Under Construction

'Never be afraid to fall apart because it is an opportunity to rebuild yourself.' -Rae Smith

In 2015, the Detroit Tigers came to the conclusion that their chances of getting to the post season were shot.  The team was not playing well, the fanbase was very displeased, and murmurs started of the team being sellers at the trade deadline at the end of July.  I was home on vacation when they sold off the few pieces that they could move.  David Price to Toronto.  Yoenis Cespedes to the Mets.  Jokiem Soria to the Pirates.  All players that the Tigers were not going to resign in the offseason.  The players they got back in return are mostly up with the big club now.  This was going to be a retooling the fans were told.  A one off.  In the next year or two the Tigers were going to be back to pushing for the playoffs.  They were in the playoff hunt last season and gave the fans hope that maybe 2015 was a bump in the road.  Eventually they missed the playoffs, but that was okay because they were close.

With Dave Dombrowski being replaced by Al Avila after the trade deadline in 2015 and the passing of owner Mike Illitch, the old guard is gone.  The Tigers did their best to get to a World Series for Mr. Illitch, but failed to do so.  Sadly.  Dombrowski and Illitch were win now guys.  They built the team to contend, and it was great.  It brought stars to the organization.  It made the team exciting.  Everyone loves a winning team.  While they were building a contending team, the minor league team suffered.  The farm system was (and continues to be) ranked at or near the bottom of the league.  This is how you build a win now team.  You sell the future for the present.  Al Avila has been left holding the reins on a dying team.  He has been at the helm for almost two years and has focused on the future.  Plenty of people want him gone, but I believe in him.  He needs time to draft for a couple of years and get players into the organization that will help the future out. 

Here we are in 2017 and the Tigers are slowly falling back again.  The rumors and murmurs are more dire than they were in 2015.  Talks of the Tigers going into full rebuild mode have sprung up.  It was reported early in the season that if the Tigers did not have a winning record by the end of June, they would be sellers at the trade deadline.  We are just over a week away from the end of the month and even if they win out the month, they'll still be near the .500 mark.  This is not good.  Everyone knows that no matter what, this team cannot make the playoffs.  Sure they are only three or four games back in the wild card race, but even if they make it, they cannot contend in the playoffs.  

If the organization goes into full rebuild mode it appears that not many players are safe.  It would be difficult to move players like Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, and Justin Verlander.  Mainly because they all have large contracts that not many teams want to take on.  If the Tigers move any of those players, most likely they would still have to eat some of the contract money and that binds their hands.  Victor is old and broken, it would be a miracle if any team asks about him.  Cabrera and Verlander are the faces of the franchise, can they be moved?  Absolutely, as painful as it is to say that.  If a team is willing to give up several top prospects for either of them and you are committed to the future, how could you not?  J.D. Martinez is the big name that people talk about.  He is a free agent at the end of the year and will probably not be with the team next year.  The way he is playing right now, he could bring back a couple of prospects at the trade deadline.  If he is still with the team in August, something is defiantly wrong.  Even players like Ian Kinsler, Justin Wilson, and Alex Avila are players people are talking about as being tradeable.  It's ugly, but that is how you contend in the future. 

People who know better than I think that this team will not be contenders until 2019 or even 2020.  The young talent is coming up through the organization.  There is plenty of buzz around the teams in West Michigan and Erie, but these players are young.  Mostly in their early 20s.  They need time to mature.  The talent is there and with the draft that was just completed, there is more optimism.  If you look at teams that are successful in the recent past (Kansas City, Houston, Chicago) they have all drafted and developed the talent.  These teams also suffered for long periods of time while drafting the talent.  I was listening to a podcast recently that was talking about how a team can be successful and it revolved around drafting and developing young talent and then getting a free agent or two to round out the team.  It is no longer about paying out big bucks and long contracts.  Having a team together for four or five years seems to be the mold.  Then you just hope that when the time comes you can move some pieces to make way for even younger talent.  It's a vicious cycle. 

