It Could Only Be Jered!

Jered, The Galleria Of Mind-Reading, Big-Mouthed Pitching. 

Magglio stood at the plate and watched his drive, but not to show up the pitcher. That isn't how he plays the game. He wanted to see if it would go foul. It wrapped around the pole for a homer. The Tigers took a third inning 2-0 lead.

So Jered Weaver chirped all day. And Carlos Guillen did show him and his big mouth up, with a bat flip and slow circuit of the bases after homering in the seventh. He also had some words for his catcher after touching home plate. 

Plate umperor Hunter Wendelstedt warned both benches.  Now they warn you for thought crimes. Like Moe slapping Larry and Curly. "That's for what you were thinking!"

Weaver's next pitch sailed over Alex Avila's head, and he was gone.

Meanwhile, Justin Verlander hadn't allowed a hit.

Eric Aybar bunted. Another thought crime: bunting to break up a no-hitter. JV threw the ball away, and Aybar reached second. Matt Trumbo got him over, and Peter Bourjos hit one to third. Aybar got into a rundown, JV had to cover the plate, and Aybar shoved an elbow into him on the way by.

They're not on the schedule after today, but that's all right. There might be post-season. And we know we'll play them next year.

Maicir Izturis singled Bourjos in. No history on this day at Comerica.

With a 3-2 lead, JV came out and Skipper Leyland tested the baseball godz by sending Ryan Steelglove out to play left field. 

Fernando Valverde walked leadoff hitter Bobby Abreu. Vernon Wells fielder's choiced him, and stole second Tying run in scoring position, but the next two Halos made outs, and this one went into the W column. For Win, and for Weaver.

Sweetening the win was the Indians' loss to KC that restored the Tigers' 2 1-2 game lead. 

Pretty amaze-ing, that Justin Verlander. Take away one bad pitch, one lucky swing of the bat, and he'd have three no-hitters this season.

Tigers, Indians Trade For Pitching

Doug Fister and David Pauley from Seattle for Charlie Furbush, Casper Wells, and AA Erie third baseman Francisco Martinez.  

Fister becomes the fifth starter. Pauley goes into middle relief. They're Mariners pitchers. That means they're good. 

Furbush was okay in relief but had some rough outings as a starter. On the M's loaded pitching staff, he'll be a spot starter and pitch long relief, and prove to be a fine big league moundsman -- no doubt during some future Tigers visit to Safeco.

Casper Wells deservedly gets to play every day. We can still call him Casper The Friendly Outfielder. Only not as often.

At the ball park, top starting prospect Jacob Turner made a very respectable major league debut against the Angels, giving up three hits and two runs, walking three and striking out six in five plus innings. The Halos took some BP off Phil Coke in the sixth, and Dan Haren pitched nine innings of six-hit, one run ball. Final: 5-2, them.

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In Cleveland, the Indians' radio announcers must have been watching Rockies-Padres on MLB between pitches of their game.

They reported that Ubaldo Jiminez, after allowing four runs in the first two innings, got a round of hugs from his teammates in the dugout.

Players hugging during a game on July 30 is the modern indicator that a trade has been consummated.

And it was; Ubaldo to the Indians for Drew Pomeranz and Alex White, and two other minor leaguers.

By trading their two top pitching prospects, both first round draft picks, for ace Jiminez, the Tribe has told the AL Central that they're going for broke; all contenders and Pretenders, beware.

To drive the point home, they won again in walkoff fashion, 5-2 over KC on a three run homer by Matt Laporte. 

Twelve Runs? See How You Like Them, Wise Guy!

Tonight it was the Tigers' turn to score twelve. 

Brennan Bash hit his 15th homer.  Victor Martinez and Carlos Guillen each drove in four, off unusually ineffective Angel pitching. Ramon Santiago got three hits in the ninth spot. Andy Dirks scored three times, and got the four-run sixth started by sticking out his hip and taking one for the team. 

The Indians also gave up a dozen, at home to the Royals. The loss, combined with the Tigers win, gives the Tigers their biggest lead of the season, 2.5 games.

Research has revealed that "Vieni sul mar" ("Come To The Sea"), an Italian popular song of the early twentieth century,  is the song Gino Corrado tries to sing in "Micro-Phonies," three times, each time foiled by a Stooges-propelled cherry. 

If only a certain few Tigers pitchers had that kind of command. 

And how did that one guy just happen to have a bowl of cherries in his hand at exactly the wrong time? 

Hunting Season

If you're going deer hunting this fall, Jerry Layne is the guy to have with you.

His hearing is so keen that he can detect a buck rustling twigs and dead leaves at a hundred yards. 

