Red Card-ed

Well, the Tigers were "sent off", if you will, losing game 5 to St. Louis, 4-2, to become the runners up. And I can't say that we didn't deserve it, as we didn't hit all series, and if you can't hit, you don't deserve to win. But this team is only going to get better in the next couple of years. The young players now understand what they need to do to win. As much as I wanted them to win, I think that getting this far was just as valuable. Now comes the always turbulent off-season, and hopefully it will be productive for the Tigers, without being too disruptive (and although I like Mark Teixiera, I do NOT want to trade Jeremy Bonderman to get him, which is what some rumors have us doing).

Remember: 2006 was a celebration for the Tigers, from start to finish.

Michigan remains unbeaten in football, defeating northwestern, 17-3. Not an eye-popping score by any means, but the defense still looked liked the best in all land. Just a walk-through for the Ohio St. game Nov. 17.

The Red Wings are back on the + side of .500 with a 4-3 win over the Dallas Stars. We still didn't do very good on the power play (1-4) or the penalty kill (Dallas was 3-4), but the 'W' is the only thing that counts. Tonight, the Wings are playing the St. Louis Blues, and hopefully the Wings can extract a little revenge for the Tigers tonight. Currently, they are up 2-0 in the first inning (recap when game is over).

And finally, Arsenal were fit to be tied, drawing with Everton 1-1 at Ashburton Grove. Robin vanPersie's 71st minute strike made sure the home side got at least a point, having to cancel out an 11th minute goal from Tim Cahill.

Lions can't lose this week, and that's always a bonus.

slipping away

Well, the Tigers are certainly in a big hole, being down 3 games to 1, with game 5 tonight. Jeff Weaver, who got the loss for the Cards in game 2, goes against Justin Verlander, who got the loss for the Tigers in Game 1. As for last nights game, we gave up 3 unearned runs, and lost by 1 run. The unearned runs were scored by Granderson slipping in Center field, followed by a throwing error by Rodney, which scored a run, and set up a second run. The final run came due to a runner advancing to 2nd on a passed ball, and a hit that was off the webbing of OF Craig Monroe's glove scored the guy from second. Oh, well, good luck to the Tigs tonight.

Carp-et bombed

Well, the Tigers got hammered on Tuesday night, losing to the Cardinals 5-0. Chris Carpenter, the Cards' starting pitcher, threw a gem of a game, giving up 3 hits in the victory. The Tigers did not do horribly, but they gave up 2 on a throwing error by P Joel Zumaya, and another one on a wild pitch by Zach Miner. But, if you can't string hits together, it's hard to win ball games. Last night's game was rained out, so the Tigers will try tonight (weather permitting) and see if they can even this thing up, and guarentee a return trip to Detroit. If they lose tonight, it's going to be very difficult to come back to win the series, so hopefully, we can get the bats going.

The Red Wings came from behind to win last night, 2-1 against the Sharks. And they also scored a powerplay goal *GASP*. D Mathieu Schneider got the powerplay goal, and C Robert Lang scored the game-winner with 9 minutes to go. The Wings are now 4-4-1 in the season, which isn't very good, but there's a lot of hockey left to be played, and hopefully, they can turn this around.

And finally, Arsenal, or rather their 'B' team, beat West Bromwich-Albion on Tuesday night, 2-0, in the Carling cup, and moved to the next round of the competition. Jeremie Aliadiere scored both goals (one from the penalty spot), and saw the Gunners go through with relative ease. They will meet Everton on Saturday (and coincidentally enough, will also face the Toffees in the next round of the Carling Cup) before welcoming CSKA Moskva to Ashburton Grove on Wednesday.

Go Get 'Em, Tigers!!

