up. He’ll be punished. Will probably have to use some of his $13 million this year to hire a driver. End of story.

2) The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have decided not to spend wads of money on free agents this year. Instead, they want to get the players who played well last year under contract and then try to bolster their Canadian content (’bout freakin’ time).

The local papers haven’t been too happy about that, but on Friday night, head coach Paul LaPolice made it clear that he wasn’t in the least bit concerned.

“Well, for one thing, everybody is forgetting we got the best defensive co-ordinator in the league, Tim Burke, from Montreal,” LaPolice told the audience listening to the MJHL on NCI FM, just hours after the Blue had re-signed centre Obby Khan. “We lost nine games by four points or less last season. That has to change. But spending large amounts of money on free agents that may or may not pan out is not the way we want to go. I’ve watched the Washington Redskins do that for years and it hasn’t worked out for them.

“We believe we’ve built a very good young team here. Yes, if we want to BE better than 4-14, we have to play better than we did last year, but to me and to Mr. Mack (Bombers GM Joe Mack), our priority was to sign the young players we brought along last year, upgrade our coaching staff and make sure our core of veteran players are happy and ready to go. Doug Brown is back, Obby Khan is back, we’ve been monitoring (quarterback) Buck Pierce all winter — he moved here and he’s been working out every day —  and with addition of Tim and the naming of Richard Harris as assistant head coach, we’ve upgraded the coaching staff.

“Now, we just have to go out and get the job done.”

The Bombers will be fine. Stop making something out of nothing.

3)  On Friday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, the federal jurist assigned to the perjury case against Barry Bonds, directed both sides to cut a deal.

Prosecutors responded to Illston’s request by saying they would discuss a plea agreement with Bonds’ lawyers, even though one of Bonds’ attorneys believed the case would go to trial. Bonds will plead “not guilty” for the third time when he is arraigned – again! — on March 1. He was initially charged in 2007 with lying to a grand jury about his alleged steroids use. The trial is scheduled to start March 21. Four freakin’ years after the only charge was laid and more than a decade since the government started chasing Bonds’ ass all over North America.

The North American mainstream media is desperate — absolutely desperate — to have Bonds convicted of something. Anything. Make it up. Just get him convicted. They’ve been trying Bonds for a dozen years in the court of public opinion and news that Illston wanted the prosecutors to cut a deal suggests that she isn’t convinced the feds have much of a case. The response from Bonds’ lawyers that the case will likely go to trial suggests that they know the feds don’t have much of a case.

Few people in history have spent as much time waiting for the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice to build a case as Barry Bonds. And what do they have for the hundreds of millions of public dollars that have been spent on this goofy case? They have a suggestion that Bonds might have known what his trainer was giving him and that because of this, Bonds hit a bunch of home runs in a bunch of stinkin’ baseball games and he should go to jail for eternity for doing that.

That’s messed up.

This is so silly. So incredibly stupid, that when we, up here in comfortable, quiet, well-educated Canada, make fun of Americans for being inherently dumb, this is all we need to use as an illustration. In a country that says its governments — both at the federal and state levels — are flat broke, is there a bigger waste of money in the entire world than using hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars to chase down a baseball player for using the juice to hit homers?

If indeed, the United States is broke, as the Republicans claim, then this is the reason it deserves to be broke.

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A Week of Sloshing Around in the Rain and the Nonsense.

Posted on June 5, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

There is nothing like one good bad call to bring out the best and worst in people.

After the perfect game that was — and it was — posted by Detroit Tigers’ pitcher Armando Galarraga wound up being foiled on perhaps the worst call in baseball history, fans were first outraged and then overcome by the emotion — and accountability — the spewed forth from umpire Jim Joyce.

Joyce bawled his eyes out over the dreadful safe call at first on what should have been the 27th out of the ball game and while many people sympathized with Joyce, others looked at the replay and said, “How in God’s name did he miss that call? It wasn’t even close.”

Then along came Bud Selig who could have fixed it all just by doing the right thing, but as we noted, it’s understandable why he made the stupid decision he did. Ol’ Bud gets all frothy over the “human element” in baseball and didn’t have the cojones to simply overturn the call and give Galarraga the 21st perfect game in baseball history.

Perhaps Bud was just trying to punish Joyce who will have to live with the worst call in baseball history for the rest of his life. Or perhaps Bud was just being Bud, a weak commissioner who will talk about replay and improving the umpiring, but will probably do nothing at all.

As they say, baseball is successful despite the people who run it.