It must be, because this afternoon he kicked Jim Leyland out for something he heard all the way across the field from his first base umperor's post.Second early shower for the skipper this week, and a small reward for everyone who paid their way into the ball park to watch the umps work.

Brad Penny lasted only three-plus innings, but it was still a game; 7-5 Angels after six. Then David Purcey gave up a hit and walked two, and Phil Coke allowed a two run single to Howie Kendrick and a two-run double to Mark Trumbo. And that was that. 12-5 Halos, lead back to 1 1-2 games over the idle Indians.

Maggie has been been working on a song about our favorite ump, borrowing liberally from the Beatles' "Penny Lane:" 

" ... and the catcher never wears a mask, in the pouring rain, very strange ... Jerry Layne is in my ears, and in my eyes ... "

That's all she has so far. 

In case anyone was wondering what women think about while the baseball game is on.

Santana No-Hits Tribe

Ervin Santana's no-hitter this afternoon at Cleveland wasn't your typical no-hitter.

He allowed a first inning run, on an error, sacrifice, ground out, and wild pitch. And the Indians made five errors of their own. 

I've never seen a final scoring line of 1-0-5. 

You can't miss a game, you never know what you might see that you've never before, and this one goes in the personal record book as the first beach no-hitter. All nine innings heard in the company of teenage girls in string bikinis, and sea gulls.

 My queen won't want to know that. What you read here, let it stay here when you leave here.

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In Chicago, Max Scherzer was good, but John Danks was one run better. And who IS this guy Alex De Aza? 

The two Sox runs scored on a De Aza homer, in his first AB in the major leagues this season.

But it's okay, no ground lost, another Indians implosion, one more day off the schedule.

Why JV Is Great

We already have a good general idea why, but here's a specific.

Tonight, with a 5-4 lead in the eighth, up came the two Sox who had homered off him earlier in the game, Paul Konerko and Adam Dunn. 

An ordinary hurler, with his pitch count over a hundred, would get the hook. Skip let JV stay in. As well he should.

Konerko: whiffo! Dunn stood there like the house by the side of the road and watched strike three go by. They'll grab some bench!

Just another night at the office for arguably the American League's top moundsman.

20, 16, 1, 6-3

Twenty being the number of runs the Rangers scored tonight. Haha Twins! Schadenfreude!

Sixteen being the number of games in a row Seattle has lost. 10-3 losers tonight in New York; the same outfit that swept the Pretenders in Safeco in June. (Schadenfreude!)

One being the number of managers tossed in tonight's 6-3 Tigers loss in Chicago. Skipper Leyland once again getting the thumb for pointing out to the plate umperor that the strike zone in the fifth inning wasn't quite the same as it was when the game started.

They had Carlos Quentin struck out. But the ump said no, Quentin doubled in the go-ahead runs, and the rule of thumb prevailed. A rewarding night at US Cellular it was, for everyone who came out to watch Jim Wolf call balls and strikes.

One (game) also being the Pretenders' lead in the AL Central after the Indians' 3-2 walkoff win over the Angels.  Jason Kipnis plated the winning run with his first major league hit, something no indian had ever done. 

One, Two, Three, Four ...

That's me counting my chickens before the eggs hatch. 

With Tigers-Twins moved back so Twins fans could watch Bert Blyleven's Hall of Fame induction, the Indians had a head start on the day's baseball activity. They were dreadful, making three errors in handing a 5-2 win to the White Sox before a pitch could be thrown in Minneapolis.  

Now, if the Tigers win ... I thought, already picturing tomorrow's standings with 2.0 next to Cleveland in the Games Behind column. 

Five, six, seven, eight ... 

The premature counting caused no harm, as the Tigers won 5-2 to insure that two game lead come tomorrow morning.

Rick Porcello pitched six innings and allowed the two runs. Albuquerque, Benoit, and Valverde threw one score less inning each. Just like they drew it up in Lakeland. 

A walk, an error, and four singles -- none hit very hard -- produced three runs in the fourth and ended Francisco Liriano's day early. In his last four starts against the Tigers, he hasn't made it past the fourth inning.

Good Fortune / Amy Winehouse

We lost to the Twins, but Indians-White Sox was rained out in Cleveland. 

No ground was lost, and the Tribe will have a makeup day-night doubleheader (all players wear makeup) somewhere down the road where it's least wanted. All day-night doubleheaders falling into the category of least wanted, wherever they land.

Maggie grilled steaks, and made a salad and  the most amaze-ing round french fries. I didn't count them, but I'm sure there were exactly fifty in the basket.

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This afternoon, British pop singer Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London home.

Her place in a baseball blog is assured because of one song that's on the list of songs that aren't about baseball, but could be. 

