I fondly remember Jeff Weaver. He was, after all, the only starting pitcher who the Tigers could really trust on the mound. He was the guy who many Tigers fans assumed the team would be built around. So I’m not surprised with all the hype surrounding his return to Detroit to pitch in the World Series. I suspect he’s still pretty popular with fans and he’ll receive a polite applause. Yeah, we’d like him to lose. But we’d like him to do well when he’s not playing the Tigers. He remembers his time with the Tigers as fondly. He told the Freep:

This is where it started for me, so I have nothing but good things to say,” Weaver said Saturday. “I always look forward to coming back here. The fans have been great to me. It will always be a spot in my heart.”

I remember him as being pretty firey. That, and we had his photo next to Eminem’s at my college paper because they looked like twins. [Hey, Weav..er...Eminem did the pregame music]. But now he’s got a few more years and some perspective after being a guy who didn’t make it with several MLB teams despite his talent.

In 2002, he was traded for Carlos Pena, Franklyn German and a player-to-be-named-later. That was sad. To me, that just furthered the disappointment because the Tigers were continuing to suck harder, and they were doing so without my favorite pitcher. What we didn’t know then, we know now. Two guys didn’t pan out, but the guy who did would eventually make it all worth while. Dave Dombrowski may not make trades fans like at the time, but he does make trades that work out well in the end. Still, it was a sad couple of years. In the meantime, I was glad that he would get a chance to try his pitching talent out on the big stage of New York, and in the playoffs. It didn’t really turn out positive for Weaver either at the time. But eventually, it all came around.

Maybe Todd Jones was confused when he made his comments. I was shocked when Jones was quoted as having “no love lost” for Weaver. Moreso that Jones would speak about an opponent like that than anything. The Weaver I remember doesn’t really seem like the type of guy Jones would have wanted to hang out with. But the “never panned out” in Detroit comment by Jones also caught me by surprised. I was really disappointed in the comments.

But how did Weaver deal with the situation Saturday?

“If that’s the case, I would figure that some of it got twisted. Todd Jones is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever run across.

“If he’s got unkind words for me, I don’t know what they’re stemming from. It’s the World Series. Maybe he’s just trying to get a little jab in here and there.”

So, to me anyway, Weaver is a guy you still want to root for. I’ll admit that when he made his first start for the Cardinals — in a nationally televised game — I watched and rooted for him. I rooted for him in his playoff starts, too.

Good luck tonight, Jeff. Not too much luck. But I hope you receive a warm reception and pitch to your ability. I just hope Kenny Rogers pitches to his, too!

St. Louis starter Anthony Reyes threw 91 pitches, about the same as Justin Verlander (96). The only problem is, Reyes went into the ninth inning before being relieved with a five run lead. Verlander limped — not literally! — out of the game with no outs in the sixth and a four run gap, which Jason Grilli turned into a six-run deficit. St. Louis went on to win the first game of the World Series, 7-2.

Reyes threw well, for sure. Helped by the Tigers batters, certainly, but he made his own fortune. Bilfer points out that only Magglio Ordonez even went to a three-ball count. Hopefully that whole impatience thing is only here for a game after a long layoff. He threw 67 strikes in 91 pitches and didn’t allow a baserunner from the first inning until Carlos Guillen singled in the seventh.

Verlander, eh, he was not so great. Not real bad. He didn’t get himself into a lot of trouble, but he wasn’t too good. Six hits. Two walks. 59 strikes on 96 pitches. That doesn’t sound like a guy with eight strikeouts, does it? And yet it was. Just kind of demonstrates how strange lines are sometimes, I guess.

Oh well. All good seven-game postseason winning streaks must come to and end, right?

Seems like there was some Tigers rust. I missed a chunk of the game, but the chunk I did get to see wasn’t very pretty. Defense. Hitting. Not pretty. Three errors. Brandon Inge had a few stumbles. Outside of Verlander and Grilli, the pitching seemed fine. But a lead Cardinals lead at that point doesn’t necessarily give us a great judge of much. It didn’t seem like Tigers baseball. That’s a refrain you hear a lot, “We didn’t play our type of baseball.” Maybe tonight, even if the Tigers did play their baseball, it wouldn’t have mattered. But hopefully for the next four-to-six, we see the team we’re used to.

The Albert Pujols homer, that stunk. I mean, he did his job. He hit it great. But I’d rather have seen him standing idle on first base at the time. I guess that’s a personal flavor.

