STARTED THIS BLOG TO CHRONICLE WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A GREAT YEAR FOR THE DETROIT TIGERS. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED PREDICTED A WORLD SERIES FOR THE BENGALS AND THIS WAS MY ATTEMPT AT ADDING TO THE HISTORICAL RECORD...
BUT AFTER STARTING AT 0-7 WITH TWO SHUTOUTS (ONLY 3 ALL OF LAST YEAR) THE TIGERS DON'T LOOK LIKE WORLD SERIES CONTENDERS. IN FACT NO TEAM HAS EVER LOST THE FIRST SEVEN AND MADE THE PLAYOFFS...
CAUSE FOR CONCERN? YES. TIME TO PANIC? NO! LOTS OF GAMES AND TIME LEFT. IT IS ONLY EARLY APRIL AND SEASONS ARE NOT DECIDED IN THE SPRING. IT IS TIME TO GET THE STARTING ROTATION ALIGNED AND START FLEXING SOME MUSCLE IN THE BATTING BOX.
A SIDE NOTE: I TRIED TO WAGER WITH MY FRIEND PETER BLANK OF THE KIPLINGER LETTER THAT THE 0-7 TIGERS WOULD FINISH WITH AN EQUAL OR BETTER RECORD THAT THE 4-4 PHILLIES... THE WILY MR. BLANK WAS TOO SMART TO TAKE THAT BET...
HERE'S HOPING FOR OUR FIRST WIN TONIGHT AGAINST THE RED SOX...
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
Tigers starting pitcher for opening day...
Snowing in Detroit today but can spring be far behind with the announcement of the Tiger starter for opening day? What are the chances that snow will be flying on opening day?
Friday, February 29, 2008
Verlander named Tigers' Opening Day starter
Tom Gage / The Detroit News
DUNEDIN, Florida -- It wasn't a major surprise. Just a major announcement.
Before Justin Verlander pitched two scoreless innings on Friday against the Toronto Blue Jays in his first start of the spring, manager Jim Leyland made it known when Verlander would make his first start of the regular season.
Opening Day.
Or, so you can mark your calendar, if you haven't already, for March 31 at Comerica Park against Kansas City.
It will be Verlander's first Opening Day assignment for the Tigers, but one that Leyland, while trying to downplay its importance, clearly feels he deserves.
"I could have picked any of our guys," Leyland said about his five starters. "I would have been happy with any of them, but I picked him. He was consistent all year last year. He's pretty good."
Indeed he is. In his first two full seasons in the majors, Verlander already has pitched a no-hitter, been an All-Star, has pitched in a World Series and was Rookie of the Year in 2006. No other pitcher has ever accomplished as much in his first two seasons.
Plus, Verlander's 35 victories are the most any pitcher has won in his first two full seasons since Dwight Gooden won 41 in 1984-85 for the Mets.
So when Leyland says that Verlander deserves to pitch the opener, there's overwhelming evidence that he does. In deference to his four other starters, though, Leyland still downplayed it.
"I guess it's an honor," he said. "But we play 161 other games. If it's a big deal to the pitcher, I don't know. I've never been a pitcher. But it's not a big deal to me."
This is one of those decisions Leyland likes to get out of the way as quickly as he can each spring to avoid repeated questions about it. Last year, he waited until March 17 to make it known that Jeremy Bonderman was his Opening Day choice.
This year he was able to do it sooner.
Even before March arrived, in fact.
"Sometimes you like to get a feel for other people before you come right out and announce it," Leyland said. "But we already have our rotation set up. Kenny Rogers is going to pitch the second game, Bonderman the third game. Four and five, we haven't decided yet."
You can reach Tom Gage at tom.gage@detnews.com.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Verlander named Tigers' Opening Day starter
Tom Gage / The Detroit News
DUNEDIN, Florida -- It wasn't a major surprise. Just a major announcement.
Before Justin Verlander pitched two scoreless innings on Friday against the Toronto Blue Jays in his first start of the spring, manager Jim Leyland made it known when Verlander would make his first start of the regular season.
Opening Day.
Or, so you can mark your calendar, if you haven't already, for March 31 at Comerica Park against Kansas City.
It will be Verlander's first Opening Day assignment for the Tigers, but one that Leyland, while trying to downplay its importance, clearly feels he deserves.