This season, players equally famous in the baseball world -- Derek Jeter, Josh Hamilton, Joe Nathan, David Wright, Carlos Guillen -- have come off the DL and played some minor league games before rejoining their teams.

Ms. Winehouse's handlers suggested she go on a rehab assignment, but she said no, nooooo no.

The Other 50th Anniversary

I have a scrap of memory of the first baseball game I heard on the radio.

The Tigers were playing, and someone had just driven in the run that made the score 17-14. 

You can look everything up now, and on Baseball Reference's game logs is a 17-14 win, over the Kansas City Athletics in the second game of a doubleheader at Municipal Stadium, on July 23, 1961. 

Wayne Causey got the hit, a solo homer off Bill Fischer in the eighth inning. Ernie Harwell -- the young man from Baltimore who was halfway through his second season at the Tiger radio mike -- called the play.

Causey was a rookie and didn't have a card in the 1961 Topps set or any set. Bill Fischer was a high number (#553). I got him in a wax pack that fall.

In the Stone Age, baseball play-by-play came via tinny land lines and transistor radios, and the choices were what you could get off the air. That often meant listening through fades and static, and setting the radio by an open window, back pointed just right.

Fifty years to the day after that first game, I have my laptop out on the back yard, logged onto Gameday; Athletics at Yankees, both the New York and Oakland broadcasts; mid-fi mono but fade and static free, much better than the way we did things in the good old days. 

John Sterling is talking about his memories of, when he was a kid, hanging out at the pool and / or beach on steamy hot days like today with a ball game on the radio. Suzyn Waldman has no response. You have to have been there and done it, and maybe she never did.

There are also Astros at Cubs, three games at four PM, a bunch at seven, and Dodgers-Nats for the late scene. All accessible at the click of a mouse, and in 1961 only dreamers considered that possible.


The A's gave up 17 runs last night. Couldn't happen again, could it? With the American League's best ERA?

They might do it again just for you, opines Madame Maggie. Anything is possible. 


For US, my queen, I say; since we, not knowing the exact day we met over baseball cards on the playground, have set aside this day to celebrate our golden anniversary. 

My queen has passed on a celebratory dinner out. She's up to something. I once suggested, in jest, that on anniversary Saturday she cook in and make fifty of something. 

Maybe she will. Anything is possible.

Be Good Jhonny

For the second successive night, Jhonny Peralta was a triple away from the cycle. 

He drove in four as the Tigers beat the Twins 8-1.

Six hits in ten ABs has Peralta at .322 heading into tomorrow's game. He started the season at okay, and has progressed from good to nothing short of amaze-ing.

Max Scherzer went seven and allowed four hits.His 11th win was also the Tigers 11th in a row over the Minnesotans. 

A win tomorrow will equal their all-time record for consecutive wins over one team, set in 1908 against the St. Louis Browns, and equaled three years later against the pre-Yankee New York Highlanders.

One would guess a higher mark, considering all the very good Tigers teams, and the very bad, for many years, teams the Browns-Athletics-Senators fielded.

Tigers Un-Hinged

Brandon Inge has made up his mind about Toledo. 

He allowed himself to be shipped to the Mud Hens rather than go through the designation for assignment process. 

Yesterday's phone call from Mike Ilitch may have influenced his decision. Stick around, go to Toledo, come back in September, there will always be a place for you in the organization. Yes, every boss needs a spy in the clubhouse. Jim Campbell had Dick Tracewski. Ilitch has Jim Price, but he won't be around forever. Inge as new manager Mike Hargrove's third base coach would do just fine.

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Just when I thought no one was paying attention --

Conversation snip overheard in the grocery store parking lot this afternoon: "Out of range, 97-1 The Ticket, AM 1270, yep, just out of range ..." 

Well, not necessarily. WXYT on AM has increased power to way more than it had when I listened to top 40 Wixie in the 60s, and can be heard on the smallest radio. Even my old gamer:

And if you live in Port Huron, you have no excuses for not getting 97.1. North of town, where I am, there's a local 96.9 in Lexington squeezing it. Then, you need a good FM radio, like an old silver-face Pioneer. Sensitive radios for sensitive, caring, creative artists.

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Homers by Boesch and Peralta, and eight innings of one-run / nine strikeout ball from JV, gave the Tigers an easy 6-2 win at Minneapolis tonight.

Wilson Betemit hit ninth,.went 1 for 4 and, for those fans who miss Hinge, struck out and made an error. But the misplay caused no damage, and .280 in the box score looks a whole lot better than .177. 

With the Indians idle, the win moves the Tigers into first by a half game.

Bad News And Good News

After the Pretenders scored three runs to take a 5-3 lead, David Purcey came in and walked the first three, and only only, Athletics' hitters he faced. His line: 0-3-3-3-0. (Have mercy, Mister Purcey!)

