Relaunch- 2011 edition

It has been a long time. Much has happened, the world continues to turn. I think about this blog often. I work on it much less often. The world goes on anyway. As I muse about Section 148 I keep coming back to the same issue- I can't keep up with just Tigers' baseball as much as I should to do a blog justice. As much as I love the Tigers, my brain just isn't wired that way. To paraphrase one of my favorite movie lines- "(My) focus needs more focus."

So, rather than go against my own nature, I'm going to go with the flow and readjust my focus.  Well, broaden it actually.  I will hit on the things that strike my fancy, my brain or my bowels- it will depend on the day and the events of the day.  You won't see rants here (at least not in my opinion), that's not my style.  You may see some commentary, both mine and stuff I see as I bounce around the web.  You may see some funny stuff (I enjoy the weirder side of life).  You may see things that I believe are touching, poignant or worth pondering.  For certain you will find things that I have learned and thought to be revealing/ interesting.

You will continue to see Tigers' stuff.  I may comment about the day's game or something.  I will certainly link to posts from the Tigers and baseball blogs that I read regularly.  Please follow the links to those sites, I get a great deal of pleasure from them and I want others to also.

This is the relaunch post.  Opening Day is only two weeks away.  (I was amazed to find out that some people think of November 15 as "Opening Day" recently.  It just goes to show how different people can be.)  A huge earthquake and tsunami have recently struck Japan and they are desperately trying to prevent a nuclear disaster as a result.  Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day (so my daughter and I are off to buy a green scarf).


Slainte!

Rivalry

Tigers vs. Twins July ‘08

This has been a very interesting series. You have two good teams battling for every win they can get as they both chase the White Sox, and it’s only July 1.

Usually I look at the numbers, but this series brings up the softer(?) side of baseball- the personalities and emotions that make it a game. I didn’t see the bean ball that the Twins’ pitcher Glen Perkins threw at Carlos Guillen, but I saw Galarraga throw 2 at Mauer a couple of innings later and I thought “Wow! That looked weird.” Then I saw a replay of the ball thrown at Guillen earlier and those two pitches made sense. I kind of admire the way that Pudge and Galarraga dealt with it too, they didn’t go after the first batter they faced in the next inning. Nope, they waited- for the Twins’ catcher. No point in brushing back an outfielder, they can’t change anything anyway. Nope, since you can’t show the pitcher you’re pissed you wait for his “battery mate”.

I, personally, don’t see anything wrong with “purpose pitches” as long as the pitcher is simply keeping the batter from getting too comfortable on the plate. It all fits into strategy and tactics in the game. I don’t think letting go at somebody’s head is part of that. I’m not even sure that Perkins meant to do that against Guillen, but Guillen certainly did. When I saw the replay I was impressed with the “look” (stare?, death wish?) Perkins received in return. Then Galarraga returns the favor, just sending a message that “you can’t mess with my boys!”. Good baseball.

Then there is another story in this series- Craig Monroe. He was a huge part of 2006 for Detroit, but in 2007 he couldn’t duplicate and he was traded to the Cubs before he ended up in Minnesota, but not happy about it. He wanted to stay with Detroit and was bitter about how it all worked out. Well, 2008 has been much like 2007 for C-Mo. He hasn’t hit well for the Twins (.218 BA and .451 SLG with 8 home runs). But he saves up something special for when he plays Detroit. 3 of his 8 home runs have been against the Tigers, including a 3 run blast on Tuesday night that turned out to be the game winner. There is some serious emotion there. It reminds me of Magglio Ordonez playing against the White Sox, he just seems to take it up a few notches against his old team (which is should be really scary for Chicago). C-Mo lets his bat speak for him saying “This could have been for you, but now it’s going to hurt you Detroit!”. I admire that (even if I wouldn’t take him back).

There is much to this game that stats don’t really show. That’s why it’s fun to watch teams like Detroit and Minnesota play it the way it is supposed to be played. I just hope Detroit plays a little bit harder on Wednesday to take the series.

Here we go...

Section148's Manifesto-
This blog is focused on Major League Baseball. Even more, it is focused on the Detroit Tigers. Maybe "focused" is too strong of a word, we may go in other directions too- as long as I can make some nebulous link to the Tigers (or at least MLB)than anything is fair game.

I love baseball as a professional sport. In my eyes baseball has many of the same challenges as life:

For example- baseball shows that perfection is not necessary! A couple of weeks ago the New England Patriots came very close to achieving the goal of a perfect season, only losing the Super Bowl in the final seconds of the game. I don't know about where you work, but perfection like that is probably beyond our organization's abilities. In baseball, however, the best teams ever win 6 or 7 games out of 10 over the course of a season. To me such an accomplishment seems more like life. If our organizations/ businesses/ whatever succeed 6 days out of 10 then we are on a solid path and should feel good about it! That's 3 good days out of a normal work week if you break it down. How does that compare to your week?

People make the difference in baseball. Different people bring different skills to the game every day, and nothing is for sure on any day. Again the basis for success is pretty lifelike. A MLB batter is doing well if he can hit the ball 3 out of 10 times he is at the plate. Just making in on base happens only 4 out of 10 times for the best players in the game. Of course hitting a 3" ball thrown by a guy who gets paid millions of dollars to keep you from hitting it is why the batter also gets paid millions (if he can do it well.) But in the workforce we also have to deal with "fastballs" and "curveballs" being thrown at us many times, so the comparisons survive. Even on defense the Game mimics life. Placido Polanco committed no errors in 2007 in 683 plays, that is perfection! Brandon Inge committed 18 errors in 434 plays but is considered an extremely good 3rd baseman because he makes more attempts than many 3rd basemen. Sometimes the fact that you try means you'll drop the ball, but at least you tried! Maybe you kept a runner from going to 2nd or 3rd on a ball you dropped. That's what it is about.

So it is February in West Michigan. The thermometer has risen to 5 above zero today. The wind is at 13 mph and nobody wants to go outside, but in just 4 days the pitchers and catchers for the Detroit Tigers will be starting Spring Training in Lakeland, FL and preparing for another 162 games (and hopefully a few more in the Post-Season!). I plan to follow them very closely and keep this going a few times per week as the 2008 MLB Season goes on. The blog may get a little bumpy, but hopefully the Tigers' season will be less so. I also read the blogs of many other Tiger and baseball bloggers daily and will be linking to them frequently. Once I figure out how, I'll put links to them in sidebar of this page.

Next time a prediction for the American League and some other thoughts.