As American as Apple Pie and Baseball

By notapoet - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Sports & Leisure

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Baseball is a very simple game...

that has been made to seem overly complicated by baseball gurus who muck up the water with all sorts of truisms and situational stats that don't amount to a small pile of beans -- except as justification for the often exorbitantly high salaries paid to those gurus to serve as special coaches,... Sign in to see full entry.

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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

5 runs or bust...

is the story of the Detroit Tigers as the first full month of the baseball season winds down. It is not surprising that the Tigers have a perfect 7-0 record when producing seven runs or more. In a game where the average score is 5-4, seven runs is usually going to produce a win, even if the pitching... Sign in to see full entry.

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Monday, April 21, 2008

Of Tigers and Tarheels

The Detroit Tigers started the week off in grand style with a three game winning streak, then returned to disappointing form by dropping three of their next four. Though they are no longer the worst team in Major League Baseball, the hapless Washington Nationals are a game worse at 5-14 to Detroit's... Sign in to see full entry.

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Monday, April 14, 2008

Detroit Bats Come Alive!

And just in the nick of time, it seems. At first I thought I'd spoken too soon when I said the Tigers would come around. They promptly got shut out twice in a row by the White Sox and had failed to score for twenty some odd innings before staging a monster comeback tonight. For at least one game,... Sign in to see full entry.

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Saturday, April 12, 2008

Two out of three ain't bad.

I'm not bothered by the fact Detroit lost to Boston night before last. They beat the Redsox three days ago and took the measure of the White Sox last night. Like I said, two out of three ain't bad. What was hard to live with was the seven straight the Tigers lost, including six straight at home, to... Sign in to see full entry.

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Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Finally!

The Tigers, after dropping the first seven games of the 2008 season, won a game. Last night the Tigers beat Boston 7-2 at Boston. They still have the worst record in their division, the AL, and the Majors. But it was a start. Jeremy Bonderman didn't pitch all that well in picking up his first win,... Sign in to see full entry.

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Monday, April 7, 2008

Twas a disappointing weekend.

North Carolina came up a game short of the tonight’s NCAA title game and the Detroit Tigers $138 million dollar roster went a glorious 0-6 at home in the first full week of the 2008 Major League Baseball season. When those happen to be your two favorite teams in the world, saying the weekend was a... Sign in to see full entry.

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Saturday, April 5, 2008

Woe is me!

My beloved Tigers and their vaunted Motown Murderers’ Row have looked more like a team full of Mighty Caseys striking out. They were swept by Kansas City in a season-opening three game series at Comerica Park, and outscored 13-5 in the process. Detroit did pound out 11 hits for five runs at Comerica... Sign in to see full entry.

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Wednesday, April 2, 2008

When the going got tough…

one of the two big men receiving all the ballyhoo for college Player of the Year didn’t get going. It wasn’t Tyler Hansbrough. Hansbrough has been a wonder in postseason games so far. He was a lock as ACC Player of the Year, as was Michael Beasley in the Big 12. But Hansbrough added to his growing... Sign in to see full entry.

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Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Tigers Drop Opener in 11

That was the bad news. The good news is that the 5-4 loss to Kansas City was only one game out of 162. One and done is not the name of the game in Major League Baseball, other than the All Star Game and an occasional rare one game do-or-die playoff for a postseason berth. Detroit should win the... Sign in to see full entry.

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Monday, March 31, 2008

Big men lead Heels and UCLA to the Final Four

The UCLA Bruins, as I predicted, had little trouble in eliminating 12th-seeded Western Kentucky in Saturday night’s early game. The North Carolina Tarheels had a slightly tougher time putting away the third-seeded, upset-minded Louisville Cardinals 83-73. That’s putting it a little mildly. If not... Sign in to see full entry.

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Friday, March 28, 2008

I almost ran the table last night.

West Virginia didn’t pull off the upset over Xavier that I predicted. A horrendous start probably doomed the Mountaineers. They came back enough to make it back into a ballgame late in the first half and managed to take two-possession leads twice in the OT. But Xavier showed more composure than I... Sign in to see full entry.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Once upon a time they would have been exhibition games.

It’s hard for me to take the Major League Baseball season-opening series between Oakland and Boston seriously. For one thing, they are playing in Japan. For another, the rest of the Bigs won’t get started for nearly a week. When I was a youngster MLB always started around the first of April, and was... Sign in to see full entry.

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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Heels return to #1!

Now if they can just stay there through this time next month… North Carolina has the potential to be truly awesome if they can get healthy in time for The Big Dance later this month. They’ve been pretty good with two missing pieces (point guards Lawson and Frasor), and a lineup full of the walking... Sign in to see full entry.

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Saturday, March 1, 2008

Motown Murderers’ Row

Many baseball pundits are calling the projected starting lineup of the Detroit Tigers a modern murderers’ row. I have to admit that it does look pretty impressive on paper. Take a look-see for yourself: BA HR RBI SB 1. CF Curtis Granderson.302 23 74 26 2. 2B Placido Polanco.341 9 67 7 3. DH Gary... Sign in to see full entry.

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Friday, February 22, 2008

Hobbled Heels on a Roll

North Carolina started the season with a nine-man rotation that appeared to be the best in the nation on paper. The real strength of the rotation was the big man, Tyler Hansbrough, both quality and depth at the vital point guard slot, and five experienced and game-proven athletes to fill the other... Sign in to see full entry.

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Friday, February 15, 2008

Detroit Tigers pitchers and catchers reported for spring training today.

It’s about time. I was in bad need of a baseball fix. I can hardly wait till the February 20 full squad workout date for the Tigers. I want to see all of the expensive new players who are supposed to have a lock on the AL Central. Other AL teams whose pitchers and catchers were due in on the 15th... Sign in to see full entry.

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Filled in your NCAA Tournament brackets yet?

Yeah, I agree. It’s a little premature to be doing that already. Most conference races are barely half over. Less than half over if you allow for the conference tournaments that now decide most automatic tournament bids. Things can change drastically within a couple of games in a competitive... Sign in to see full entry.

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Sunday, February 10, 2008

Psycho T & Q

I told my son two things after Carolina’s double OT 103-93 win over Clemson tonight: Tyler Hansbro (39 points and 13 rebounds) put on a show that should have locked up Player of the Year honors tonight, and Please slap me if I ever badmouth Quentin Thomas again. Q is not, and never will be, the... Sign in to see full entry.

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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Duke 89, UNC 78

I’m not surprised. I’ve said, ever since backup point guard Bobby Frasor suffered a season-ending injury, that the Tarheels would be in serious trouble if anything happened to either Tyler Hansbro or Ty Lawson. I knew the Heels would probably lose when it became apparent at game time that the star... Sign in to see full entry.

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Homemade apple pie is pretty good, but this is really about sports in general and baseball in particular.

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