"I could have picked any of our guys," Leyland said about his five starters. "I would have been happy with any of them, but I picked him. He was consistent all year last year. He's pretty good."
Indeed he is. In his first two full seasons in the majors, Verlander already has pitched a no-hitter, been an All-Star, has pitched in a World Series and was Rookie of the Year in 2006. No other pitcher has ever accomplished as much in his first two seasons.
Plus, Verlander's 35 victories are the most any pitcher has won in his first two full seasons since Dwight Gooden won 41 in 1984-85 for the Mets.
So when Leyland says that Verlander deserves to pitch the opener, there's overwhelming evidence that he does. In deference to his four other starters, though, Leyland still downplayed it.
"I guess it's an honor," he said. "But we play 161 other games. If it's a big deal to the pitcher, I don't know. I've never been a pitcher. But it's not a big deal to me."
This is one of those decisions Leyland likes to get out of the way as quickly as he can each spring to avoid repeated questions about it. Last year, he waited until March 17 to make it known that Jeremy Bonderman was his Opening Day choice.
This year he was able to do it sooner.
Even before March arrived, in fact.
"Sometimes you like to get a feel for other people before you come right out and announce it," Leyland said. "But we already have our rotation set up. Kenny Rogers is going to pitch the second game, Bonderman the third game. Four and five, we haven't decided yet."
You can reach Tom Gage at tom.gage@detnews.com.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Key position for the Tigers:Catcher
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Tom Gage:
Inge is a Tiger, will catch
DETROIT -- If I were Dave Dombrowski, I wouldn't try too hard to trade Brandon Inge.
I'd give it some fancy lip service, as in: "Gee, we tried, the iron was hot in a couple of places, but we just couldn't find a taker."
Then I would do exactly what Dombrowski did Monday, basically telling Inge to dust off his catcher's mitt and report early to spring training the way he used to do, when it looked like being a catcher was his future.
Which it still might be.
"Being the athlete he is, I think he could play almost anywhere," said Dombrowski, who earlier spoke of Inge as an All-Star-caliber catcher. "I know he's disappointed at the current situation, but I don't think that's the overriding factor.
"To me, the overriding factor is that he likes this team and will do all he can to help it win."
This is not as much of a rock-and-a-hard-place situation as it appears, however. If Inge can bide his time, possibly on two fronts, he might still be part of the Tigers' future.
It's just he'll have to sit around more than he wants this season and learn to live with the frustration of watching others play the positions at which he used to start.
Inge emerged from his extended silence Monday. He discussed his status with Dombrowski, the Tigers president, general manager, chief executive officer and vaunted architect of whatever grand times might be ahead for the Tigers this season.
Then Inge picked up the phone, and one by one, called reporters who cover the team, in essence apologizing for keeping everyone in the dark as to how he reacted, and is still reacting, to losing his starting job at third base to Miguel Cabrera.
He'll make best of it
"I didn't ask to be put in this situation," Inge said. "I signed a four-year deal because I wanted to play third base for four years. I always want to be in Detroit. It's the Tigers who decided they want to go in this direction.
"It's frustrating, I'm not happy with it at all, but this is the hand I've been dealt and I have to make the best of it. Being a utility player for a year, then hopefully get a starting job after that (for the Tigers) would be my goal.
"I want to play, I want to contribute, I don't care what position it is. I want to play just as much as I possibly can. I don't want to just sit."
It hasn't been an easy time for him. That's understood. When teammate Vance Wilson called in December to find out if he had heard about the trade, Inge's first reaction was: Great, the guy can hit. He's a star.
Wilson then said, "But he'll be playing your position."
Gulp.
Inge hadn't figured on that. He knew, and openly admits, that he had an off-year offensively last year, but without bragging, he feels he's an excellent third baseman. He thought his defense would save him.
But it hasn't. At least not yet.
That brings us to how the Tigers must still keep an eye to 2009, without losing any of the excitement with which they're approaching this season. They're going to be good, no doubt, but good teams always plan ahead on how to remain good.
Some might call it scheduled attrition.
Case in point: Unless he sheds five years, and reverses the direction in which his production has recently been headed, Pudge Rodriguez could be entering his final year as a Tiger.
Not his final year in the majors, probably. His skills are diminishing, not vanishing. But the decision of even bringing him back for the 2008 season was, by no means, a unanimous one, making it probable that the next decision about his future also won't be easy.