Other than that, not much comes to mind. Long day. Crappy game. I’m sure I’ll be more useful tomorrow. Don’t get too upset over this one. Of course you want to win Game 1, and you want to win games in your own stadium, but everything can change in day. The only thing that’s changed is that St. Louis has a 1-0 series lead. Otherwise, the Tigers maintain all the advantages they had before. Just gotta keep playing games and see if they win out.

We’ve had a week of talk, rest, conjecture, dreams, perspective, lack-of-perspective, and just plain wanting to get it started. But none of that fancy pants, spiritual stuff now. It’s time to play the game.

Tonight. Justin Verlander takes the mound for the Tigers. He’s received a lot of accolades and a lot of national attention this postseason, but as Bilfer points out, just hasn’t pitched like the Verlander we’ve come to expect. Maybe it’s because he’s putting the most innings on his arm in his life, who knows. But he’s been a cool cat on the mound even while giving up some hits, so starting the first game of the Tigers’ first World Series in 22 years shouldn’t be a problem for him.

He’s rested at least. He hasn’t pitched for 10 days — since Oct. 11 — a long layoff. He had the extra rest before taking on the Yankees, too. That worked alright. He came out throwing fire, but gave up four runs. His last extended rest period in early August wasn’t especially helpful either. But all it takes is one more good start, and with a little luck and little skill, maybe it will be the last time he’s needed this season.

He’s got a good defense behind him, and a lineup that’s riding a wave of six straight playoff games won by three runs or more. And there will be 43,000 screaming Tigers fans, many of them new to the baseball playoffs but certainly experienced in making noise for a championship team.

Today, only two teams are still playing baseball. By Halloween, it’s all over until spring training. Let’s see if our guys will be the last ones standing.

Go get ‘em, Tigers!

Lynn Henning waxed poetically over what he believes baseball means to Detroit. I have found myself increasingly amazed at just how much the Tigers winning seems to mean. Whenever a team gets good, fans flock to it, and just kinda go ga-ga and live for the moment. I’m sure we all remember how few of us lived and died on pitches in 2003, or countless other years before my time with bad plotlines and awful teams. (My Tigers memories more or less start with a Matt Nokes baseball card, and I don’t know why, then skip to Cecil Fielder’s run to 51). But what seems to be going on with the Tigers, I say seems to because I’m not in the Metro area to know, sounds it has really transcended. Anyway, on to Mr. Henning:

Baseball’s grip on Detroit is at once historical and, perhaps, even spiritual. The Tigers are a blue-blood professional sports franchise with a lineage so hoary that Detroit ranks as a charter member of Major League Baseball. The game might have been only a few decades old when big-league baseball arrived in 1901, but the city was 200 years old and was rife with the threads of immigration and industry that would make baseball a rich presence in the city’s and state’s tapestry.

I can’t speak for the rest. I just wasn’t around for them. And I surely enjoyed the Pistons championships. But this Tigers team just seems to put a spell on you unlike other franchises from other sports. While maybe the 1984 or 1968 or some other clubs might have been better — who knows — this 2006 team truly became something special. This is going to be the team I look back and remember years and years from now. That’s probably true for most people under 30 who never knew the past eras by anything but name and reputation. It’s just the way they persevere, they soar, they stumble, they take flight again, and they share it all along the way. They’re giving back so much. It’s really a great relationship. That’s what makes them so special. Henning:

An old baseball town rediscovered its soul in 2006. Detroit and the Tigers and all those who attached themselves to the fate of a 105-year-old big-league team have created a glow so warm and so wide that, once again, America is left to ponder how it is that baseball can create merriment on the unique level experienced this month in the Motor City.

I don’t know if there is such thing as a once-in-a-lifetime team, but these Tigers are surely a first-in-a-lifetime team for many of us.

But of course, lots of people are saying it’s deeper than that. I also found myself nodding along with an article by LZ Granderson who wrote on ESPN’s Page 2.

No, it’s easy to make fun of Detroit when all you hear about is violence and poverty. And it’s true, the city’s hurting. Nearly a third of the families are living below the poverty line and over 70,000 people are unemployed. Last year, the average U.S. home sold for $167,500. In Detroit? $88,300.

But there’s more to a city than numbers and glitz. There’s a soul. …

Sure, the Pistons have been one of the best teams in basketball the past four years, but the truth is they don’t actually play in Detroit. They’re in Auburn Hills, about 30 minutes north of downtown. If you can afford the ticket, you still need a car that can make the trip and gas to get there. The Red Wings? A great team but not a sport that’s been embraced by those who live in the city. The Lions? Forgetaboutit. …

Yeah, it’s been tough, but I, like so many, am proud to be made in Detroit.

