Tigerblog’s trivia contest is underway. Swing by today, and each day for the next 2 weeks for your chance to win $50. Questions go up at noon.
Mention DTW and I have a chance to win $50 as well, which, if I win, I will donate to the Brian Bluhm Memorial Fund.
Tom Stanton, who is probably best known for The Final Season
In the book, Stanton chronicles one of baseball greatest and bitterest rivalries. Cobb was widely regarded as the best player of his day, at a time when small ball, bunting and stealing were part of the science of baseball. Cobb was on top of the baseball world until a young slugger who was more brawn than brains captured the Nations baseball attention.
Stanton vividly describes their on field clashes and the venom that eventually turned to a mutual respect and even friendship years after their retirement.
The book also details the Has Beens Golf Tournament that took place after both retired from the game. It was a series of 3 matches that took place in Boston, New York and Detroit that got the competitive juices flowing for both old timers.
I thoroughly recommend the book. Stanton did a wonderful job spinning details of the battles on the diamond and the links. The book also presents Cobb in a much more favorable light than you are used to reading. He clearly wasn’t a saint, but he’s not depicted as evil either and at times Stanton even paints him as a sympathetic character.
For your enjoyment, here is an excerpt: Continue reading Reviewing Ty and The Babe
Not a whole lot of news today, with the exception of Jose Mesa probably being reinstated from the DL and Aquilino Lopez heading back to Toledo. With that in mind I thought I’d post a place to go open mike.
Talk about what you want. One possible topic:
What rule change would you like major league baseball to make?
Some of you may have already heard of Protrade. John Beamer took a comprehensive look at it for the Hardball Times earlier this week. Essentially it is where fantasy sports meet a stock market. Using fictional dollars you can look for undervalued players to buy or overvalued players to short.
Just recently, Protrade started doing this for teams as well. Taking a look at the Tigers, the market rates them as the 13th best team in MLB at 103.48. So how is that value achieved?
Using the pricing widget you input the number of wins you expect for the season, as well as post season performance. It is one dollar for each win, and $10 for making the postseason, plus additional monies for how far the team goes.
Speculating that the Tigers win 90 games, and take care of business in the ALDS before going down in 5 games in the ALCS would value the team at $126. This seems to be a reasonable, (and a little hopeful) expectation. The fact that the market prices them North of $100 means that there is a reasonable expectation that the Tigers at least make the playoffs.
This certainly seems fun, and and interesting thing to watch as the season progresses and we learn more about each team. It doesn’t cost anything to play with the pricing widget, so give it a try and let me know how you’d value the team.
And if you were wondering AL Central foes the Twins and Indians rank 5th and 6th respectively.
The community at Motown Sports is collecting donations to send to the Brian Bluhm memorial fund. I’ll be making my contribution as part of that group effort. The thread can be found here.
If you’re interested in contributing as part of that group, but not interested in registering for the site, drop me a line here. We’ll work it out so that we can get your donation in with the rest of the group.
If you want to donate directly you can do it via: Brian Bluhm Virginia Tech Civil Engineering Scholarship Fund, c/o Marathon Bank, 4095 Valley Pike, Winchester VA 22601
It’s a dark day. The Detroit Tigers lost a great fan. Other Tigers fans lost a kindred spirit. A sister lost a brother and parents lost a son.
Brian Bluhm, who was a frequent commentor here at DTW as well as any place else on the internet that was talking about the Tigers, was killed in the shootings at Virginia Tech.
Brian was just finishing up his masters degree in Civil Engineering focusing on water resources. He had a 9am class on hydrology with 8 other students. Unfortunately the class was in Norris Hall.
Brian could be found here posting as Brian B, other places he was vttigers, and at the Motown Sports message boards he was known as estrepe1. Chances are that if you used the net to look for Tigers news and discussion you probably encountered Brian at some point. If you only crossed paths with him once it probably didn’t leave an impression because Brian was simply intelligent, thoughtful, considerate, and polite in all of his postings. But if you spent any amount of time with him online he became an instant favorite because he was simply intelligent, thoughtful, considerate, and polite in all his postings.
I never actually met Brian, but we exchanged ideas in various formats and communicated via email as well. When I told people at work yesterday that I had an “internet friend” who is at VT, I got a few raised eyebrows but I didn’t know how else to describe him. I did/do consider him a friend. I sent a quick email when I heard about the shootings, and the longer it went unanswered the more uneasy I became. As the grim news was pieced together last night I felt sick to my stomach when the worst fears became confirmed.
My thoughts and prayers are with Brian’s family, as well as all the families who lives have been touched by this tragic event.
Related Threads at Motown Sports
Thread at John Sickels Minor League Ball
Putting a face with the name.
MORE:
Detroit Tiger Tales
Bless You Boys
TWFE
Mack Avenue Tigers
Tigers Thoughts
Curtis Granderson makes Brian his #1 friend. Granderson also blogs about it.
The very popular Who’s Your Tiger campaign will be back for 2007. What started out as a way to introduce Detroit fans to the current roster in 2005 took on a life of its own last year.
Who’s My Tiger? Curtis Granderson.
Who’s your Tiger?
News from the road: (by the way, if you happen to make it out to a caravan stop and would like to comment on the experience, let me know)
Happy New Year to everyone. Let’s hope that in a baseball sense, 2007 is just as prosperous as 2006.
On another note, I’ve updated the Roster page (and added The Hardball Times) and the Organizational Tree. Both now reflect the current roster which should almost ensure a trade this week.
Go Blue!
Jamie Mottram, the face or voice of Sports Bloggers Live has a post detailing that the 2 year old show has come to an end, at least in its current version.
I was fortunate enough to be asked by Jamie to appear twice during this past year. Once early in the season when he was speaking with bloggers of surprise teams, and then with Larry Borowsky during the World Series. Jamie also invited me to blog the World Series for AOL Sports. All three of these opportunities brought great exposure and were a large part of the growth DTW experienced this year. Of this I’m very grateful.
Best of luck to Jamie and crew as they move on to their next endeavor(s).
Just a few site-related items as we head into the holidays.
I’m always looking for ways to improve the site. With time off from my regular job, and lower visitor numbers, and quietness that is the baseball landscape, next week is one of my best opportunities to do this.
Continue reading DTW Housekeeping
Justin Verlander handily won the American League Rookie of the Year award taking 26 of 28 first place votes. He’s the first Tiger to win the award wince Sweet Lou Whitaker in 1978.