Role could change
The Tigers, without Inge, would not have a catcher-in-waiting, however. Mike Rabelo has been traded. Wilson is good at what he does, but what he does has never included 500 at-bats.
And there's no one climbing fast in the minors, either.
Now that he's agreed to catch again as part of his duties, it's not in the least far-fetched to envision Inge as the Tigers' starting catcher in 2009, which would be the third year of his tolerable, four-year contract.
At some point, the Tigers will have to put the checkbook away for a winter, and the thought of dropping from Pudge's $13 million salary this year to Inge's $6.3 million next year should be of some fiscal comfort to them.
There's also this scenario. Although he's going back to catching as part of what could be a super-utility role, Inge won't ever profess to like catching better than third base.
"I'd be lying if I said I did," he said.
Now suppose the Tigers sign Cabrera to that humongous, long-term contract he'd like, with one small proviso: Be amenable to switching positions, if needed.
Carlos Guillen agreed to such a request. For the good of the team, Guillen might even be able to get Cabrera to agree.
Then the Tigers would be in a position to move Cabrera to left in 2009, if they want. After all, despite his strong arm and the good hands that Dombrowski says he has, the Tigers expect Cabrera to be an average third baseman defensively.
They are willing to accept the step down from Inge's glove, however, because of Cabrera's bat.
The point is that if Cabrera is only average and if Rodriguez doesn't return for 2009, Inge might eventually have a choice of positions. The big question is whether the Tigers' bulging payroll this season can tolerate a utilityman making more than $6 million.
Dombrowski admitted "it's not an easy situation for us. However, there's no trade imminent."
That might not sound like good news for Inge or for the Tigers. But it is.
You can reach Tom Gage at tom.gage@detnews.com.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Voice of the Tigers and Hall of Famer turns 90...
Here's to Ernie Harwell, the long-time announcer for the Detroit Tigers and Hall of Fame broadcaster. Ernie is the only announcer ever to be traded for an active player...
Friday, January 25, 2008
Tigers EXTRA: Voice of (close to) the century
Ernie Harwell turns 90
Tom Gage / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Ninety years young.
Rest assured, if Ernie Harwell felt compelled to blow out all his birthday candles today, he could -- and after that, he'd probably skip rope for 10 minutes and run up a flight of stairs 30 times.
"That's not going to happen, though. I don't think they make a big-enough cake," Harwell, the annually viable candidate for most popular person in town, said with a laugh.
He's retired now, of course. But not.
His Hall of Fame broadcasting career is over, but his era as a corporate spokesman is in full swing. Ernie's the man who informs us about Blue Cross, and about Fox Run, the 62-plus community in which he lives.
He's almost everywhere. On the radio, on television, in the newspapers. At 90, he's impressively active.
"His best years might even be ahead of him," said Gary Spicer, Harwell's longtime friend and attorney.
It's a milestone birthday, 90 -- but only because all birthdays ending in zero are. There are some we celebrate, some we choose not to notice.
There are others we simply forget. Not Harwell, though. He believes it's part of the secret of longevity to live in the present, yet he recalls the past so vividly, it's as if all his milestone birthdays were yesterday.
In that case, don't leave us here like the house by the side of the road, Ernie. Beam us with you -- back to when you were 50, back to when you were 20 -- all the way to Jan. 25, 1918, Washington, Ga., where as we peer through the window of time, the joy of a winter day for the Harwell family is the birth of a baby boy.
William Earnest.
The first 10 years
"Washington, at that time, had a cotton economy and most of the people around town were farmers," Harwell said. "My dad, though, was in the furniture business. He and his brother had a furniture store, but also a funeral home.
"In those days, the furniture store and funeral homes often combined because of the commonality of building caskets. What happened to Washington, though, is that the boll weevil came in around 1920 and wiped out all the farmers, people to whom my dad had extended credit -- and suddenly they couldn't pay.
"So his business went kerplunk.
"My dad didn't want to go bankrupt. He tried to pay off all his debts, but he didn't have a job so we moved to Atlanta, where he got a job managing a furniture store.
"I remember there was a drugstore in Washington where they'd put me up on the counter and let me imitate the baseball announcers of the day, recreating ballgames.