Hand of Go...umm...Mud

The Tigers took care of business on Sunday night, beating the Cardinals 3-1 to even the World Series at 1 game apiece. It wasn't, however, without some controversy, as the Fox television cameras spotted a "dark spot" on the palm of Kenny Rogers' pitching hand, and from that point on (early in the first inning), the speculations ran wild. Rogers ended up washing the 'mystery spot' off of his hand (he claims it was dirt, most people think it was pine tar (which would be illegal); I currently am sporting my Navy and white sunglasses, so I have no idea :-) ) after the first inning, when it was brought to his attention, but the media has harped on this issue for the last day and a half, and it's really quite annoying. Fact is, he threw 7 innings of shutout ball AFTER the hand was washed, so obviously it wasn't making that big of a difference on his pitches, and he now has a streak of 24 consecutive innings in the post-season without allowing a run, 3 innings shy of the 27 that Christy Mathewson threw for the New York Giants in 1905. Anyway, series resumes tonight, Chris Carpenter pitching for the Red Birds against Nate Robertson, and we'll just have to see what kind of 'dirt' gets dug up.

U-M football team took care business on Saturday, beating Iowa 20-3, remaining perfect, and moving up to 2nd in the BCS standings, and in most major polls (except the coaches poll). Mike Hart made the difference, once again running for over 100 yards and scoring 2 touchdowns, while the Michigan defense was solid again, allowing 41 yards rushing all day. The road is relatively clear for Michigan to take an undefeted record with them down to Columbus to face a possibly undefeted Ohio State team, but we have Northwestern, Ball State, and Indiana to play still, and must not look ahead to that large Nov 17 game...but it may be a clash for the ages.

The Lions..........same results, different days it seems like, as they took another loss, 31-24 to the New York Jets. It's not that they're getting blown out of any of these games (except for the Chicago game), but they just cannot make that crucial stop when they need it, or get the crucial first down, and just snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. This week, the Lions have a bye, and they may be able to beat that bye team, but who knows.

And finally Arsenal took care of business this weekend, beating Reading 4-0 on the strength of a Thierry Henry brace (meaning=2 goals), and additional goals by Alieksandr Hleb (who played one hell of a game, and is looking better and better this season, much much better than last season) and Robin van Persie. And they probably could've scored more goals, but they kinda shut it down in the 2nd half, happy with their victory. Their passing was excellent, and this is probably the best Arsenal match I have witnessed in the 4+ years I have been following them (goals here, here, here and here - commentary in french - best I could do).

Quick preview, game 1 recap

Well, for my World Series preview, I was going to state that the Tigers should win this series in either 4 or 5 games, because I felt that they had much better starting pitching, much better relievers, and aside from Albert Pujols, a better lineup than the Cardinals...

Then game 1 happened...

The Tigers took a 1-0 first inning lead, but after that inning, Cardinals rookie pitcher Anthony Reyes retired the next 16 batters that he faced. And unfortunately for the Tigers, Justin Verlander couldn't follow suit. Cardinals 3B Scott Rolen tied the game with a homerun to left center field in the 2nd inning, and in the 3rd, Albert Pujols added to the pain with a 2-run shot, making the Cardinal lead 4-1 at the time, en route to a 7-2 butt kicking of the Tigers. It was just ugly from start to finish, as the Tigers had 5 errors, including 3 in the Cardinals 3-run 6th inning that really put the game away. We get to try again tonight, as cult-playoff hero Kenny Rogers will take his turn, and the Cards turn to RHP and ex-Tiger Jeff Weaver. Here's hoping for a split.

The Red Wings still cannot buy any luck, nor a power play goal, as they fell again to the Oilers last night 3-1. Pavel Datsyuk scored for the 1st time in 5 games, but the Wings were 0-fer again on the power play, and couldn't overcome the 2 late Oiler goals. I don't know if Shanahan took the power play to New York with him when he left, but I hope we can find it in a box or something, because at this point we need all the help scoring goals that we can get. Well, till tomorrow, where I'll have a game 2 recap, a Lions recap (sorry), and an Arsenal recap.

You know what they say about bad weekdays...

...they usually follow good weekends.

The Red Wings still cannot figure out how to score goals on the power play. However, they do continue to find ways to win the odd game here or there. Monday was such an occasion, as they downed the LA Kings 3-1 with the help of 2 Robert Lang goals. But Wednesday, they were back to struggling, falling to Anaheim 4-1. Tomas Kopecky broke the goalless drought for the Wings, scoring his first career NHL goal. But the Wings are now 3-35 on the power outage, umm, I mean power play, and if they are going to make the playoffs, that has to change. Detroit is usually one of the league's best with the man-advantage, not in the basement.