Ben Wah then came in and gave up three singles.Four runs total; a nice 5-3 lead over the Oakland Peashooters becomes a 7-5 deficit.

So they lost. That's okay -- sort of -- since the Twins beat the Indians this afternoon and no ground was lost.

Between games, The Miracle Worker announced that the P's had acquired Royals' third baseman Wilson Betemit for two minor leaguers. 

Betemit is a dependable veteran who plays first, third, a little outfield, and DH. He'll join his new team in time for tomorrow night's game in Minneapolis.

That means a roster move must be made before then. And all indicators point to the end of the Brandon Inge era in Motown. An event anticipated in the pages of this blog as eagerly as were the first day of baseball season, the first day of summer, and Maggie's roast beef with apple pie dinners.  

Hinge didn't play tonight. Maybe he's already gone. Not a peep re the sensitive situation from either of the radio stool pigeons, who may have only been obeying orders. 

Tomorrow afternoon, we will know for sure what we already suspect. 

 

Six Run Fifth / Tribe Loses

With two outs and bases empty: single, double, sac fly, homer (Cabrera), double, single, homer (Carlos Guillen). 

All that was needed to put away the Oakland Anonymites.Final: 8-3 Tigers.

Their starting pitchers, except for tonight,  have been great, but the starting nine is a collection of veterans whose day has passed, and young players who've been future stars for too long.

The Hinge Watch: 0 for 4, one strikeout, .177, twelve days until the trading deadline. 

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At Target Field, the Twins got two in the ninth and beat the Indians 2-1, dropping them back into a virtual tie for first with the Tigers.

The Tribe ran out of outfielders and put infielder Luis Valbuena in left. With the bases loaded, Danny Valencia hit a soft fly his way. The video indicates it was catchable, but he let it drop. No one knows why, but the loss is in the books.  

If the Indians lose the division by one game, July 19 could be the night they lost it. 

The Late Scene / Instant Karma

In the top of the sixteenth inning at Tropicana this morning, Dustin Pedroia singled in Josh Reddick to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. 

I was there at the end, pondering re how many fans in the range of ESPN Radio Sunday Night Baseball had stayed up until 1:54 AM Eastern time to hear the last out. No one in Lakeport, I'll bet; everyone here being exhausted from a day at the beach or in the company of power tools. Maybe an accidental handful in Port Huron, and a sprinkling closer to Detroit.

They got to hear the very rare and collectible WXYT AM-only legal ID, and a historic game. 

The Red Sox had five hits, and the D-Rays three; the lowest hit total for two teams in a game longer than 13 innings since 1920. Josh Beckett allowed one base runner through eight, Evan Longoria's first inning infield single. Jeff Niemann gave up two hits in his eight innings.Each team's bullpen pitched seven scoreless frames, further establishing 2011 as the new millennium's Year Of The Pitcher

I'm sure it was also the longest Sunday night game in innings (16) and elapsed time (5 hours 44 minutes). I remember only a handful of games lasting past midnight and into Monday morning.

No one likes to play on Sunday night. Most teams avoid scheduling night games on getaway days. The Red Sox were so worn out from the long game and late travel that they managed only 15 runs tonight in Baltimore. 

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The Twins got a taste of Instant Karma this afternoon in Minneapolis.

They lost the makeup game (all players had to wear makeup) of today's day-night doubleheader with the Indians; the rescheduling of a game they pulled the plug on early, in May when they were struggling. The rain stopped that night, and conditions became very playable.

And, just for that, they lost the night game as well. (It's not nice to fool Mother Nature.)

Two Tribe wins give them a one game lead over the idle Pretenders, who begin a three game series with the Athletics tomorrow night at Comerica.

Le Bouton de Panique

July 17, even with the Pretenders sputtering as they have, is too early.

There was the temptation to look around for it, make sure we knew where it was just in case,  when the White Sox got three off Brad Penny in the second inning this afternoon. Even the outs were hit hard.

Another loss to the South Siders would mean a sweep, at home, at the hands of the Pretenders' closest pursuers who would then be only three games in the rear view mirror.  

B-Bash homered leading off the fourth. Put it on the board ...... YEE-EES!

Then, with Dirks and Ordonez on in the sixth, with first base open, the Sox pitched to V-Mart. He singled both in. After a Peralta single moved him to second, Carlos Guillen plated him. 

Give that man a text name. Car Gui. 

How refreshing it is, to have Ryan Strikeout where he belongs, grabbing some bench. 

Hinge played, went 0 for 3 (.180 be the average after today's game) and struck out twice. The pitcher hitting ninth. 

