The Thursday Fungo

On this Date in 2000

Sparky Anderson and Detroit Stars slugger Norman (Turkey) Stearnes were elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee.

Random Game: April 6, 1992

Blue Jays 4 – Tigers 2

Jack Morris starting an Opening Day at Tiger Stadium for the visiting team was certainly different.  As usual, he went the distance, giving up ninth-inning homers to Cecil Fielder and Rob Deer.

W: Jack MorrisL: Bill Gullickson | Boxscore

  • Monday, April 6, 1992
  • Attendance: 51,068
  • Venue: Tiger Stadium
  • Game Duration: 2:46
  • Recap

    • Dave Winfield had three hits for the Jays.
    • Travis Fryman had a pair of hits.
    • Speaking of Rob Deer, this was the quintessential Deer performance: 1 for 4, three strikeouts to go with the homer.
    • Recently acquired Les Lancaster made his Tigers debut with a scoreless ninth.

    Birthdays

    He hasn’t made the Tigers yet, but Bligh Madris has a Leap Day® birthday.

    Today’s Grid

    ⚾️ Immaculate Grid 333 6/9 — Rarity: 427

    Abysmal. But! A nice Hail Mary in the bottom right corner.

    See you tomorrow.

The Top 10 Tigers Stories of 2008: #9 – Edgar Renteria Can’t Play

Number 9Sure, it hurt when the Tigers sent Jair Jurrjens and Gorkys Hernandez to the Braves for Edgar Renteria. There was some — i.e., a tad — concern about Jurrjens’ durability and, well, to get a player of Renteria’s caliber at such a vital position you have to part with some value.

We know how that worked out.

In 2007, Edgar Renteria hit .332 with 12 homers and a .390 on-base percentage. The most glaring part of the Failed Renteria Experiment was his .977 fielding percentage; but that tells only half the story. His fielding percentage was virtually .000 on balls he should’ve had. He and Miguel Cabrera and then Carlos Guillen helped give the Tigers one of the most ineffective left-sides of the infield in the majors.

If not for a strong second-half of the year, Renteria would’ve finished nearly 80 points below his ’07 average. (He batted .254 before the All Star Game, .296 after.)

Now he’s the Giants problem — maybe for two years. For Tigers fans, it only felt like two years that Renteria played in Detroit.

Discuss.