Arsenal took their first defeat in the Champions' League on Tuesday, falling to CSKA Moskva 1-0 in the Russian capital. The home side took the lead on a superb Daniel Carvalho free kick, and almost doubled their lead minutes later, only to have a Wagner Love strike disallowed for offsides. The Gunners had their own bit of misfortune, however, and were unlucky not to have drawn level in the 85th minute, however, as a Thierry Henry goal was disallowed for 'handball', when, the ball in actuality bounced off of his stomach. Still, 6 points after 3 games is good enough for second in the group, 1 point behind the Russians, and the tie in 2 weeks time which see CSKA visit Ashburton Grove will tell me if were good enough to win the group, or if we will have a tense final 2 matches of group play.

That's all for now, World Series Preview tomorrow.

The Best Weekend ever!!!!

Well, it all starts with the Tigers... Last night, they came from 3 down to defeat the Oakland Athletics, 6-3, to complete the 4 game sweep of the A's and move onto the WORLD SERIES. World Series. World Series. Sorry, I have to keep repeating myself to make sure it sinks in, which it hasn't yet, but it will. World Series. Sorry. Anyway, the hero of the game was Magglio Ordonez, doing what your cleanup hitter is paid to do. In the bottom of the 6th inning, he tied the game at 3-3 with a missle down the left field line into the front row of seats. But that was just the warm up, as in the bottom of the ninth, 2 on, 2 out, he hit a titanic blast to lef that still has not landed yet (not the best video, but relieve the moment here). Which set off a huge celebration in Detroit. But, the next party, if it occurs, might be slightly bigger. Placido Polanco, who has done nothing but get clutch-hit after clutch-hit so far this post-season, was awarded the ALCS most valuable player award. He hit 9-17, and was a general threat everytime he came to the plate. Next up, the winner of the St. Louis Cardinals-New York Mets series, which the Cards lead currently, 2 games to 1. Game 1 of the World Series will be Saturday, in Detroit, and I think it may just sink in by then.

The University of Michigan continued their unbeaten run on Saturday, taking care of Penn State 17-10. It was a defensive struggle for most of the evening, but Michigan capitalized when they could, and continued to flex their defensive dominance against the Nittany Lions. With Florida's loss this weekend, Michigan moved up to #2 in the AP poll, and #3 in both the coaches poll and the BCS poll, released for the first time this season.

The Lions finally got on the right track today, defeating the Buffalo Bills 20-17. Roy Williams had a great day, catching 10 balls for 167 yards, and a touchdown, and the defense did just enough to prevent Buffalo from winning. The Lions try to start a winning streak next week against the New York Jets, and move away from the top 10 lotto picks (= good season).

Arsenal continued their winning ways, defeating premiership newcomers Watford, 3-0 at Ashburton Grove (Arsenal's stadium). Watford contributed to their own demise, scoring an own goal early in the first half. Thierry Henry and Emmanual Adebayor contributed with goals of their own, and Arsenal cruised to their 6th consecutive victory in all competitions, and moved up to 5th in the premiership standings(own goal here, Henry's here, and Adebayor's here).

Here's to more weekends like this one!!!

YYYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quick recap from the last two games...

Game 2 was the 'Alexis Gomez' show, as the seldom-used outfielder had his way with Oakland pitching, going 2-4 with a home run and 4 RBI as the Tigers defeated the A's, 8-5. Gomez, who only had 1 home run and 6 RBI in THE ENTIRE REGULAR SEASON, almost matched those totals in one game (although, to be fair, he did spend at least 1/2 of his time in Triple A Toledo). However, this game wasn't exactly for the feint of heart, as Todd Jones loaded the bases with 2 outs, and Frank Thomas, Oakland's most meanicing hitter was at the plate. But, it was all for naught, as Thomas popped up to center field to end the game. Justin Verlander pitched an ok game, not excellent, but good enough, and Detroit's relievers (Wilfredo Ledezma, Jason Grilli, Fernando Rodney, and Jones (until the last out)) did a wonderful job of shutting down the A's.