"I was tongue-tied at that time, though. I had a speech impediment. Words like 'sister' came out 'thith-ter,' but I was interested in baseball broadcasts even then, so they'd put me up on the counter and I'd try to imitate the announcers. It wasn't a very good imitation, but I'd try."
1928 -- Turning 10
"We're in Atlanta and my elementary school, the 10th Street School, is right around the corner from our house on Piedmont Avenue. Our family didn't have much money, but enough was scraped up to send me to a speech teacher to try to overcome my impediment.
"All the kids in Atlanta at the time were required to debate or declaim at least once a month in a contest. It would have been very embarrassing to speak the way I did, but I was able to overcome it.
"I'd gone to my first baseball game by then. My interest in baseball was very intense already. I went to a July 4 doubleheader in 1926, the Atlanta Crackers against the New Orleans Pelicans. But after that, in those days, I'd go by myself, sometimes walking 2-3 miles to the ballpark or taking the streetcar.
"I later became the bat boy for the visiting teams. But my first broadcasting experience of any kind came when I was in a puppet show in junior high at a hobby fair. The teacher asked me to do a boxing match. There I was behind a curtain with a script, and that was my first sports broadcast."
1938 -- Turning 20
"I'm at Emory University in Atlanta on my birthday, but living at home. I didn't live on campus until my final year when I was president of my fraternity.
"I was now working at the (Atlanta) Constitution as basically a copy editor and headline writer. They paid me $1 a day. I was also working for The Sporting News as their Atlanta correspondent. At the time, my career was headed for print journalism. I wanted to be a newspaper writer, but I'm a failed newspaper writer.
"When I got out of college in 1940, none of the papers in Atlanta had an opening, so I auditioned for a radio station, got lucky and won the audition, and that's how I got into radio.
I didn't know anything about radio, though, I just took a shot at it -- but the manager of the station had been in speech class with me and knew that I had a little bit of a background in sportswriting."
1948 -- Turning 30
"Out of the service and now married I'm between seasons as the announcer for the Atlanta Crackers on my birthday. But that was also the year I went to Brooklyn, the year I was traded for catcher Cliff Dapper.
"It didn't matter to me how I got there; going to the big league was the height of everyone's ambitions in our business.
"My first game was rained out. I was nervous anyway, so to wait another 24 hours was excruciating. But I worked my first game in Brooklyn on Aug. 4, and Jackie Robinson stole home in the first.
"There was an argument after the play, some of the words on the field were obscene, and went out over the broadcast. I'm thinking, 'What did I get into?' But Jackie's steal was a great example of how he played the game."
1958 -- Turning 40
Now in Baltimore for his birthday, and looking like he'd stay there, Harwell had long since gotten over a rather strange welcome to his new city.
"My first week and I'm working for National Bohemian Beer. A guy named Norman Almony was the sales manager, and he put together a party downtown with a lot of the sales reps. I went to a place called The Oasis, which was nothing but an upholstered sewer with girls dancing up to the table without anything on.
"I was trying to make a good impression because I was brand new, so I went. The emcee at the club started this big spiel about how great Ernie Harwell is, really laying it on about me. Like my dad used to say, he threw his hair in the butter.
"I was asked to stand up and got some obligatory applause, but when I sat back down, the emcee started up again about how great I was and asked me to stand a second time. When I did, the guy said 'Sit down, you little , nobody wants to see you.'
"It was a setup all the way. But by 1958 on my birthday, I'm thinking I was going to be in Baltimore the rest of my life. I loved it there."
Two years later, the Tigers made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
1968 -- Turning 50
"I'm living in Dunedin (Fla). The Tigers had been good the year before, so I thought they'd be good again in 1968, but I didn't really think pennant precisely. Most everyone around the team thought that they'd gotten very close, but that they could get closer and win it.
"I'd been in Detroit since 1960 now, liked the people, liked the ballclub so I was feeling comfortable about things."
Fans got comfortable with him as well -- including his assigning a hometown to whomever caught a foul ball -- as in, "A woman from Kalamazoo caught that ball."
1978 -- Turning 60
"I was still in Dunedin, maybe playing golf on my birthday, with some family gathering that night. At that stage of my career, though, I was just ready to keep going. I still enjoyed the games and I had a philosophy that, like golf, where you want to hit every shot the best you can, I just wanted to describe a baseball game the best I could no matter what happened on the field.