I said I wouldn’t make any of those crazy connections like “The Tigers are Detroit.” I write about sports for a living. I think there’s got to be that separation. There are sports, and there are things that really matter in life, and sometimes people get confused about what’s really important. But dang if it doesn’t seem more and more to me that I might be wrong on this. Maybe it’s okay if it does mean a little bit more to us than just a baseball connection.

I’m a guy who proudly wore a Tigers cap just because that Olde English D stands for Detroit, and it’s always nice to have it around. Maybe the Tigers, win or lose, have that extra something.

A few days ago, wearing my D-cap at the mall, I was asked, “I always see you wearing that Tigers hat. Are you from Detroit or something?” Strange question, maybe, because with all the winning the Tigers have been doing, I wouldn’t really have connected the two. Maybe the Tigers haven’t broken through to the general audience up here yet. I don’t know. But it gave me a bit of pride.

I nod. “Yeah, I’m from Detroit.”

I’m from the city. My parents are from the city. Their parents were from the city, even if they didn’t start off there. And the Tigers were there for all three generations of us.

Maybe it’s okay if the Tigers mean something more.

I really wish St. Louis would have taken care of business in Game 6 to give me a little time to actually look up stuff and write stuff. As it is, I think every baseball writer who isn’t paid as such is probably scrambling and hopefully among the bunch of us, you learn something useful.

The series:

Detroit swept St. Louis in June, 10-6, 7-6, 4-1. Bilfer does a lot better job at this than I do.

Interleague:

Detroit, 15-3. St. Louis, 5-10.

The team:

St. Louis won 83 games. In the National League. Jim Leyland says this doesn’t matter. We would expect him to say as such. If you’re good enough, you make the playoffs. If you’re not, you don’t. That’s the knowledge of Leyland. For St. Louis, 83 wins was enough to keep playing. In the National League. I know, I’ve mentioned that, but still. The Cards beat the Padres. Some would say improbably. I’m apt to agree. Baseball Prospecus’ secret sauce suffered a rare defeat in predicting that series. In seven games, the Cardinals beat the Mets to advance to the World Series. While this sounds like an upset — and probably is — it’s not as big an upset due to a weak Mets’ pitching staff, an increasing tired bullpen, and batters that couldn’t put up runs, reminscent of another New York baseball squad. Oh, and secret sauce was wrong on that series, too. But ask anyone, I actualy called the Cards to win it.

Pitching:

So what do the Cards have? Pitching wise, Game 1 starter is Anthony Reyes (who, by the way, was nearly traded with Dan Haren to Oakland for Mark Mulder). There’s Jeff Weaver, as you probably remember or will hear a million times, floundered for the LA Angels earlier this year while his brother flourished. He stunk up the joint in St. Louis, too. Until the playoffs. And a couple improbable starts later, he’ll be on the mound Sunday. Chris Carpenter needs no introduction. Today, neither does Jeff Suppan. He just won the NLCS MVP for two beautiful starts. Their closer, Adam Wainright, is a rookie. You may have seen him take care of business against the Mets. (I’m thinking Bobby Jenks suddenly).

So it’s not like the Cardinals have a pushover of a pitching staff. As good as Detroit’s? I doubt it. They gave up more runs this season without having to regularly face the Yankees, Indians, White Sox and Blue Jays. They don’t have a lot of strikeouts or a great closer, if you’re keeping track of the secret sauce.. Baseball Prospectus also points out they had 36 strikeouts in seven games of the NLCS.

Defense:

But, oh, that defense is really good. Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds, they don’t really need any introduction. Good thing there’s no defense against a home run! (Excluding the Mets’ Endy Chavez). But the Tigers also have the top defense (by efficieny rating) in baseball, so I think you have to give that to Detroit, too.

Offense:

The lineup? I wouldn’t really worry. Albert Pujols is obviously the big worry. His hamstring was said to be bothering him, but his OPS is nearly 1.000 anyway and he averaged a run per game but just four RBIs in the NLCS. But he’s good in any league. Other than that, they don’t have the power of the Tigers. They don’t have the speed of the Tigers. (!!!) Yes, the Tigers have NO speed, so that is saying a lot. They don’t particularly like lefties. (Cept maybe Pujols). The meat of their order seems to do fine against righties though. If people want to question who those guys in Detroit’s order, at least 7-8-9 all have 25+ homers. The Cards? Not so much. They are, like Detroit, balanced. Just not as good.

