Category Archives: Former Tigers

Sean Casey inspires Terrell Owens

Sean Casey at the bat
Former Tigers first baseman Sean Casey reached an agreement with the Boston Red Sox and will be the primary back-up at first base. Curt Schilling is pretty excited about the move citing Casey’s nice guy/solid teammate reputation. But Schilling goes a step further and relates a story about Sean Casey and a Sharpie.

Each year at the All Star game the participants are given a jersey to autograph which is then auctioned off for charity. Casey somehow was down a couple jerseys and ended up having to autograph his game jersey.

He tells the story and it generates a huge laugh, and I them comment that since he autographed it, he should take a black sharpee into the field with him when he plays, and have each player that gets to first base autograph his shirt as well.

He actually TOOK the black sharpee in his pocket, onto the field with him. I am not sure who he told, but I know he told more than one player about it, and it was hilarious to watch guys at first base start cracking up as he told them the story.

So in the end he got the better of everyone because he had players autographing his jersey while they were standing on first base.

Casey only played in the 1999 and 2001 All Star games, meaning that his Sharpie-ness predated Terrell Owens’s Sharpie stunt by a full season.

Take this Hall of Fame voters

Sure, Ozzie Smith can do back-flips and Cal Ripken had some kind of streak or something, and Ryne Sandberg might have been on WGN. But have any of them ever been on Magnum PI? Yeah, I didn’t think so…

Ed Note: This isn’t turning into a YouTube blog, merely coincidence with the back-to-back days. We’ll get back to talking about baseball shortly. And yes, I know I’ve posted this video before, but that was practically before YouTube.

First base irony

At the start of the 2006 season the Tigers had a log jam at first base with Dmitri Young, Carlos Pena, and Chris Shelton set to man that position and DH. Pena was jettisoned in the spring, while Dmitri Young battled legal and substance abuse problems spending a chunk of the season on the DL in rehab. Meanwhile Chris Shelton was ripping the ball in April putting up Ruthian numbers.

Fast forward to September 2006. Dmitri Young is released during a rain delay, Chris Shelton is toiling in the minors, and the Tigers have traded for Sean Casey who isn’t hitting a lick.

Fast forward to October 2007. Chris Shelton is still in the minors as he used up his last option year. Sean Casey slugged on the wrong side of .400 when as a first baseman .400 is the wrong side of .500. And Dmitri Young and Carlos Pena win comeback player of the year awards in their respective leagues.

You can lament the Tigers moves, but they were also defensible. Young had a lot of problems last year, and they were problems he wasn’t solving in Detroit. And while I was against releasing Pena, he floundered all of last year and barely sniffed playing time with the Yankees and Red Sox and was even cut this year in Tampa. Again, I don’t think he has this type of season if he’s still with Detroit.

So instead of being frustrated, I’ll simply say congratulations to Dmitri Young for getting his life and career back on track. And congratulations to Carlos Pena for realizing his potential before it was too late.

Interview: Tigers TV color commentator Rod Allen

Rod Allen has had a very varied 30 year career in professional baseball. His current gig is as the color commentator for Tigers broadcasts on FSN alongside Mario Impemba.

The 2007 season will mark Allen’s 5th season in Detroit. While he, along with pretty much everyone associated with the Detroit Tigers, toiled in relative obscurity the first few years, his calls during the 2006 season are now part of Tiger lore. The very genuine “CRAIG DID IT AGAIN” call after Monroe’s 9th inning homer in Yankee Stadium captured the emotion and excitement that all Tiger fans were experiencing at that time.

Rod was kind enough to do an interview with me over the phone. We talk about the 2006 and 2007 Tigers, Allen’s career, and I ask him “Who’s your Tiger?”

Continue reading Interview: Tigers TV color commentator Rod Allen

Baby it’s cold outside – Tigers 2007 Spring Training round-up

Long lasting ice sculpture - Comerica Park
This is what a month old ice sculpture looks like

I was getting jealous of all the reporters and photographers down there in Lakeland taking in baseball and sun and palm trees. So I did the best I could and went to Comerica Park today to take pictures of ice sculptures…Leftover from Tigerfest…Which was a month ago. So stop complaining Wojo if it’s unseasonably cool in Lakeland. (Seriously, I took these pictures today.)