"That sort of kept you away from whether the Tigers were in last place. Plus, each game is an entity, and when you approach it that way, you can have a game (broadcasting for a bad club) as good as any game in a World Series. Those two philosophies influenced my approach to broadcasting."
1988 -- Turning 70
Now a Hall of Fame (1981) broadcaster and back in Michigan for the offseason. "I was probably out making a speech somewhere on my birthday that year," Harwell said. "We never left for Florida until the first week of February, but I was thinking even then about my job that I'd just keep working.
"I was getting little advanced in age, but I figured that I wasn't any better or worse than 10 years ago. Maybe people felt I was slipping a little bit, but I didn't think so."
Before he turned 80, however, the Tigers fired him. Harwell sat out a year (1992), but Mike Ilitch rehired him after buying the club.
1998 -- Turning 80
"I'd been fired once and brought back, so I was having a good time again. I thought people would say about me that 'he worked here a while, but that's it,' but the outpouring was amazing to me and sort of unbelievable. I didn't think there'd be much reaction, so I was baffled by it, but of course gratified.
"Probably the best thing that ever happened to me, though, was getting fired, because the public reaction really helped me. But I didn't want to just hang on, so I started thinking about retiring in 2001, the year before I did retire.
"Besides, my new ventures were becoming apparent at the time and that eased my way into retirement."
2008 -- Turning 90
"I tell people not to worry too much about the good, old days. Think about today and what's happening."
As for the candles on his cake? "Ninety would be too expensive," he said. "I'll probably have one."
Fair enough when you're 90 years old and young at the same time.
Many more, Ernie.
You can reach Tom Gage at tom.gage@detnews.com
Friday, January 25, 2008
Tigers EXTRA: Voice of (close to) the century
Ernie Harwell turns 90
Tom Gage / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Ninety years young.
Rest assured, if Ernie Harwell felt compelled to blow out all his birthday candles today, he could -- and after that, he'd probably skip rope for 10 minutes and run up a flight of stairs 30 times.
"That's not going to happen, though. I don't think they make a big-enough cake," Harwell, the annually viable candidate for most popular person in town, said with a laugh.
He's retired now, of course. But not.
His Hall of Fame broadcasting career is over, but his era as a corporate spokesman is in full swing. Ernie's the man who informs us about Blue Cross, and about Fox Run, the 62-plus community in which he lives.
He's almost everywhere. On the radio, on television, in the newspapers. At 90, he's impressively active.
"His best years might even be ahead of him," said Gary Spicer, Harwell's longtime friend and attorney.
It's a milestone birthday, 90 -- but only because all birthdays ending in zero are. There are some we celebrate, some we choose not to notice.
There are others we simply forget. Not Harwell, though. He believes it's part of the secret of longevity to live in the present, yet he recalls the past so vividly, it's as if all his milestone birthdays were yesterday.
In that case, don't leave us here like the house by the side of the road, Ernie. Beam us with you -- back to when you were 50, back to when you were 20 -- all the way to Jan. 25, 1918, Washington, Ga., where as we peer through the window of time, the joy of a winter day for the Harwell family is the birth of a baby boy.
William Earnest.
The first 10 years
"Washington, at that time, had a cotton economy and most of the people around town were farmers," Harwell said. "My dad, though, was in the furniture business. He and his brother had a furniture store, but also a funeral home.
"In those days, the furniture store and funeral homes often combined because of the commonality of building caskets. What happened to Washington, though, is that the boll weevil came in around 1920 and wiped out all the farmers, people to whom my dad had extended credit -- and suddenly they couldn't pay.
"So his business went kerplunk.
"My dad didn't want to go bankrupt. He tried to pay off all his debts, but he didn't have a job so we moved to Atlanta, where he got a job managing a furniture store.
"I remember there was a drugstore in Washington where they'd put me up on the counter and let me imitate the baseball announcers of the day, recreating ballgames.
"I was tongue-tied at that time, though. I had a speech impediment. Words like 'sister' came out 'thith-ter,' but I was interested in baseball broadcasts even then, so they'd put me up on the counter and I'd try to imitate the announcers. It wasn't a very good imitation, but I'd try."
1928 -- Turning 10
"We're in Atlanta and my elementary school, the 10th Street School, is right around the corner from our house on Piedmont Avenue. Our family didn't have much money, but enough was scraped up to send me to a speech teacher to try to overcome my impediment.