The conclusion:

The Baseball Prospectus simulation gave Detroit the title every 2 of 3 simulations. But we dont’ need a computer to state the obvious. This is a mismatch. This scrappy Cardinals team might be able to do some damage. Or it might not. But really, that’s about its only hope. T

Tigers really should sweep this. You hate to say that though, since no one ever sweeps when you predict them to. So everyone will say Tigers in five. Even if it’s Tigers in six, I find it extremely unlikely that the Cards have any real shot. (Which, as we’ve learned, doesn’t mean much. People have failed at predicting the futurs for St. Louis and Detroit the entire playoffs). Still I’ll say Tigers in 5.

Baseball Prospectus says:

BP posted its analysis late Friday/early Saturday. They agree, Tigers have been offense, defense, starting pitching and bullpen. But they, too are cautious.

The Tigers are pretty clearly the superior team, with no one area of particular dominance but small edges across the board, with the mostly trivial exception of the bench. My hunch, however, is that this will be a competitive series, with the Cardinals getting a good performance out of Reyes in Game One and winning Carpenter’s start in St. Louis. We�ll take the Tigers in six, but if the series goes the distance, setting up a probable Carpenter/Robertson pitching matchup that represents the least favorable permutation for the Tigers, we could see an upset.

You’re not the only one.

(MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free Press)

I know we do this for every championship, but I like how they’ve added the mums and baseball. The Freep has a short article.

Justin Verlander, welcome to the big-big-big-big time.

Freep’s Tigers blog by Bill McGraw reports Jim Leyland posted his World Series rotation, and Verlander is at the top.

DETROIT — The Tigers’ pitching rotation for the World Series will be Justin Verlander for Game One, Kenny Rogers for Game Two, Nate Robertson for Game Three and Jeremy Bonderman for Game Four, manager Jim Leyland said Friday.

Extras

I’m going to point out Motor City Kitties, which seems to have one post in total, but I liked the Dennis Miller writing.

Large chunks of ESPN Insider seem to be free for the week. Lots of good reading in there. So here’s Buster Olney.

My blogging on the previous Detroit-St. Louis meeting that came in June. Start from the botom.

Our ALDS MLBlogger Mark Newman is doing the World Series. That’s great. I really enjoyed his posts and photos.

1934. 1968. And now 2006. The St. Louis Cardinals took a 3-1 lead on a two-run, ninth-inning home run by catcher Yadier Molina. New York made it interesting — very interesting. Two batters at the bottom of the lineup singled, Paul Lo Duca worked a two-out walk to load the bases, but Carlos Beltran watched rookie closer Adam Wainwright’s strike three throw go by. They’ll now meet the Tigers in the World Series for the third time in the history of the organizations. (An interesting historical note, the cities met a fourth time when the Detroit Wolverines played the St. Louis Browns in 1887.)

Both teams’ starters pitched phenemenol games — Jeff Suppan allowed two hits in the first inning and not another in seven innings of work — but it came down to relief. St. Louis had the better relief and pulled out the 4-3 series victory at Shea Stadium.

Game 1 of the World Series is Saturday night in Detroit. The Tigers will be seen (rightfully so) as the heavy favorites. Being favorites doesn’t necessarily mean anything, though. Just ask the Mets. And the Padres. And the Yankees. (And depending who you asked, the A’s). I’ll try to break down as much as I can tomorrow.

In the meantime, prepare to hear about Jim Leyland’s love of Tony La Russa and the Cardinals organization, Leyland and La Russa’s friendship, Jeff Weaver’s former time in Detroit, Detroit’s sweep of St. Louis earlier this year, the battle of two underdogs, and probably that the teams have met before. (Likely the media will say something silly as if ‘68 has anything to do with ‘06.) Freep’s John Lowe points out no matter who wins, something historic occurs: Either Leyland or La Russa will join Sparky Anderson as the only other manager to win World Series titles in both leagues. In other words, plenty of storylines. Stale ones regionally, but storylines none-the-less. This matchup is good for Midwest baseball, bad for ratings.

This one is ours.

There’s something about being Detroiters — I don’t know, maybe this goes on in other towns, too, but more and more it seems a Detroit thing — that makes us want to look around for acceptance from the outside world. I don’t know, maybe it’s because we don’t really have much of our former identity left. The positives associated with Detroit — Motown and motor city — have left us.

Maybe for that reason, we get really excited when our sports teams play on the national level, when a musical act makes it big, or if someone from the suburbs ends up on a television show. Not just for our own enjoyment. But we want it to mean something more. People are looking at us, we think. We try to show them the bright sides of things. Not all of the city is bad. Some things in the suburbs are a lot nicer than in most other places. There’s some smart things and smart people and southeast Michigan really is a nice place to live. Would you just accept us as being like the rest of the country, just this once, and stop with the damned jokes?

