Author: Mike McClary

Wow. In a World Series that has plenty of storylines, who expected we’d have to deal with this ridiculous non-story?

I was listening to Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio this morning and he was taking calls about Kenny Rogers and the Òwas-it-pine-tar-or-wasn’t-it?Ó debate.

All I can say is: people, get a life.

The first guy I heard was saying that Rogers was cheating because, well, I’m a pine-tar expert and that stuff makes the ball all crazy-like.

Another guy Ñ a Tigers fan Ñ said he can see a parallel between Rogers and Barry Bonds. Get this: his ÒlogicÓ was that like Bonds, Rogers is getting better with age which can only mean…Rogers is on the clear and the cream.

ÒHow did he go from a number-three starter to an All-Star three years in a row? Could he be on steroids?Ó I kid you not. That’s what he said. Forget the pine tar lunacy, he’s kicking it up a notch and going to the juice. Again: people…

I don’t know about you, but if I took the steroids that the caller thinks Rogers may be on, I’d ask for my money back.

The final guy I heard was a former minor leaguer. He said that in cold-weather cities pitchers use pine tar and other stuff all the time to help with grip the ball. The caller, who played ball in Minnesota and knows about the conditions there in the spring, said that hitters knew about the sticky stuff and didn’t care.

Why? Because it doesn’t effect the pitch.

Hitters, the caller posits, care more about balls that might be scuffed, sliced or have Gaylord Perry-approved substances applied to them.

Frankly, I’m sorry that I spent this much time on the topic.

To sum it up in the words of Seinfeld: ÒPeople…they’re the worst.Ó

Technorati Tags: Detroit Tigers, Kenny Rogers, World Series

We had a small but fun chat session last night during game one. We’ll be online tonight during game two.

Join us!

I will be online during Game 1 and would love to chat with you using a cool service called Gabbly.

Click here to relaunch The Daily Fungo with the Gabbly chat window enabled.

I’m aboard a very turbulent flight this morning. Ninety percent of it coming from the unsettled air above the Midwest, the other 10 from the guy in front of me who seems determined to jam his seat back into my MacBook’s screen.

It’s 7:45 a.m. Phoenix time as I write this and I’ve already been up six and a half hours.

And on to the Rod Allen thing. He’s somewhere on this flight heading back to his Phoenix-area home. Poor Rod didn’t get his boarding pass soon enough and found himself in the B group. In other words, he ain’t nowhere near my row five. Maybe I’ll chat him up at baggage claim and see if I can’t get him to come on the podcast. Well, maybe not.

I really don’t care who the Tigers face in the World Series. Do you? Purists like my dad want to see the Cardinals because of the teams’ shared World Series heritage. I guess that’s okay and I wouldn’t complain. I prefer the Mets just for something new. What I don’t like about the Cardinals/Tigers series is the inevitable Jim Leyland and Tony LaRussa LoveFest that we’ll be forced to read and hear about for a week and a half.

Do you remember in 1987 the media were salivating at the prospect of a Tigers/Giants World Series for no other reason than to have Sparky Anderson and Roger Craig spinning webs o’ baseball stories and malaprops? I want to see the Mets only because it’s something different. Or, as Steve said yesterday, it’s the matchup we’ve wanted to see all summer.

If you haven’t read Doug Hill‘s comment to the previous post I’ll bring it up here. Doug’s comment (actually it’s from his Dad) is who will throw out the first pitch in game one of the World Series? They’ve reached back into the 1968 roster for other home games ceremonials, will they, Jerry Hill asks, look to an 1984 Tiger?

Josh Wallen thinks it could be Ernie Harwell. Or, he writes, why not go out from the baseball world and hand the ball to Steve Yzerman? Now that would be cool. Here are my top three choices:

1. Gibby
2. Jack Morris
3. Mark Fidrych

Yes, we could ask Tram to do it and I wouldn’t complain. Methinks that would be a tad awkward.

Here are my bottom three:

1. Stan Papi
2. Chris Brown
3. Mark Thurmond

Who would be your choice?

Any chance that we can get Tim McCarver fired before Saturday night?

Finally, I can’t imagine the deadline pressure that newspapers face when a big event like Saturday night’s clinch occurs and they have to scramble to put together a morning edition. Still, you would think that someone at The Macomb Daily would have caught the error in the front page caption which identified Pudge as ÒAurelio ‘Pudge’ RodriguezÓ. Chances are that caption writer is a over 40 years old….or an intern.

