By now everyone who reads my baseball stuff knows that the Detroit Tigers, my Detroit Fucking Tigers, went crazy and signed the affable and corpulent Prince Fielder. As a Tiger fan, I have seen a couple weeks of emotional roller-coaster … Continue reading
That’s it, the season’s over. The art of fiction is alive again. Invention has wrestled itself free from reality. And now the totally banal, the most obviously mundane, is all that is plausible. Imagination will be our only escape from crushing … Continue reading
Honestly, I don’t have a God damn thing to add to yesterday’s incredible, kind-of come-from-behind victory (they were down 1-0 early on) the Detroit Tigers managed to pull off in their last game in Michigan in the ALCS. Except this: … Continue reading
Today I invoke the awesome power of one Mickey Lolich, the Detroit Tigers’ 1968 World Series MVP. The “hero to the fat man” (as he thought of himself), won three games in that series, which was a nail biter to … Continue reading
Today I invoke the spirit of the crazy 1970s, the decade when I was weaned on baseball, and when I first met the man who would be my stepdad, James Younger. And I celebrate my new favorite Tiger, southern California … Continue reading
In the immortal words of old-tyme Tigers manager Hughie Jennings: EEYAH! Despite the fact that my heart has been given perhaps too much of a workout, this was one hell, one freaking hell, of a great baseball game. 3-2 Tigers … Continue reading
As our cameras turn to Gotham, today I invoke the kind spirit of my Grandma Schilling, who more than anyone fostered my love of this great and noble sport. Baseball has personal memories for everyone who loves it, tales of … Continue reading
In the aftermath of the Tigers’ 10-1 drubbing at the hands of the mighty New York Yankees, I invoke the sour image of one Alfred Manuel “Billy” Martin, former manager of the Tigers, Twins, A’s, Rangers, and the God damn … Continue reading
At the start of the American League Division Series, your writer was about halfway through his 43rd year. At the close of the Tigers postseason, whether the first round ends tonight or they suffer defeat in Gotham tomorrow, I figure … Continue reading
Let’s be honest here, shall we? Major League Baseball doesn’t give a flying handshake for the people who don’t have cable television. If you have failed in this most American endeavor, as I have, then you’re screwed in the postseason. … Continue reading