I’m as guilty of looking for acceptance as the next guy.

But I’m going to say it now: Forget them. (Insert another F word of your choice, actually, I sure did). Forget ‘em. We don’t need ‘em. They’re going to see what they want to see. They’re going to hear what they want to hear. They’re idiots. Being a native Detroiter in northern Michigan, I came to that conclusion. If you’re around enough people who hate Detroit, there’s only one thing you can say. “Forget you, I’m from Detroit. I don’t care what you think.” Or another F word of your choice.

Maybe it doesn’t have Broadway or Lakeshore Drive, and it has its ills, but it’s ours. The national media know its benefits — they’ve been here often enough. Maybe it’s not nice like Miami, whatever, who cares. I remember vacationing in southern Florida when the object was to avoid getting too close to Miami, even on the highway, or they’d shoot at you. Ironic, I’m sure. But all anyone wants to talk about is South Beach. They’ll say what they want.

Forget ‘em.

What the Tigers did, they did for themselves first. Let’s not kid ourselves. The guys in the clubhouse. They are not looking around and saying “If only the New York Yankees liked us, we’d be so cool!” They’re saying “AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONS, @#$#! !!!” just like we are. I’m not going to say they did this for US. But you can tell, when they say they wanted to give something to the fans, they mean it. It’s ours to enjoy, too. Now the two of us have a connection that is going to stand the test of time.

So let’s take a lesson from them. Let’s not just give it away that easily. We don’t need any of the outsiders. We don’t need metaphors about a written-off blue collar team in a written-off blue collar city. We don’t need to hear about how the Tigers make people happy for three hours a day during their otherwise miserable lives. That’s condenscending, it’s said with a wink to the audience. Of course the Tigers make us happy, but there’s 26 other cities whose teams hope to say the same thing. We don’t need to be the little team that America roots for.

Sure, we appreciate it if other people enjoy watching our guys play, too. But we don’t need them to. Something amazing went on this season and will go on for at least four more games, something we’re going to remember for as long as we can catch a baseball or listen to a game. Something big happened.

Even Drew Sharp realized it!

It’s ours. It should mean something to us. And I think the Tigers do mean a little something more to us, too. But they don’t have to mean anything to anyone else.

We’re Detroit. Forget you!

Honest, sitting there at work listening to the radio broadcast, all I could do is stand up and look toward the TV. What do you think when your team is going to the World Series but “HOLY CRAP! AWESOME!” When the media kept asking the players on the team what they thought when Magglio Ordonez hit the game-ending home run, most couldn’t come up with a very good answer, and I don’t blame them. Hours later, all I can think is “HOLY CRAP! AWESOME!” Actually, crap isn’t the word in my head right now. THE WORLD SERIES!! AWESOME! The Tigers won the 10th pennant in the history of the franchise… and the second in my lifetime… and the first one I’ll actually remember!

Who’d have thought an American League championship could be this cool? Every time the Tigers have a party, it feels like they’re setting an awfully high bar for themselves. That was a nice playoff-clinching party. It was a bit small, it turns out, compared to some other teams. Then after beating the Yankees last weekend, now that was a party, spraying champagne on fans, and wow. That was awesome. Man, I don’t remember baseball feelings so cool as that. Now, they’ve went and topped themselves with the American League championship. And holy crap, it was quite a way to end the game, too. I’m glad I had the radio call.

Reading the stories, sounds like they’re having a heck of a party in Detroit. I wish I was there for it. For awhile, I started wondering if it was just a hollow saying to say “Detroit is a baseball town” or “Michigan is a baseball state.” Wishful thinking more than anything, a yearning for the past maybe. Turns it, it was true all along.

All those years of listening to the Tigers on the radio, wearing a Tigers cap, playing baseball, yearning for a winning team, and I kinda wondered if there weren’t many people like me. Turns out, there were people like me all over the state nation(!) just waiting for a chance to erupt. And we keep getting chance after chance to make up for all those empty years.

Detroit. Back on the baseball map.

Oh, my prediction? It was Tigers in five games. So they passed my expectations even. There’s lots of good stories and interesting points to explore, but it looks like we have a week off from baseball to explore them. For now, just take in the feeling.

AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!!!

That needed repeating because I still don’t believe it.

What do we do for an encore? Who knows! But if the Tigers keep winning for us like they have been, it’s going to be one hell of a good time.