In game 3, the wonderful pitching of Kenny Rogers was the story. Rogers went 7 1\3 innings, and surrendered 0 runs AGAIN, and the Tigers again beat the Athletics 3-0. Craig Monroe had a homerun, and scored twice, and the Tigers did just enough against A's starter Rich Harden to get the victory. Game 4 is tomorrow at 4:30pm, and we'll see how that story will unfold.

In other news... The Wings have started off the season 2-1, as they took a 3-1 loss opening night to the Vancouver Canucks. Newly acquired G Roberto Luongo helped the Canucks fend off Detroit in the opening game, and left the Wings wondering what happened to their power play, and the wonders continued in the next game. Although Detroit beat Pittsburgh, 2-0, the power play was still non-existant, with the wings going 0-11 in those two games. But a solid performance in net by Dominick Hasek made sure that the two even-strength goals were enough. However, the power play finally paid off in the third game, a 9-2 crushing of the Phoenix Coyotes. The power play unit was 2-4, and D Matthieu Schnieder had a hat-trick and an assist to lead the way for the Wings. Currently, they are beating the Buffalo Sabers 2-1, at the end of one (complete update later).

*UPDATE: The Wings just lost, 3-2. It started well, anyway... PS - The power play was 0-fer again. I guess it's back to the ole' drawing board...

The poor Lions...cannot win a game to save their lives, and they keep getting hit with injuries to boot. Week 4 saw them go down in flames to the St. Louis Rams, 41-34, and last week saw another heartbreaking loss to the Minnesota Vikings, 26-17, after having a 17-3 lead after 3 quarters. To make matters worse, the Lions have lost All-Pro G Damien Woody for the season with a left leg injury, and a shoddy Lions offensive line has just gotten worse.

Arsenal, however, just keep continuing to win, registering a 2-1 over Charlton Athletic at The Valley (Charlton's stadium). Robin van Persie scored twice, including the wonder-strike of the season(view goal here), with a volley from the edge of the 18-yard box, to give Arsenal the lead for good. This week pits Arsenal against Watford at home, and away to CSKA Moskova in the Champions League, and they will have to do this without the services of 3 first-teamers, as they have come down with injuries after this past week of International games. Julio Baptista, Emmanual Eboue, and Freddie Ljungberg will all miss at least the next two games due to injuries sustained in the last week, and will test this Arsenal squad to see if they can get the necessary results (read: wins) without them.

Sorry for the long update, haven't kept up very well, will try to do better in the future...

Baked Zito, anybody?

Well, in case you haven't heard (and my last post did not tip you off of the result), the Tigers defeated the Yankees in game 4 of the ALDS, 8-3, and moved to the American League Championship Series (ALCS) against the Oakland Atheletics.

Game one was tonight, and once again, the story was the Tiger's pitching. It wasn't out-and-out shut 'em down pitching, like Kenny Rogers and Jeremy Bonderman put together the last two outings, but Nate Robertson did just enough to keep himself out of trouble, and get the victory, as the Tigers beat the A's 5-1. Oakland was 0-11 with runners in scoring postion, and they pushed a run across via a groundout to short, and Detroit's offense jumped on Oakland starting pitcher Barry Zito early, amassing all 5 runs in the 3 2/3 innings that Zito was around for. The star of the show was Brandon Inge, who was 3-for-3 with 2 runs, 2 RBI, and a walk. Plus, his trademark excellent defense. Game 2 is tomorrow night, and hopefully we can keep the motown show going...

BELIEVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow.....wow wow wow wow wow

Well, it is fair to say that the Tigers have found their pitchers again. Detroit just beat the Yankees 6-0, on the strength of 7.2 innings of GREAT pitching by Kenny Rogers. The 'chicken man' was dealing some heat tonight, tossing 8 strikeouts, and reaching 91 on the radar gun (which is a lot to ask of the 41 year old). Detroit now has a 2-1 series lead on the Yanks, with tomorrow afternoon's game looming large, and the importance will not be lost on either team. I believe the best shot Detroit has to make it to the next round is to win tomorrow. If they have to go back to the Bronx for game 5, all bets are off. Nonetheless, this will be an exciting 48 hours. The hero of the game was obviously Rogers, who scattered 5 hits across his 7 innings. However, this game marked the return of the Ivan Rodriguez offense that had been missing for the first couple games, and the 5-6-7 combo of Guillen-Rodriguez-Casey combined to go 6-for-ll, with 4 runs, 3 RBI, and a walk. Wow...wowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowow. I'm still pumped.