Back here in Paradise, it rained most of the week, we slogged around the wet basement, eventually got it dry and still had enough time to watch the silly world of sports and media. It’s a strange, strange place, as evidenced by…

1) The Philadelphia Flyers are destined to make a series out of the Stanley Cup final. Two big wins back in Philly — in two very good hockey games —  have the Flyers and Chicago BlackHawks deadlocked at 2-2 heading back to Chicago for Game 5 on Sunday night.

Historically, the Stanley Cup final is about great goaltending. In this series, there isn’t a decent goaltender to be found. Every game is a netminding adventure and one gets the sense a fluke or a bad goal will be the deciding factor.

2) The Winnipeg Blue Bombers had better win the Grey Cup this year. If they don’t, the local media might all have a collective heart attack.

The media cheerleading for the Bombers started this week and it’s only rookie camp. If new head coach Paul LaPolice doesn’t win his first half-dozen games, the scribes with their short skirts and pom-poms won’t be able to backpedal fast enough.

3) It’s rather sad that so many important people in baseball don’t want instant replay. They keep making the same old, used-up arguments about errors being part of the game and how important the human element is.

They’re idiots. They believe the wrong answer is a good thing. Replay has done nothing but good for football and hockey. Even basketball uses it from time-to-time and baseball’s experiment with home runs has been perfect.

And yet muttonheads throughout baseball still believe the “human element” is good for the game.

No sport needs replay more than baseball. From the 2009 playoffs until Joyce’s shit-kicking of that call at first on Wednesday night, major league baseball umpiring has been sickeningly bad (a big ball fan at the Goldeyes game Friday night said, “C.B. Bucknor should not be allowed on a ball field.”).

Join the 20th Century gentlemen.  It was really nice back then. Find a way to use replay and the heartache felt by far too many people on Wednesday night will never be felt again.

4) The world’s media went ape shit this week when Cote d’Ivoire superstar Didier Drogba broke his arm. Headlines flared: “Drogba Out of World Cup.”

This week, the Cote d’Ivoire medical team said Drogba was likely to play “some or all of World Cup 2010.” The Elephants don’t open until June 15 and there was one other important thing to note. It was his freakin’ arm. It’s soccer. You can’t even use your freakin’ arm.

NFL and CFL linemen often play a much tougher game with broken arms, wrists and hands almost as a matter of course. New Bomber quarterback Buck Pirece has played when he didn’t even know what province he was in. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Drogba in Cote d’Ivoire’s opener. Put an aspirin on it.

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Joyce’s Bad Call Once Again Proves Replay is the Only Answer

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Wednesday night, I watched the Detroit-Cleveland baseball game from first pitch to last. I grew up 45 minutes from the front door of Tiger Stadium while my wife spent much of her developing years at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium with her favorite uncle. We are a mixed marriage — one Tigers fan, one Indians fan.

And even she thought Armando Galarraga got jerked over.

Everybody knows the story by now. Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was robbed of a perfect game on Wednesday night when first base umpire Jim Joyce completely blew an out call on what should have been the final out of a 27-up, 27-out game. There was absolutely no question, even before a thousand replays were shown, that Jason Donald was thrown out, first base-to-pitcher, by Miguel Cabrera with Galarraga covering. Joyce blew the call, plain and simple.

And to his credit, Joyce admitted it. He told reporters after the game: “This isn’t ‘a’ call. This isn’t — This is — This is a history call and I kicked the shit out of it. And there’s nobody that feels worse than I do. I take pride in this job, and I kicked the shit out of it, and I took a perfect game away from that kid who worked his (butt) off all night.”

It was, perhaps, the worst call in baseball history (Huffington Post and the Big Lead called it “the worst call in sports history”), but at least Joyce took responsibility. I still think he should resign, but then again if you watch as much baseball as I do, you’ve long ago come to the conclusion that umpiring is a really, really imperfect science and over the course of a week, there are dozens of bad calls. In fact, the strike zone is a joke. The boys in blue (or is it black now?) make that thing up as they go along.

So I certainly didn’t disagree when commissioner Bud Selig said yesterday that he wouldn’t overturn the call even though it was the worst call in baseball history. I also agreed with Selig when he said he would take a close look at replay and umpiring.

Instituting replay is a simple task. Each manager gets one flag per game. Use it wisely. Balls and strikes are out (computers should call balls and strikes anyway). Jim Leyland could have had a chance to fix the problem from the dugout last night simply with the opportunity to go to the replay — a replay that was available to everyone watching that game in less than four seconds.

Replay would have saved Jim Joyce his torment (and a very funny website called www.firejimjoyce.com) and also give a journeyman starter like Armando Galarraga a real day in the sun (yeah, the Corvette was nice, but if I know the Tigers organization, owner Mike Ilitch would have bought Armando the entire Chevy line if he had “perfect game” on his resume).

