Progress in the Stack

A quick update on the book reading resolution:

• Guns, Germs, and Steel:  The Fates of Human Societies
• Tell All
• Damned
• A Little Matter of Genocide:  Holocaust and Denial in the Americas from 1492 to Present
• Suttree
• Founding Brothers:  The Revolutionary Generation

One down, five to go.  GGS was definitely a tough nut to crack.  The way it was written was a kind of all over the place.  The author didn't do the readers any favor by keeping a straight and narrow path throughout time and throughout the book.  That was the only real draw back.  It was full of great information, first hand experiences the author has had with some of New Guinea's aboriginal people, and enough charts to last a life times.  It was tough to get into, as you would imagine with a history book, but once the connections and differences between thriving societies and those still in a hunter/gatherer type of a society

Now, onward to the next book and what hopefully will be an easier read and one that will be much more enjoyable.  A fun read if you will. 

Slow Tigers

After reading Josh Worn's post about how slow the Tigers are on the base paths, I can't help but wonder as well how they would do with Andy Dirks near the top of the order and being an active base stealer.  I know it's just a small sample size, but five for seven last year might be a glimpse into a bright future for him.  I would want to see him play a full year before I start campaigning for him to be a number two hitter, but I would like to see him at the bottom of the order and running the bases.  His batting average doesn't turn heads at all.  His on base percentage isn't much better, but the guy has a great baseball head.  He understands the game and what needs to be done.  I've said it before, and I say it again, I am a big believer in Dirks.  While he may not have all the talents to be an everyday starter yet (!), I think he has sound skills to keep him in the outfield rotation.  Plus, he played college ball in Wichita and I got to see him play for a few years, so that is always fun to see someone make it to The Show.  

With that said, stealing bases isn't what this team is built for.  More often than not, they'll be driving in runs with their bats and not worried about manufacturing the runs.  But what about the games that are pitcher duels?  Would having an active base stealing plan in place increase the amount of wins this year, or with how slow they have been on the bases, would it just cost them games?  I know that Austin Jackson had a bit of a fall of last year compared to the year before, but he is so fast and such a talent that once he gets his strikeouts under control and raises his on base percentage, I can see him being able to get around thirty stolen bases a year or more.  With the identity that the Tigers have now, it would be difficult to try and change it, as much as Jim Leyland doesn't like it.   







Having some players that can steal bases is great and always fun to see, but isn't more fun to see the balls flying out of the park with the runners still on base and not sitting in the dugout because they got thrown out?

Super Bore Sunday

There are a few things that I cannot stand about the focus that the sports world puts on the Super Bowl.  Before I get going, I will say that I am fully aware that football is the biggest sport in the country.  I get it.  It's entertaining, it's exciting, it's violent.  It consumes sports talk shows on Monday morning.  Given a choice between the four major sports to go see in person, football would have to be third.  Hockey, baseball, football, basketball.  That's the order.  Hockey is very fast paced, I grew up watching it, I went to college games as a kid.  Every shot has a chance to make it to the net.  Baseball is all about the atmosphere.  The smell of the park, the feel of being outside, the history of the sport.

One thing that I cannot stand about the Super Bowl is the two week layoff between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl.  That two week gap leaves sports people too much time to find small, stupid, pointless stories about players or teams to talk about.  No one wants to hear a half hour, in depth, story about how the New England Patriots are looking for revenge because the Giants have beaten them the last couple of times they played.  It's noteworthy for a five minute look back at the previous games and move on.  I'm not sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to hear if Rob 'Yo soy fiesta' (look it up) Gronkowski's walking boot has come off and if he is running routs or not.  There are other sports actually being played.  The past two weeks, two other professional sports have been in full swing.  And leading off sports shows with Super Bowl none sense stories makes me not want to watch the shows at all.  Which is what I do.  I have watched very little sports shows these last two weeks because It just bores me.