*we're all behind our baseball team....go get 'em, Tigers....*

Wating in the Wings

Well, for the first time in a loooooooooooong time, the Red Wings will take to the ice without No. 19 steering the ship. The retirement of Steve Yzerman, though not a surprise, is the start to a different kind of Wings team. Following him out the door is Brendan Shanahan, though not to the front office (where 'The Captain' currently is), but to the bright lights of Broadway, as he will be suiting up for the NY Rangers this year. So it is up to Nik Lidstrom to lead the way, with some help from the 'kids', Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. There could be worse situations. I think overall the Wings will be in a good situation for years to come, but for this season, there is two words that will make or break the Wings' season:

Dominick. Hasek.

The 90-year old goaltender (ok, he's not that old) is back for another stint in Detroit, and how he goes is how the Wings will go. If he has a good, injury free year, the Wings will be ok, and will finish in the top 2 of the Central. If he's hurt a lot, or is not effective, it will be a long hockey year.

I think the Wings will finish with about 45 wins, and get into the playoffs, but I don't think they will make it past the 2nd round. Although Hasek is very capable of stealing a game come playoff time (unlike Legacy, whom I did like, but I don't think we could keep him as our starter), he cannot steal 16, and I don't think we have the firepower to hoist the cup this year. But Kenny Holland (Wings GM) is very capable of pulling the perverbial 'rabbit' out of his hat (much like DD (Tigers GM)), so all this could change in an instant.

They're Grrrrrreat!!

Well, the Tigers bounced back in a big way this afternoon, beating the Yankees 4-3, and sending the series back to Detroit knotted up at 1 game apiece. The Tigers had taken an early lead, with Craig Monroe doubling, and coming home on a Marcus Thames single. The Yankees, as they always seem to do, responded with a 3-run homerun by Johnny Damon. But those pesky Tigers would not go away, and after a Curtis Granderson sacrifice fly, and a Carlos Guillen home run, the game was tied 3-3. Then, in the top of the 7th, Thames led off with a single, moved over to 2nd on a passed ball, was bunted to 3rd by Brandon Inge, and sent home with a Granderson triple, which proved to be the winning run. Jamie Walker, Joel Zumaya, and Todd Jones combined for 3 2/3 innings of 1-hit baseball, and gives life to the Tigers. Now onto tomorrow and Saturday's games at Comerica, where hopefully we can take advantage of our home field.

Wings post to follow

GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Early Playoff Jeter-s

Well, the Tigers started out their post-season with a thud, losing 8-4 to the Yankees at Yankee stadium. And the star, of course, was Derek Jeter, who went 5-5 with 2 singles, 2 doubles, and a home run. Nate Robertson, Detroit's starting pitcher, did not look too bad for most of the game, but the Yankees had the first 6 guys reach base in the bottom of the 3rd, putting up 5 runs, and never looking back from that point on. Detroit tried to respond, and got 3 runs in the top of the 5th, but the Yankees added two killer runs in the bottom of the 7th, and that was pretty much it. Granderson added a home run in the top of the 7th, Jeter responded with one of his own in the bottom of the 8th. The good news for the Tigers is that they actually pushed some runs across against Chien-Ming Wang, as last time the Tigers faced him, he went 8 innings of 2 hit, shutout ball. Tonight, they were able to get 12 hits, but couldn't get the big hit when they needed it the most. They left runners on base in scoring position in the 2nd, 3rd, and 7th. And in that 7th inning, the tying run was at the plate, our cleanup hitter Magglio Ordonez, and he promptly popped out to - no shock here - Derek Jeter (man, I hate that guy). Game 2 is tonight, and hopefully Justin Verlander can tame the Yankees offense (and that Jeter guy) and the Tigers offense can push some runs across against another pitcher who we don't fare well against, Mike Mussina.

That's it for now, tomorrow's update to include game 2, and a Red Wings preview...