Ahira's Hangar

Well, just when I thought the Tigers season could not get any worse...

...our starting pitcher Jeremy Bonderman is out for the rest of the season, as docs found a blood clot in his shoulder and had to make immediate emergency measures. baseball players have died from blood clots - but since it was caught in time, at least he has a very good chance to make a 100% come back next year.

Well, the Tigers seem to have been coming around ever since the life threatening injury to their 25 year old pitcher, Bonderman, who will be out for the rest of the season. Too bad they are way too far behind the White Sux for the recent wins to make any difference.

I believe that since Bondo went out with the blood clot and the angioplasty, the only game they have lost was the Train Wreck game to Cleveland. Well, they sent Dontrelle Willis (the Derailed Train) down to Lakeland after that horrible start, where they have a wonderful pitching coach. That is where they send all of their best young pitchers to start their pro careers, specifically so they can work with that guy. In fact, Verlander winters in Lakeland to be able to work with that guy. If anyone can straighten out Willis, that coach should be able to do it. And I will give Willis credit for being willing to go to the minor leagues and try to get himself straightened out.

I wonder if baseball has such a large following because it's such a direct, linear game. Every hit or miss, every base gained, every ball caught or not - it's very similar to cricket in that each player has a completely defined role and has to stand up for his figures at the end of the day. In football or Rugby you can have a terrible game for 95% of the time, score a lucky goal and still come out the winner. I should definitely get into this game as they show it on foxtel over here, and I could probably watch two or three games a week.

I think a big part of baseball's charm is it's long long history. The team in Detroit has been here for around a hundred or more years, and has only had two stadiums in that time. It is a fandom that families can pass along from generation to generation. Stories about the old horse trough urinals at the old stadium (I knew a guy who is a pharmacist and always took a medication to turn his pee bright red before he went to ball games to get plenty of room at the urinals ), seeing great players of the past, and stories about the strange things that have happened over the decades (and lots of truly strange things have happened to the Tigers over the years - go to youtube and search for Disco Demolition Night to see one of the weirdest from my childhood).

In my case, my parents moved to the Detroit area from the South in the 1950's to find work, so my children are only third generation fans. But I know plenty of people who are fourth, fifth, sixth, or much longer generation fans, with family legends centered around the team that go back for nearly that century.

The same is true for ice hockey in this area - the fandom and legends are passed on from generation to generation to generation.

In addition, with these two sports you have the long history of statistics (baseball in particular is a statistic driven sport) so you can try to compare the feats of great athletes from generations past with current athletes. One of the reasons so many people are so very upset by the steroids scandal in baseball is that major records that had been held in some cases for decades (like the single season home run record that had been held since the early 1960's by Roger Marris) were broken by people doing performance enhancement drugs. So records that had been fairly set by players consuming nothing more sinister than beer and hot dogs from the past have suddenly been smashed by cheaters fueled by winstrol and human growth hormone.

It's similar to rugby league over here. The NRL is celebrating its centenary year and all the old tribal folklore is being pushed to the fore by the marketing people. It's really a 50-50 thing for me - it's great that the past is being honoured, but you wonder where all the money generated by the sale of 'special' match shirts is going to end up. My team, the Rabbitohs, is now co-owned by Russell Crowe and there were fears that it was just a vanity project for him, but in a funny way he's the most traditional guy you could hope to have - he's all for team loyalty in an age where players are traded like so much meat, he's trying to get the kids back to the games by giving free tickets away - he's really putting in the hard yards.
And we've only won two games all season!!!

I wonder how many quality starts which should have been wins will be destroyed singlehandedly by Tigers relief pitcher Fernando Rodney before they actually do something about it. If there was a projectile vomiting smilie, I would be using it right now, after tonight's game with the Mariners.

Everyone I know is rooting for your Rays!

While I was at work last night the Tigers game went a full fifteen innings. Apparently Seattle ran out of relief pitchers, as they put in their backup catcher as a relief pitcher in the fiteenth inning.

The Tigers are so woefully pathetic (especially now that Magglio Ordonez has been out hurt) that they only managed to score one run on the guy!

I was really surprised last night when I got home from work at half past midnight, and the All Star Game was still ongoing. They ran extra innings and went until nearly 2am. Da boys tried to make an actual real game out of it this year!

I didn't pay much attn, ok 15% attn. I sooooooooo wish I had Josh Hamilton on all thre of my fantasy teams. In my head-to-head I go against Madtown this week-the "t" is actually a cross that has been trademarked We both have some of the best relievers in the league-he has Wagner and Papelbon and I have Hoffman and Percival---hurry up and heal Percival!

Smash those Xtian soldiers!!!

Go Angels!!!!

Hah. It has happened again.

Shortly before the All Star break, the Tigers were playing the Seattle Mariners, and the Mariners ran out of relief pitchers and sent out their backup catcher to pitch in late innings. Last night (and I curse the fact that I was at work and missed both of these games) they were playing the Kansas City Royals and the Royals ran out of relief pitchers and sent in a short stop to pitch.