The fact that it's a one and done championship drives the focus.  With the other sports, they are played as a series.  There is more carryover from game to game.  It isn't all about who beat how months ago.  If you have a player that commits a foul against another in one game, that animosity can carry over to the next game or during the entire series.  It makes for more entertaining games if it's done right.  With the Super Bowl, sports people are talking about a game four years ago and how some of the Patriot players feel about losing to the Giants.  Hell, there's only about thirty five to forty players left on both teams that played in their last Super Bowl match up.  I wouldn't think that you can call this a grudge rematch.  Most of the big names are still around, but there always seems to be enough people to populate a small town on the sidelines and I am sure that the majority of them were not involved in their last Super Bowl meeting.

With all that said, I enjoy watching the Super Bowl.  As long as it's a good game.  Who wants to watch a game in which the winning team is up by twenty points at half time?  It just makes the commercials that much more important.  I want the Patriots to win this year.  I always cheer for them because Tom Brady played at Michigan.  It's always nice to see players you watched in college excel at the next level.  It will be a close game.  The Giants have been playing stellar the past two months.  The past few years I have put up my prediction of who will win the Super Bowl and I have been wrong.  So I am not going to do that this year.  I am just hoping for a close game.  I like both teams.   

Bad beer. BAD!

Everytime I see a Bud Light commercial with the catch phrase 'Here we go' all I can think about is 'Here we SHUT THE FUCK UP!'.  I know that it is a popular beer and lots of people enjoy it, but it is just so bad.  Of all the cheap, bad beer (and I have had my share) that I have tasted, Bud Light is pretty much the worst.

Heavy Corners

Every single Tigers fan had their hopes dashed because of Victor Martinez's ACL tear.  I wrote that they should just deal with a down year and stick with the team that they have.  Especially with all the names that were thrown around.  A bunch of hitters beyond their prime.  Then my sister texted me on the 24th of January with a message that really confused me.  'Prince Fielder + Tigers = Mind Blown'.  I was out skating and found my way to the boards and started quickly thumbing through my smart phone to corroborate the story.  Finally, I made my way to Twitter and read through the story.  And just like everyone else, I was immediately stoked.  After a few days, I started to think about the deal that they made.  Nine years, two hundred and fourteen million dollars.  That's a whole lotta zeros. 

When I first let this settle in, my thoughts were that Fielder and Cabrera would rotate between first base and designated hitter (the first time I was really excited about the DH being around).  It would still be okay, there would still be lots of athleticism on the field.  Then there were rumblings about Cabrera saying that he would move to third base, where he played when he started out with the Marlins.  He was also about forty or fifty pounds lighter.  I know that both Brandon Inge and Don Kelly cannot in any way equal the offensive output of Cabrera, but they both are far better defensive players than a one Miguel Cabrera.  And having either of them play third base over Cabrera for the year would make me happy.  But Jim Leyland seems to be in support of the Cabrera to third move.  It makes for some heavy corners in the D.  Between the two players, that is over five hundred pounds of player.  Not good.  I think that they both need to hit the gym right quick and lose some weight to help out the infield defense.  But that is just who I am from time to time.  Trying to find the negative in a positive. 

With the batting lineup I don't actually think that a few bad defensive plays will turn the game around in favor of the other team.  For the most part.  What happens when they get caught up in a one run pitcher's duel?  There are two big factors in a pitcher's duel:  the pitcher and the defense.  And if the two biggest players on the team are on the corners of the infield, where a hard hit grounder can get past them and rattle around the corner of the outfield, the defense will be the liability of this team this year coming up.  The outfielders will need to be on their toes for all one hundred and sixty two games.  And what is Leyland going to do with defensive substitutions?  You can't pull Cabrera out for Inge or Kelly just to get some better defense in the seventh or eighth inning. 

So us Tigers fans will have to get use to both cheering loudly for the offense and groaning sadly for the defense.  Unless they can both prove me wrong, which I hope they do.