"All the kids in Atlanta at the time were required to debate or declaim at least once a month in a contest. It would have been very embarrassing to speak the way I did, but I was able to overcome it.
"I'd gone to my first baseball game by then. My interest in baseball was very intense already. I went to a July 4 doubleheader in 1926, the Atlanta Crackers against the New Orleans Pelicans. But after that, in those days, I'd go by myself, sometimes walking 2-3 miles to the ballpark or taking the streetcar.
"I later became the bat boy for the visiting teams. But my first broadcasting experience of any kind came when I was in a puppet show in junior high at a hobby fair. The teacher asked me to do a boxing match. There I was behind a curtain with a script, and that was my first sports broadcast."
1938 -- Turning 20
"I'm at Emory University in Atlanta on my birthday, but living at home. I didn't live on campus until my final year when I was president of my fraternity.
"I was now working at the (Atlanta) Constitution as basically a copy editor and headline writer. They paid me $1 a day. I was also working for The Sporting News as their Atlanta correspondent. At the time, my career was headed for print journalism. I wanted to be a newspaper writer, but I'm a failed newspaper writer.
"When I got out of college in 1940, none of the papers in Atlanta had an opening, so I auditioned for a radio station, got lucky and won the audition, and that's how I got into radio.
I didn't know anything about radio, though, I just took a shot at it -- but the manager of the station had been in speech class with me and knew that I had a little bit of a background in sportswriting."
1948 -- Turning 30
"Out of the service and now married I'm between seasons as the announcer for the Atlanta Crackers on my birthday. But that was also the year I went to Brooklyn, the year I was traded for catcher Cliff Dapper.
"It didn't matter to me how I got there; going to the big league was the height of everyone's ambitions in our business.
"My first game was rained out. I was nervous anyway, so to wait another 24 hours was excruciating. But I worked my first game in Brooklyn on Aug. 4, and Jackie Robinson stole home in the first.
"There was an argument after the play, some of the words on the field were obscene, and went out over the broadcast. I'm thinking, 'What did I get into?' But Jackie's steal was a great example of how he played the game."
1958 -- Turning 40
Now in Baltimore for his birthday, and looking like he'd stay there, Harwell had long since gotten over a rather strange welcome to his new city.
"My first week and I'm working for National Bohemian Beer. A guy named Norman Almony was the sales manager, and he put together a party downtown with a lot of the sales reps. I went to a place called The Oasis, which was nothing but an upholstered sewer with girls dancing up to the table without anything on.
"I was trying to make a good impression because I was brand new, so I went. The emcee at the club started this big spiel about how great Ernie Harwell is, really laying it on about me. Like my dad used to say, he threw his hair in the butter.
"I was asked to stand up and got some obligatory applause, but when I sat back down, the emcee started up again about how great I was and asked me to stand a second time. When I did, the guy said 'Sit down, you little , nobody wants to see you.'
"It was a setup all the way. But by 1958 on my birthday, I'm thinking I was going to be in Baltimore the rest of my life. I loved it there."
Two years later, the Tigers made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
1968 -- Turning 50
"I'm living in Dunedin (Fla). The Tigers had been good the year before, so I thought they'd be good again in 1968, but I didn't really think pennant precisely. Most everyone around the team thought that they'd gotten very close, but that they could get closer and win it.
"I'd been in Detroit since 1960 now, liked the people, liked the ballclub so I was feeling comfortable about things."
Fans got comfortable with him as well -- including his assigning a hometown to whomever caught a foul ball -- as in, "A woman from Kalamazoo caught that ball."
1978 -- Turning 60
"I was still in Dunedin, maybe playing golf on my birthday, with some family gathering that night. At that stage of my career, though, I was just ready to keep going. I still enjoyed the games and I had a philosophy that, like golf, where you want to hit every shot the best you can, I just wanted to describe a baseball game the best I could no matter what happened on the field.
"That sort of kept you away from whether the Tigers were in last place. Plus, each game is an entity, and when you approach it that way, you can have a game (broadcasting for a bad club) as good as any game in a World Series. Those two philosophies influenced my approach to broadcasting."
1988 -- Turning 70
Now a Hall of Fame (1981) broadcaster and back in Michigan for the offseason. "I was probably out making a speech somewhere on my birthday that year," Harwell said. "We never left for Florida until the first week of February, but I was thinking even then about my job that I'd just keep working.