At Camden Yards, the Indians let the Orioles stay just close enough to remain in the game, and then gave it away late, 8-3. The Tribe defeat and Tiger win leave the two tied for first; the Tigers at 50-45 with one fewer win, and one fewer loss.

Nine Hit Shutout

No, not by our guy. By theirs. Edwin Jackson. Another former wearer of the Olde English "D."

Your baseball blogger has written the following sentence a bunch of times this season: "(Name of starting pitcher) pitched well enough to win." This afternoon, Max Scherzer was the one, allowing two runs in eight innings.

But his mates couldn't get a hit when they needed one. V-Mart hit into two double plays. Six different Pretenders hitters made outs with runners in scoring position.  

The White Sox scored three in the ninth off Papa Shut 'Em Down. 

Carlos Guillen returned to the lineup at second base and went 1 for 4. Danny Worth is once again a victim of the numbers game. The Evil Brothers -- Hinge and Strikeout -- remained on the bench. Sit them, play them, same results. 

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After the Pretenders were through, I had the Indians-Orioles game on, and the Tribe anncrs were talking about Orioles third baseman Mark Reynolds, already a member of the 20-20 club (home runs and errors). Hard to trade a guy like that, they noted in advance of any moves the O's might make before the July 31 trading deadline. 

The P's could use him!!! Why not? They've suffered all season with Ryan Strangeglove in the starting lineup, and Hinge, he of the .180 batting average. Drive in a few runs, turn even five losses into wins, and 20 errors can be overlooked with a four game lead at the All-Star break. 

Pretenders Fans Are Revolting

Over forty three thousand fans -- 105 percent of capacity -- welcomed the Pretenders back to Comerica. 

A good many of them remembered how to shape their lips into the word BOOOOO and let it fly.

Like in the eighth inning when, with two out and two on, V-Mart struck out on a pitch over his head. By then, however, the P's were losing 8-2 and it didn't really matter. 

Or in the fifth, when the disgruntled masses let Ryan Strangeglove have it for kicking a grounder. It's become almost impossible to finish a blog post without describing a Raburnian misadventure that leaves the fan, by now wordless, even more flummoxed. 

The Pale Hose batted around against Justin Verlander in the fourth, scoring four runs.No team had batted around off JV in almost two years.

Hinge started the game on the bench. Since coming off the DL fifteen games ago, he's batting .084. When he's in the lineup, as Detroit News beat writer Tom Gage observed tonight, it's NL baseball with the pitcher hitting ninth. I never considered the situation in those terms because, as much as you don't like a struggling player, you still hope he'll snap out of it and get back to his former self. Re Brandon Inge, a guy who might not hit for average, but who still represents a challenge to enemy pitchers.

Someone's Got To Go

Carlos Guillen comes off the DL in a couple days, and will need a position.  

He's played first, second, third, and left field. 

Miguel Cabrera isn't leaving first, and the Dirks - Wells - Boesch timeshare has left field covered. 

That leaves the positions occupied by Hinge (.184 at the break) and Strikeout. Both must feel, at the halfway point of what has been a long, difficult season, as if they wear bullseyes on their backs. 

Nice guys they no doubt are, but too many jobs are on the line for them to continue as everyday players. 

Wouldn't it be something if the one who's displaced is cut loose, not even designated for assignment, contract eaten, simply gone, so long it's been good ta know ya? 

Then picked up by another AL Central team, to get the winning hit in a September stretch run game the Pretenders need to keep pretending they deserve post-season. I can see it happening all the way from July. 

Pretenders At The Break

The Pretenders at the break resemble Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Along the boardwalk, all glass and steel, sleek, shiny muscle. Two blocks inland, definitely threadbare, and definitely suspect. 

Five Pretenders made the All-Star team, more than the rest of the AL Central. Verlander, Cabrera and Valverde are among the best at their positions. Peralta and Avila have been two of baseball's most pleasant, unexpected surprises. 

Victor Martinez is having an All-Star season but didn't go to Phoenix. 

Then there's Brandon Inge, who blames his .184 batting average and shaky glove work on bad luck. No, it's all about not hitting the baseball, and not being able to do the right thing with it when it comes to you.

And there's Ryan Raburn who, in between bursts of glory, looks simply lost at the plate and in the field. 

At the corner outfield spots, Brennan Boesch has his moments, but in between, you're not sure. Andy Dirks, bless his good heart, glove, and bat, will never be more than a part-time player in the major leagues. 

Scherzer, Porcello, and Brad Penny look great, and then get whacked. 

Placido Polanco, Curtis Granderson, Matt Joyce, and Jair Jurrjens have something else in common, besides a place on the National League All-Star team. They once wore the Olde English "D." 