On to the link-a-thon

Carlos Guillen

An extension for Guillen is the only item remaining on the Tigers checklist. It is also a popular topic of discussion. This is a bigger topic than I’m going to tackle in a round-up post. Kurt has it covered anyways. I will say that I don’t think Guillen will sign here with the intention of playing first base. Just because he filled in there last year, doesn’t mean that is his likely destination – at least not for the next 3-4 years.

Random Stuff

Spring Training 2007 Day 1 wrap-up

PFP

The first day of spring training every year brings pitchers fielding practice. Today was no different, except for the fact that there were 50 media assembled to see if the Tigers pitchers could throw the ball to third base. Now let’s move on.


credit: Roger DeWitt

They wear many hats

That section headline reminds me of a clue that Chuck Woolery would have given on Scrabble back in the day. In this case though it refers to the new hats the Tigers are sporting. Either New Era or the Tigers have added goofy white detailing the the Tigers BP hats. Not really a big fan and I can’t imagine fans clamoring to buy them. I’ll keep an eye on Uniwatch for more information.

Three out of 10 GMs prefer Yankees

MLB.com polled the 30 general managers to get their preseason picks for World Series champs. The Yankees and Red Sox dominated getting 17 of the 30 votes, but 2 GMs picked the Tigers.

“With the pitching staff they have and adding Sheffield makes the Tigers an easy favorite for me,” one manager said.

Added another: “As long as that pitching holds up, they’re the team to beat.”

Continue reading Spring Training 2007 Day 1 wrap-up

Tigers Miscellaney

This, that, and the other…

  • The big news in baseball is the impending exclusive deal for the Extra Innings package with DirecTV. Here is a roundup of what some columnists are saying. Living in Southeast Michigan this isn’t a big deal to me. But with the Tigers surge in popularity I’m sure there are many displaced Tiger fans who will be frustrated. I’ve put up a poll related to this in the sidebar. Let me know what you think.
  • The Tigers signed Joey Eischen to a minor league deal. He’ll get an invite to the big league camp, as will catcher Dusty Ryan.
  • When I mentioned being surprised that the Tigers were positioning Eulogio de la Cruz as a starter, Matt sent info showing how much better de la Cruz performed as a starter last year. Matt also has a blog where he recently did a deep dive of the Tigers drafting of college players and their progressions through the system
  • Jason Beck has a couple of TV notes. Beck notes that the Tigers have 6 televised spring training games. Also, the Tigers have eight 3:55pm Saturday games which is the start time for Fox Saturday Baseball.
  • Cameron Maybin has a webpage. (hat tip The Surge)
  • Carlos Pena is following in the tradition of Greg Norton, Alex Sanchez, and Eric Munson. He’s signing with the Devil Rays.
  • For my feed subscribers, it seems like I just went full feed and now I’m back to partial. But it’s not my fault (entirely). I recently upgraded to the new version of WordPress (2.1) which supports full feeds differently than the old version. I’m hoping this gets corrected in the short term or that a work around is created. In any case I hope to be all the way back to full feed by the end of the weekend, even if it means uninstalling the new version.

Tuesday Linking

Short and sweet…

Midweek Linking

Quick Links

  • The New York Times takes a look at the Ilitch’s team and casino owernship.
  • My interview on the Daily Fungo Podcast is up. I listened to it, and it seems clear that I’m much more comfortable talking about the Tigers then myself. The um’s, and so’s seemed to go away as we went on.
  • Also notice that the Daily Fungo moved away from MLBlogs to http://dailyfungo.com. I guess everybody is redecorating or moving their blogs lately
  • Former Tiger Chris Brown (barely a Tiger) passed away a month after being injured in a house fire.
  • Repoz at Baseball Think Factory is tallying Hall of Fame ballots. Out of the 47 articles so far, Trammell isn’t doing well appearing on only a handful. Morris has picked up 12 votes.
  • The Feds are going to find out who tested positive for steroids in 2003. We can only hope that the Tigers magical 2003 season isn’t tainted by steroid use thus rendering their 43 wins meaningless.