Put it this way: sometimes those low, low Southwest fares fall under the category of "you get what you pay for." I started my day in Phoenix, stopped in Oklahoma city, then St. Louis (when it was the third inning), and finally landing in Detroit inthe bottom of the eighth. I had hope to see the last inning of the game in the concourse but, wouldn’t you know it, our early arrival meant an aircraft was sitting at our gate.

Sigh.

So, I "watched" the ninth on my Treo as we waited for the gate to free up. I still haven’t seen highlights of the ninth but take it from me, watching Todd Jones close out a game on the cellphone is not a bad option.

Now I’m settled in at the homestead in the Shores and ready for a night of sleep before heading down to the yard for a possible clincher.

I don’t know about you, but it’s still astounding to me that the Tigers are one win away from the World Series. One win.

Tomorrow should be incredible. I can’t wait to get down there early and take it all in.

I’ll see if I can post to the blog from my phone during the game. That is if my fingers aren’t frozen.

First, let me thank Doug Hill for his yeoman-like care and feeding of the Daily Fungo beast on Wednesday. I didn’t want to leave a gaping void of commentary of Game 2 and knew that Doug would provide provocative insights and musings.

Now, about my trip to Oakland. My brother-in-law Andy and his friend Bob picked me up at the Oakland airport around 2 p.m. and we stopped at a greasy spoon for a sandwich. Next it was off to the Fairfield Inn (a.k.a. StubHub HQ) to pick up our tickets. We saw two Tigers fans crossing the main street (Hegenberger) both wearing an official Pudge jersey.

When we got to the hotel it was a madhouse. Mad, I tell you. And, to make things all the more delicious, it was predominately Tigers fans. I met a guy who lived in St. Clair Shores for a while as a kid before moving to Huntington Woods. He now lives in the Bay Area.

Most of the people standing in line were talking about the Cory Lidle story or saying nothing and watching it on the lobby TV. Very sad.

Tickets in hand, we drove the short distance to Anti-Virus Coliseum. When we pulled into the lot Andy asked one of the attendants if we would be able to exit the lot after the game through the entrance we just used. He said, ÒHmm, I don’t know, man. You should ask the guy at the entrance.Ó As if we were going to turn around and drive against traffic to ask the Òguy at the entrance.Ó

I can’t imagine a parking lot attendant gets a lot of questions in a typical shift but I’d think ones about the literal ins-and-outs of the lot would be question number one on the FAQ.

So we parked the car near another clearly marked exit and hoofed it to the ballpark. (Right next to it is the arena in which Latrell Sprewell choked P.J. Carlesimo.)

When we entered the park we were handed one of the white towels you likely saw being wave on TV. Media storage maker SanDisk was the sponsor, if that means anything to you.

Of course, I had to go into the A’s souvenir shop and resist the urge to buy something. There was a very cool ALCS tee with both team logos on it and I thought about plunking down the $28 for it. Then I realized it would be much better from both karma and lugability perspectives to buy it Ñ and the $10 game program ÑÊat Comerica Park on Saturday.

Watching batting practice was a blast. I took a collection of perhaps the most blurry digital photos in the history of JPEGs and will post them here. It was fun watching Gene Lamont toss BP and to watch Craig Monroe swing at every pitch then too. No wonder he’s such a free swinger.

I lingered around the A’s dugout for a few seconds and took two fuzzy shots of Joe Morgan then realized all the action was rightfully taking place by the Tigers dugout. We walked over to it and loitered for about 30 minutes. During that time I saw:

• A veritable who’s-who of Detroit media including Vartan Kupelian and Bob Wojnowski of the News, Jim Price and Dan Dickerson of WXYT, Don Shane of Channel 7 (I shouted out to him and he pointed at me and gave me a thumbs up. If I was quicker on the draw I would’ve asked him about Frank Turner.)
• Willie Horton talk to just about anyone who walked by.
• Jeremy Bonderman talking to a former high school team mate
• Pedro Gomez of ESPN run back and forth between the press box and the team dugouts
• Dave Dombrowski wearing a sport coat that could very easily be worn by ushers at Kansas City Royals games. It was that blue.
• Neifi Perez lay down in a John Deere cart behind the batting cage. No doubt resting for his 0-for-4 night to come.
• Chris Myers of Fox Sports interview someone in the Tigers dugout
• Kenny Rogers throw in the bullpen

After that we headed up to our seats in section 229. Talk about a circus.

More in Part 2.

It turns out, our host with the most, handed the keys to the family sedan a little early, so I’ll offer this trial balloon.

Did Thom Brenneman really call this, "a matchup of two of the best lefties in the American League?" I love Nate Robertson’s grit, guile, determination and all, but has he really been elevated to best lefty in the AL?

Pudge goes opposite field yard to start the 4th. Very nice!

Doug