The Pretenders let Polanco walk and, to this day, no one knows why. They needed a shortstop read bad, and traded Jurrjens for a real bad shortstop, Edgar Renteria. Matt Joyce for Edwin Jackson looked good for a half season. Granderson in the three way deal that brought Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth; well, we don't know yet.

Put them back in that uniform; Polanco at either third or second, Jurrjens the #2 starter, Joyce and the Grandy Man in the outfield, and the mind starts to blur when what could / might have been is considered. 

Skipper Leyland and his coaches aren't signed past this season. Neither is The Miracle Worker.

Their team's track record of collapsing in the second half means, for these career baseball men, a most anxious next two and one-half months.

This Is Cool

Butch Hobson as a minor league manager, and what he thinks of bad calls by umperors who need seeing-eye dogs to find their way into the ball park:

http://deadspin.com/5820716/the-100-worst-baseball-players-of-all-time-a-celebration-part-1

Scroll down to number 20.Who says you can't steal first base? 

Let's Do Something Else

You have to wonder what Eric Hosmer was thinking. 

With the Royals down 2-1, he doubled leading off the ninth. As he no doubt noted last night, when Fernando Valverde needed 31 pitches to close out the game: anything can still happen when Papa Shut 'Em Down is out there.

But, one out later, he tried to steal third and was nailed by Alex Avila. And, as your baseball blogger is fond of writing, that was that.

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With Justin Verlander pitching, and the game thus in good hands, it was time to try completely different. Start the day with Pirates-Cubs on MLB-TV. Good and wonderful things are happening after 19 losing seasons in Pittsburgh, where they showed the Cubs how the game of baseball is played by winning 6-1. Only a walkoff win by the Brewers kept them from moving into a first place tie, at 47-43, with the Brewers and Cardinals.

In that walkoff win, Dontrelle Willis started for the Reds. He hadn't pitched in the major leagues since last June 29 for the D-Backs. He was the same old Dontrelle, allowing baserunners all over the place -- four hits, four walks -- but only two runs, and left after six with the lead. You can do that when the league's best defense is behind you. On the stonefingered Tigers, he would have been doomed.

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Late afternoon on the Sunday before the All-Star break always feels like the wind-down of a birthday party. The few kids whose parents haven't picked them up are still playing, while the mommies clean up and stuff used wrapping paper into the wastebasket, thankful that the next party is 365 days away.

Baseball is great, but too much of a good thing can become too much. Looking at the Eiffel Tower might become routine if you lived in Paris and did it every day. 

There's one more game today, Giants-Mets in San Francisco. Then, no baseball in the second floor baseball bunker for three days. Not even the All-Star game with its five Tigers. Thirty-four players per team go, and the managers have to try to get everyone in while giving the fan favorites more than one at-bat each. And win the game, since home-field advantage in the World Series goes to the winning league. 

It's not major league baseball. It's Little League. They should be wearing uniforms with BATES MOTEL and CHICO'S BAIL BONDS on them.

Like Derek Jeter, I can use the three days off. Maggie and I will have the Do Not Disturb sign on the door until Thursday.

As Yogi Berra would say -- she's someone you can't too much of a good thing of by looking at her.

Chiefs 13, Lions 6

New pitching coach, same results. 

In Charlie Furbush's defense, five of the nine runs he allowed in two-plus innings were unearned, all the result of a Ramon Santiago error. But they still count. Three scored on an Alex Gordon homer that turned a still winnable game into one that makes you tune up and down the dial to see what else is happening.

Ryan Steelglove clanged a popup in the sixth, making the runs Adam Wilk (one) and Ryan Perry (two) allowed unearned. But they all count. 

Subtract the eight unearned runs, and they win by one.

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I missed the Jeter press conference. Did he really state that the ball he hit for #3000 today -- a home run, by the way, returned to him by a generous Yankee fan -- "felt like all the other balls?" 

All Star Peralta

The fans who voted for Derek Jeter expected to see him play. But he asked out. He could have played -- The Pursuit Of 3000 being insufficient to keep him out of the lineup this week with a sore leg -- but doesn't want to. 

Asdrubal Cabrera thus becomes the AL starting shortstop, and Jhonny Peralta takes Jeter's place. Great. Five Tigers on the squad, and one less Yankee who has nothing left to prove by going. If Alex Sterodriguez wimps out, maybe Victor Martinez can go. 

Fernando Valverde needed 31 pitches to close out the Royals tonight and preserve a 6-4 win. The indispensable Andy Dirks went 3 for 5 with one RBI in the leadoff spot, and Magglio Ordonez homered with Dirks on base.

Before the fan starts dreaming pennant dreams, however -- Hinge went 0 for 3, and you're just not going to go very far with a .186 hitter in the starting lineup. 