While it is going to be painful to watch the Tigers over the course of the next few years, I am ready for it.  I am ready for the bandwagon fans to run away while the team struggles.  And I will be ready to welcome them all back once the team starts winning again.  Even if it won't be until 2020.  I will just enjoy the extra leg room on the bandwagon while you all go cheer for the Cubs and Astros. 

New Rules

In the middle of May, I was watching a random baseball game (like I do) because there wasn't much on during a day off I had.  I believe it was Tampa Bay and Kansas City.  Not exactly a marquee match up, hence the afternoon baseball game televised on MLB Network.  During the game a batter hit a hard and fast line drive foul and the ball boy made a great jumping catch preventing the ball from going into the stands and possibly hurt someone.  It got me to thinking, what are some fun (most most likely not going to happen) new rules for the sport of baseball.  Here's a list of fun things that can enhance the game we all love.

1.) If a ballboy/boygirl makes a leaping or diving catch before the ball hits the ground, the batter is out. 
2.) If a ball is hit into the opposing bullpen, the ball can be thrown back into play.
3.) No more dome stadiums.  Retractable roofs are acceptable.
4.) Teams are limited to seven (7) shifts per game.
5.) 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame.' is the only song to be played during the seventh inning stretch.
6.) Bat flips are mandatory for no doubt home runs.  No bat flip, runs don't count.
7.) All teams are required to attempt three (3) stolen bases each game.  If requirement is not met, the game is forfeit.
8.) Pitchers are restricted to four (4) throw overs to first base per runner.
9.) If first base is unoccupied a batter can attempt to take the base, regardless of pitch count, on a wild pitch or passed ball.

I tweeted these all out after the play in the Tampa/Kansas City game just for fun.  Then I got to thinking about some of these actually becoming part of the game.  One thing that a lot of people who don't like baseball say is that the pace of play is too slow.  They say it takes too long to complete the game.  Personally, unless the game is creeping into the five hour territory, I don't think the games are too slow.  Not all games are exciting to watch, I will admit, especially if it's two teams that are struggling.  If you make a rule like limiting shifts per game or limiting throws over to first base you keep the pitcher on task of throwing to the batter so the game keeps moving.  If you require a team to attempt stolen bases you force the game to move forward.  It creates excitement.  Stolen bases are fun.  You also create an opportunity for an out thus making an inning that much shorter. 

Cursed Cursive

 'I just hate sitting and writing.  I had to do that in school.  Plus I have terrible handwriting.' -Saul Kripke

Last month, my parents came out while my sister and her family were up for a hockey tournament my nephew played in.  My parents were nice enough to empty their basement of totes of my old stuff.  It was just four or five totes, but they decided since I live just a ten hour car ride away, that I needed to have these in my house.  This is a little bit of bullshit because my sister lived in the same town and yet she had totes in the basement for years and years.  It took her moving to Missouri to get them out of the basement.  Last night, my wife and I went through and weeded some stuff out.  During this fun expedition into my childhood, we found a bunch of my report cards from elementary school.  One thing was constant throughout all the years kindergarten through fifth grade.  My handwriting was (and continues to be) terrible.  Awful.  Cringe worthy.

There is no two ways about this, and I have always known that my handwriting is not the best.  Even when I slowly write things out, I still look at it in amazement at how bad it looks.  My wife makes fun of my signature and even when I take my time writing that it doesn't look great.  Whenever someone comments on my handwriting, I like to tell them the story of my fifth grade teacher (Mrs. Bump).  Granted I don't remember the minute details, all I remember is this one thing.  She said my handwriting was chicken scratch.  Looking back at it, it's funny because it's true but I'm wondering if it was at that point where I was like 'fuck it, this will be how I write from now on.'

