Month: November 2006

I think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. After my birthday, that is.

Other than a trip to Costco or the grocery store, there’s little shopping to be done and it’s an automatic four-day weekend.

What’s not to love? (Insert Lions-related punchline here.)

We Tigers fans have much — much! — to be thankful for this year: the fast start, a short-lived-but-still-astounding double-digit division lead, All-Stars up the wazoo, lots of walk-off homers, and an indescribable post-season run, pennant and World Series appearance.

Yep. Lots to be thankful for. I’m also thankful for loyal readers of the Daily Fungo and listeners to The DFP. You’ve been a huge part of this conversation all year.

I’m thankful, too, for all the great Tigers blogs that are out there. The passion about the Tigers brings out some great writing, ranting and raving. It also helps this blogger realize that no, it’s not crazy to fire off a late-night post about first-pitch swinging or leaving too many men on base.

Yep. Lots to be thankful for.

I hope your Thanksgiving was a happy and relaxing one. Enjoy your long weekend!

It should come as no surprise that today the Tigers’ Justin Verlander was named the American League Rookie of the Year.

Too bad our last memory of Verlander in his rookie year will be that ill-advised, ill-placed throw to the left-field line in Game 5 of the World Series.

Still, this guy is the goods and probably hasn’t seen the last of postseason awards in his career.

Technorati Tags: Detroit Tigers, Justin Verlander

The Tigers offseason improvement program began in earnest today. They acquired Gary Sheffield from the Yankees for Humberto Sanchez and minor-league pitchers Kevin Whelan and Anthony Claggett. (Hat tip to Josh Wallen.)

Now, where do they plan on playing him? Left field? Third? Let’s hope it’s not first base.

This is a huge first step. What’s next?

Last night the local baseball team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, introduced new colors, new uniforms and, soon, a reinvigorated revenue stream.

Yippee.

The team jettisoned — thank God — the purple and went with more desert-like colors. I like them and feel the update was overdue…which is strange for a team that’s only nine years old.

Since the the mid 1990s, when the new-stadium rage began, new team unis have been occurring across the majors every year.

Thankfully, though, not in the case of the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers’ home uniforms are, in this fan’s opinion, the best in baseball, period. The roadies are nothing special but those home whites put other teams’ unis to shame.

It’s funny, though, isn’t it? The Tigers home uniforms may have changed once in the early 1900s but never since. The D’backs? Twice in nine years. Go figure.

Technorati Tags: Detroit Tigers

Just saw on MLB.com that Kirk Gibson will likely join Bob Melvin‘s staff as bench coach for the Diamondbacks.

That would certainly be a good move for the morose franchise. The team took on Melvin’s sleepy demeanor and plays with little-to-no fire (Eric Byrnes not included) game in and game out.

Gibby would light a fire, I’d presume, under this team and would be the logical choice to replace Melvin, methinks, should the 2007 season go south for Arizona.

And as for the bench coach role, when did this become de rigeur? Remember when Billy Consolo was on Sparky‘s staff for years in the ’80s and we all wondered what the hell he did all day?

He didn’t coach a base, a bullpen, pitchers or hitters. Chances are, he was the prototype for today’s bench coach.

Gibby in the desert. Nice.

The MLB award season has begun and today Gold Glove winners were announced. Among them were the Tigers’ Kenny Rogers and Pudge Rodriguez.

Nice.

Watch for Manager of the Year and Rookie of the Year in the next week or so.

Technorati Tags: Detroit Tigers, Kenny Rogers, Pudge Rodriquez

It’s been almost a week since my last post and I’m just now emerging from my post-World Series malaise. How is it possible that the Tigers were in the World Series but a week ago and now it seems like they haven’t played in weeks?

Probably because they lost.

Good news, though, this week (today in fact) that Tigers President, CEO and GM Dave Dombrowski has signed an extension through the 2011 season. This is huge. I’ve always been a big fan of Dombrowski (partially because of his roots at Western Michigan) but because the guy always has a plan and has won everywhere. How can you argue.

With this move, and the extensions of key front-office honchos John Westhoff, David Chadd, Al Avila, Scott Reid, means the Tigers will have the continuity they’ve lacked since the Jim Campbell/Bill Lajoie (another WMU alum) days.

Huge.

Technorati Tags: Dave Dombrowski, Detroit Tigers