See? / Dick Williams / Hafner Walk-Off Slam

Ryan Raburn homered in he first with Miguel Cabrera on. Those were the only runs the Tigers needed to defeat the Royals, as Max Scherzer recorded his tenth W. And he caught the last out of the 3-1 win, carefully tracking the ball as Casper The Friendly Center Fielder cut in front of him.

It's way more fun to write nice things about players. Your baseball blogger doesn't start with a blank Compose window and look for new reasons to rip R2. When good things happen, they also make the post. Wouldst there be more of them.

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Former major league player and manager Dick Williams passed away earlier today at his home in Henderson, Nevada. Another player, and a Hall Of Famer, from the 1961 Topps set is gone.

His path and the Tigers' crossed in 1984, when his Padres lost the World Series in five games, and in 1967.

That year the Red Sox, 100-1 underdogs to win the American League pennant, won it on the last day after a season-long tangle with the Tigers, Twins, and White Sox. It was the most dramatic four team race the Yankee-dominated league had ever seen. 

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With the Tribe down 4-1 tonight in the ninth, Travis Hafner hit a grand slam homer off Blue Jays' closer Luis Perez.

It was the 25th slam in major league history that brought the hitter's team back from three down to win by one. A total that's only slightly more than the number of perfect games (20). If you see one, or are tuned in on the radio as I was tonight, you've seen or heard something special, that you may never see or hear again.

More unlikely names on the list baffle the lifelong fan. Danny Kravitz, also in the 1961 Topps set. Roger Freed. Ron Lolich, Mickey's younger brother.

I saw two others. Dick Schofield in 1986, off Willie Hernandez in Anaheim, in the wee hours of August 30 Detroit time, and Alan Trammell on June 21, 1988, served up by Yankee Cecilio Guante. That was also Billy Martin's next-to-last game as a major league manager. After the Tigers completed a four game sweep the next night, The Boss fired him and brought in Lou Piniella.

Dirks Works

Yes, Miguel Cabrera hit the two run homer that gave the Tigers a 5-3 lead in the seventh. 

One batter before him, the left-handed hitting Andy Dirks drove in the tying run with a single off Angels' lefty Hisanori Takahashi.

Without Dirks' hit, since the Angels got one in the ninth, Cabrera's homer only ties the game. (Final: Tigers 5, Angels 4; extra disappointment for the 31,000 fans who came out to watch Cowboy Joe call balls and strikes.)

Andy Dirks, since his recall from Toledo in May, has been one of the more useful, under-noticed Tigers. In the outfield, at DH, or pinch-hitting, he always seems to get a hit when one is needed, and make the fielding play when one is needed to end an enemy rally.

Remember Their Names

Angel Campos and Joe West. Two umperors who worked tonight's Angels-Tigers game as if they thought the fans came to watch them and not the players.

Bobby Abreu, tossed for shrugging at plate umperor Campos after being called out on strikes to end the bottom first. Skipper Leyland, by "Cowboy" Joe West in the seventh over a call Cowboy Joe missed in the second. (Howie Kendrick, the runner who was out called safe, scored the game's only run.) Justin Verlander (!!!) by Cowboy Joe in the eighth, after leaving the game, for who knows what. And Rick Porcello for good measure.

Four participants kicked out; three by the guy with the colorful nickname who, if you ask him, may say that no, the umps aren't out to call attention to themselves. Voted second worst umperor in the major leagues by players polled after last year's World Series.

Of course, they wouldn't have been if the Pretenders' offense (four .300 hitters in the starting lineup) had produced more than the two hits Dan Haren allowed while going the distance. 

Ah've got a new CD out, and aah want yew tew go out and buy yo self one! Yew hear me? Bleeper? A'hm from TEXAS! Yew smile when yew say TEXAS! Bleep! 

Furbush's Starting Debut

Per the made-for TV Hallmark Channel movie script, Charlie Furbush would be understandably a little nervous in his first major league start, but keep his team in the game and let the offense (four .300 hitters) save the day.

The second Angel hitter he faced, Torii Hunter, homered. In the third inning, Peter Bourjos stole third and scored on a balk.

But the young portsider from Maine pitched well enough to make it a game, in the enemy park, allowing three runs over four and two-thirds innings.

And it would have been a game had not Joel Pinero and Scott Downs contained the Pretenders hitters. An RBI double by Peralta was all they could manage

Earlier this evening,  the Indians played the Yankees. We listened, and rooted for Josh Tomlin to hang onto his no-hitter, knowing that if the men from New York lost, the Tribe would gain a half game on the Pretenders before their game in Anaheim started. 