Here are some comments from elementary school teachers regarding my handwriting:

• 'Needs improvement and additional practice.' -Mrs. Evans (1st grade) first semester
• 'Showing improvement, but still needs some additional practice.' -Mrs. Evans (1st grade) second semester
• Penmanship grades B, B-, B+, B-.  -Mrs. Campbell (2nd grade)
• Penmanship grades C, B- (Improving), B+, B.  -Mrs. Ware (3rd grade)
• Penmanship grades C-, C+, C, B-.  -Mrs. Bullock (4th grade)
• 'Breathe' (referring to spacing on my cursive writing). -Mrs. Bullock (4th grade)
• Penmanship grades C+, C-, C, D (written in black, pressed hard into the report card).  -Mrs. Bump (5th grade)

Obviously we see a trend of little to no improvement over the course of five years.  In fact, there was quite a sharp decline in fifth grade.  Penmanship has always been the least of my worries.  I struggled all throughout school in subjects like math and science and passing subjects like that was a bit more important than writing clearly.  Let's just not talk about me almost failing math my junior year of high school.  That's another can I don't really want to open.  Like ever.  

Stories With Notes

'Without music, life would be a mistake.' -Friedrich Nietzsche

To avoid the terribleness that is happening these days, I listen to more music.  More than usual.  Before last November I listened to a number of political podcasts.  I don't listen to them much these days.  It's just too infuriating and stress inducing.  It's one thing to have a politician in power that you don't agree with, it's another thing entirely to have a 'politician' in power that doesn't understand anything that is going on.  I'll still listen to them, but it gets to the point when I just can't anymore.  I hit that point most weeks by Tuesday.  

To fill the time and space in my drives to and from work, I listen to a lot of music.  As such, I have been talking to a lot of people about the types of music or artists they listen to in an attempt to expand my musical library.  While I was talking to some people yesterday, I asked if they had listened to a particular album that came out recently.  I was given a strange look as if my eyes were bleeding.  'You buy albums still?'  I responded 'of course I do, I'm old.'  I don't mean actual CDs, I buy them electronically.  I know that streaming music is more popular and commonplace today than it was even six or seven years ago, I just like owning music.  Sure, it's more expensive to do it this way, but this is my 'old person' mentality.  

There's plenty of times when I just listen to an album over and over again.  Part of it is because the music is connecting with me other times it's because I'm listening to the stories the album is telling.  While it is not true for every single album tells a continuous story, there are plenty that have themes.  One of the wonderful things about songs and music is that it can be interpreted in different ways.  Sometimes the story is obvious, but when you have a song that is ambiguous it leads to conversations.  While you think a song is about one thing, a friend might think it's about something completely different.  If you have that discussion, you'll listen to the song in a completely different way.  

That is the advantage of buying an entire album.  You can listen to it all over and over again and pull the stories out.  Just hearing one single from an album you don't get the full experience.  Sure there are going to be exceptions.  There are going to be albums that don't tell full stories or any stories at all.  It can just be a collection of songs.  This is one of the things I miss about buying a physical CD, the book with all the lyrics typed out.  It was great, you could listen to the songs while reading the words.  Sometimes with songs that I have downloaded, I'll listen to them and basically wonder what is happening.  I don't always listen in depth to individual songs, I just enjoy them.  If you have one song linking to the next and next and so on, don't you pay a little more attention?  Maybe? 

I don't know.  Maybe I'm just getting too old and want the music and songs to mean more than they actually are.  Or maybe they don't write them the way they use to.

Cart of Life

It's not that I have a coffee addiction, it's just that I enjoy it on a daily basis.  An entire pot of it.  I didn't start drinking coffee until I was in my mid 20s, and it was then that I found it to be wonderfully delicious and an even better decision.  Since then, I have had coffee almost every morning.  It is just part of the routine now.  Wake up, drink a cup, pour the rest in my thermos for work, and enjoy throughout the day.  It's all natural too, so it's much better than drinking things like pop or energy drinks, right? 

A post shared by Michael Litzner (@melitzner) on May 7, 2017 at 7:03am PDT

Once we moved into our house, I set up a nice little cart for my coffee and all things attached with said coffee.  Coffee beans, grinder, maker, filters, a place for my cups and thermos.  I do love my coffee.  Some might say I have a problem, but they're wrong.