Thursday afternoon at Comerica Park everybody kissed and made up, but St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa — as he often does — had the best take on the entire mess.

“I was thinking if the umpire says he made a mistake on replay, I’d call it a no-hitter, perfect game. Just scratch it,” La Russa said. “If I was Mr. Selig, in the best interest of the game. The guy got it and I’d give him his perfect game. But here again, I should just shut my mouth.”

Meanwhile, I have learned one important lesson from this incident: I vow to never again, never ever again, on the Shaw TV telecasts of Winnipeg Goldeyes baseball, to NEVER, EVER again criticize a Northern League umpire. From the horrendous umpiring done in the 2009 playoffs to Joyce’s blown call on Wednesday night, the arbiters in the majors are living proof that the guys in the Northern League are just as good as they are (or just as bad, whatever your point of view).

Fact is, the sad state of major league umpiring is a bigger problem for the game than steroids ever were.

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Another Week Amid the Strange and Misguided…

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

The 2010 Winnipeg Goldeyes training camp has started, the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs are well on the way, the NBA has moved into the second round and the Major League Baseball season is one month into it.

It’s been an odd couple of weeks, but there is one thing we can always count on: Somebody will jerk over somebody else even if it’s just for a laugh.

Let’s ponder the strange and misguided…

1) The voice of my youth passed away on Tuesday night. Ernie Harwell, one of the nicest men I ever met, died of cancer at age 92. The voice of the Detroit Tigers from 1960-2002, Harwell was the quiet, pastoral sound in my head for almost every summer of my life.

I had a long interview with Harwell on the field at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Fla., in 2002. He was kind and funny and he could tell one heck of a story. He got his first play-by-play job with the minor league Atlanta Crackers in 1934 at the age of 16 and went on to become, among other things, the only broadcaster ever traded for a player.

In 1948, the Crackers let Harwell out of his contract in order to join the Brooklyn Dodgers as a fill-in for another legend, Red Barber, in exchange for Minor League catcher Cliff Dapper.

When Bo Schembechler took over the Tigers as president in 1992, one of Schembechler’s first decisions was to fire Ernie Harwell. Schembechler, an ex-football coach who proved he couldn’t run a one-car funeral, was eventually dumped and Harwell was re-hired.

Ernie Harwell wasn’t Vin Scully or Jon Miller or Jack Buck or John Gordon or Charley Steiner or Tom Hamilton, great announcers all. Ernie Harwell had a sweet southern accent and a homey approach to the game, and he was the best I ever heard.

2) There is talk in Toronto about changing the nickname of the city’s NBA team from the Raptors to the Huskies.

Only in Toronto would that discussion start. And it starts because the Leafs aren’t in the playoffs, nobody cares about the Argos and nobody knows anything about baseball.

3) I loved how the American media handled Brett Favre’s injured ankle this past week.

When it became apparent that Favre might need minor surgery to relieve pain in the ankle – an ankle he injured long before the Vikings lost the NFC final to New Orleans – it was written this way: “Brett Favre will not be able to return this season without ankle surgery.”

After Favre said he’d contacted noted orthopaedic surgeon James Andrews about the ankle, he posted the following on his website:

I want to add to the information provided in the article that was published this morning on ESPN’s website. Given the reaction to the article, and the typical conclusion jumping, I thought I’d clarify a few things.

While my ankle has been bothering me, the injury is not debilitating. For example, I’m able to work around my property without any problems. Sure – certain exercises cause some ankle pain, but it’s nothing that I haven’t experienced (or played with) before. In fact, many people don’t realize that I injured my ankle before the NFC Championship game. I’ve had surgery on this ankle twice before, and I’ve played with the pain before. The hits I took throughout the 2009 season, including the Saints game, just added to the ankle pain and likely caused some bone spurs.

I don’t believe major surgery on the ankle would be required for me to return in 2010. I’ve consulted with Dr. Andrews on the phone, and a relatively minor procedure could be done to improve the dexterity of the ankle, and to relieve the pain. I’ve put up with pain worse than this in my career, and I didn’t want anyone to assume that the possibility of surgery was the sole factor that would determine whether I return or not. Some people reacting to the ESPN story have made this assumption. I don’t blame them for doing so, given that the term “surgery” often covers a variety of procedures, some more complex than others.

The ankle pain is a factor, but one of many factors that I’ll need to consider in making my decision. Other factors include the input of my family, and the wonderful experience that I had last year with the Vikings.

– Brett Favre

Sounds like Brett Favre will return to the Vikings this season. Surgery or no surgery.

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