They gained a full game; the Pretenders are now 1.5 out and  -- look out below -- the White Sox won at KC and are only two games away from dumping the P's into third place.

Savourez ce moment

Savor that standing O, Ryan Raburn; because it might be the last one you get at Comerica Park. 

After being booed all game, he dived to snag Aaron Rowand's two-out eighth inning liner that would have plated two Giants runners and given them a one-run lead. 

Carpe diem. And you too, Hinge (.197 starting the game) after tripling in two in the bottom eighth. 

Rick Porcello hung in there and got the W despite hitting three batters and uncorking three bottles of Wild Pitch. "New league records," groaned the manager in "Bull Durham." No, not records, but no one had done that in almost ninety years. 

When pitchers get walloped like the Tigers guys have been lately, someone has to go and, since it's easier to replace one pitching coach than a whole pitching staff,  Rick Perry got the ziggy after today's game. His dismissal took some of the luster away from today's win, and the news that four Tigers -- Verlander, Valverde, Cabrera, and Alex Avila -- were named to the American League All-Star team. The first three were more or less expected. But enough fans voted early, and often, to get Avila past Russell Martin, and that means one less Yankee in the starting lineup next week at Chase Field. 

Now do that again in November 2012. 

49ers 15, Lions 3

“When It Rains, It Pours,” reads the box of salt in the kitchen cupboard. And indeed it does. In the third inning, with the score 5-0 Giants, it poured. It rained cats and dogs. Poodles formed in the outfield.

With Max Scherzer getting whacked, again, prayers went out to the baseball godz, that good fortune might smile on our team again, that it would rain long and hard enough to wash this disaster off the schedule even if that meant a doubleheader tomorrow. Meanwhile, I tuned away to check the other games.

When I returned, the Pretenders’ game was in the fourth inning, the score was 10-0, and Don Kelly was catching. His name thus goes on the list of players who have pitched and caught in the major leagues, most of them before 1900.

While I was down the dial, Brayan Villareal replaced Scherzer, finished walking his last hitter, and served up a grand slam to Miguel Tejada. And I missed it … I’ll have to go into the Gameday radio archive and hear that magic moment as called by both sets of announcers.

Yet another slam. And the hits just kept on coming. For them. When it rains, it pours. Runs multiplied like ants in the pantry. 

For that, and for last night’s bases-loaded walk, Anthony says, since Villareal has been in and out of the cornfield so many times, this time he doesn't come back. 

I wondered if maybe Skipper Leyland would let Kelly pitch the ninth and catch Inge, or maybe Ryan Throwingarm whose error in the first made that inning’s three unearned runs possible. A possible turning point in the game at that point, it mattered not at the end.

When the score became 15-0, I began daydreaming about what Kate and William were up to. Maggie is the royal watcher among us, and she ventured a guess that they were at some fancy party with tablecloths and silverware, where all the guests have to wear shoes. But not neckties, since after all, it’s California. I saw them tuned in to the end of this game, DX from San Francisco on 680 KNBR, and savoring the lyrical, poetic Jon Miller, Official Voice of Major League Baseball.

Late in the fourth quarter, defensive end Brennan Boesch sacked Niners quarterback Barry Zito in the end zone for a safety, and Austin Jackson kicked a single. This being the Canada Day weekend, the game was played under CFL rules.

At the damp, bitter end – 12:25 AM Detroit time – a knot of fans could be heard chanting LET’S GO … TI-GERS … Fans of the sort who voted for Oh Bama and are still eagerly awaiting the change he promised. It was fireworks night, and for that reason they can be forgiven. But there was a surprise waiting for them. Instead of the rockets’ red glare, they got Ken Anger’s famous underground film.

The Cornfield

The Pretenders scored two in the ninth and had the tying run on third with one out. But Brennan Boesch lined into a double play, and that was that.

Quelle dommage, because they'd already be in the clubhouse pounding some Budweiser if not for two things: the bases-loaded walks, one per pitcher, issued by Bryan Villareal and Papa Shut 'Em Down in the eighth, that made the score 4-3 G.I. Ants. 

After the game, Anthony wished both pitchers into the cornfield. 

Why haven't you wished Ryan Raburn into the cornfield? I asked Anthony. He did strike out with Victor Martinez on second and two out in the second inning. Put bat on ball, who knows what might happen, V-Mart scores, the bases loaded walks only tie the score, and the ninth inning rally is a winner. 

Oh, I don't know ... (And then he gets that dreamy look on his face, like he does when he's making little animals with three heads.) 

Anthony might want to wish the White Sox into the cornfield, because they won again today, were written off not that long ago but are one under .500 and only three games behind the Pretenders.  If both teams keep it up, the P's will be looking up at the Pale Hose from the not-so glamorous surroundings of third place.