Former Tiger pitcher Jose Lima died of a heart attack yesterday at the age of 37 (four months younger than me, egads!). Lima was famous for being one of baseball's "characters" and for having a wife with enormous boobs [link is SFW]. But I noticed that many of the news outlets reported this as "Former All-Star pitcher Jose Lima Dead at 37 ( Read more... )

• That was a satisfying finale to a pretty terrific season of Survivor last night. You could argue that Parvati "deserved" to win - she had a target on her back from day one, and did really well in the silly games - but Sandra's second million-dollar check was well-earned, and she really grew on me over the course of the season. She probably ( Read more... )

I'm actually writing this on Sunday night, two days after the 36th game, and the Tigers have added two very good wins over the Boston Red Sox that are probably making me even more optimistic than I would have been otherwise ( Read more... )

At the Lugnuts game on Monday, I was thinking about the inappropriateness of the last part of Thomas M. Cooley Law School Stadium's name for a change. To me, a "stadium" is a large, tall, (usually) multi-purpose, fully enclosed (but not roofed) venue. TMCLSS is none of those things. I'm not sure why Cooley insisted on having "Stadium" in the name, ( Read more... )

On a chilly night in mid-Michigan, fiber_cable and I went back to Jackson Field at Thomas M. Cooley Law School Stadium for another Lansing Lugnuts game. We wanted to see Jacob Turner pitch for the West Michigan Whitecaps, the Lugnuts' cross-state rivals, or we probably would have waited for better weather. Turner, who doesn't turn 19 for another week and a ( Read more... )

Eighteen games are now in the books for the 2010 Tigers (not counting Sunday's game) - that's one-ninth of the season, or what we could consider the season's "first inning." The Tigers went 10-8, a solid record that does not reflect how exciting the team has been this year. Of course, there's a fine line between "exciting" and "frustrating," but ( Read more... )

My personal tally from the Lansing Lugnuts' opening day Eat-A-Palooza ($15 got you in the gate, plus unlimited food and soft drinks) at the newly rechristened Cooley Law School Stadium ( Read more... )

• In case you didn't already hear about it (maybe you live out of state or something?), my friend Retro Joe is now the in-stadium voice of the Lansing Lugnuts (minor-league baseball). He'll be the guy saying, "Batting fifth... third baseman... Balbino... Fuenmayooorrrrrrrrrrr!!!" Congrats, Joe ( Read more... )

It's now the Year of the Tiger, and if you're a baseball fan in Michigan, you probably hope that's symbolic. It would at least be a good marketing slogan.

I thought I'd look at how the Detroit Tigers have fared in previous Years of the Tiger:

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1998Record: 65-97, last place, 24 games behind the Indians ( Read more... )

I just finished reading Rob Neyer's latest(?) book in which he debunks (and occasionally "bunks") oft-told legends about old-time baseball players. The book was just OK, but one of the things that stuck with me is that lots of players in history have had serious alcohol problems, and these carousers have usually been "celebrated" by the writers and ( Read more... )