"I was getting little advanced in age, but I figured that I wasn't any better or worse than 10 years ago. Maybe people felt I was slipping a little bit, but I didn't think so."
Before he turned 80, however, the Tigers fired him. Harwell sat out a year (1992), but Mike Ilitch rehired him after buying the club.
1998 -- Turning 80
"I'd been fired once and brought back, so I was having a good time again. I thought people would say about me that 'he worked here a while, but that's it,' but the outpouring was amazing to me and sort of unbelievable. I didn't think there'd be much reaction, so I was baffled by it, but of course gratified.
"Probably the best thing that ever happened to me, though, was getting fired, because the public reaction really helped me. But I didn't want to just hang on, so I started thinking about retiring in 2001, the year before I did retire.
"Besides, my new ventures were becoming apparent at the time and that eased my way into retirement."
2008 -- Turning 90
"I tell people not to worry too much about the good, old days. Think about today and what's happening."
As for the candles on his cake? "Ninety would be too expensive," he said. "I'll probably have one."
Fair enough when you're 90 years old and young at the same time.
Many more, Ernie.
You can reach Tom Gage at tom.gage@detnews.com
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Baseball Poem of the Week
"Bat doesn't hit ball, bat meets it." - May Swenson
Analysis of Baseball
by May Swenson ©
Published: Memoirs of May Swenson (1971)
It's about the ball,the bat,and the mitt.
Ball hits bat, or it hits mitt.Bat doesn't hit ball, bat meets it.
Ball bounces off bat, flies air, or thuds ground (dud)or it fits mitt.
Bat waits for ball to mate.Ball hates to take bat's bait.
Ball flirts, bat's late, don't keep the date.
Ball goes in(thwack) to mitt,and goes out(thwack) backto mitt.
Ball fits mitt, but not all the time.
Sometimes ball gets hit(pow) when bat meets it,and sails to a placewhere mitt
has to quit in disgrace.
That's about the bases loaded,about 40,000 fans exploded.
It's about the ball, the bat, the mitt, the bases and the fans.
It's done on a diamond,and for fun.
It's about home, and it's about run.
Analysis of Baseball
by May Swenson ©
Published: Memoirs of May Swenson (1971)
It's about the ball,the bat,and the mitt.
Ball hits bat, or it hits mitt.Bat doesn't hit ball, bat meets it.
Ball bounces off bat, flies air, or thuds ground (dud)or it fits mitt.
Bat waits for ball to mate.Ball hates to take bat's bait.
Ball flirts, bat's late, don't keep the date.
Ball goes in(thwack) to mitt,and goes out(thwack) backto mitt.
Ball fits mitt, but not all the time.
Sometimes ball gets hit(pow) when bat meets it,and sails to a placewhere mitt
has to quit in disgrace.
That's about the bases loaded,about 40,000 fans exploded.
It's about the ball, the bat, the mitt, the bases and the fans.
It's done on a diamond,and for fun.
It's about home, and it's about run.
Tigs sign Robertson
Pitching is the foundation for any run at the pennant and signing Robertson is a good sign, but...he will need to bounce back from a dismal season...
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Tigers sign Robertson to three-year deal
Tom Gage / The Detroit News
The Tigers' nucleus of players signed to multi-year contacts got larger Wednesday when starting pitcher Nate Robertson agreed to a three-year deal.
Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed. Robertson is coming off a 9-13 season in which he posted a 4.76 earned-run average.
"We are excited to sign Nate to a long-term contract and we look forward to him being part of our rotation for years to come," Tigers general manager David Dombrowski said.
The Tigers have four starting pitchers under contract through the 2010 season -- Jeremy Bonderman, Justin Verlander, Dontrelle Willis and Robertson.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Tigers sign Robertson to three-year deal
Tom Gage / The Detroit News
The Tigers' nucleus of players signed to multi-year contacts got larger Wednesday when starting pitcher Nate Robertson agreed to a three-year deal.
Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed. Robertson is coming off a 9-13 season in which he posted a 4.76 earned-run average.
"We are excited to sign Nate to a long-term contract and we look forward to him being part of our rotation for years to come," Tigers general manager David Dombrowski said.
The Tigers have four starting pitchers under contract through the 2010 season -- Jeremy Bonderman, Justin Verlander, Dontrelle Willis and Robertson.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
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