Well, the Tigers go 1-5 for the week, including being swept by the Sox this weekend. Their lead shrinks to 5.5, and now we'll see what this team is made of. Got to tell myself: This is baseball, A 5.5 game lead in the middle of August would be desired by every other team in the league ('cept the Mets, who enjoy a 14 game lead), and the Tigers still have the best mark in the league at 76-41. And in the end, all this will probably prove to be a positive for the team. They were bound to struggle sooner or later and it's better now than later.

Whew! Just finished watching Jones pitch a 1-2-3 ninth in Boston. Ahh! (Sigh of relieve) That's better, the above paragraph is probably me panicing a little. But when you're so used to seeing the Tigers win this year, it can make you go a lttle crazy when they lose 5 in a row.

Back to this weekend, I feel sorry for Rogers, who had been struggling of late. He comes out and pitches 7 stellar innings on Saturday, and allows only 4 hits. But Guillen gives the Sox an extra out in the 5th and they make him pay. Then later on in the game Inge sails the start of a sure double play into right field. Oh well, the Tigers and Leyland don't seem to be bothered or panicing, so I shouldn't either.

Also, props to new Colts kicker Vinatieri, who starts off the pre-season with a sneaky successful on-side kick. And then Manning leads em' down the field for a TD in his only appearance in the game. Can't wait to throw on my trusty, blue, #18 jersey, during the games this year. My fall Sundays are always well spent at Buffalo Wild Wings, with a dozen mild, a couple of Buds and a Colts victory.

And on a non-sports related note, The Simpsons Season 8 DVD hits the shelves tomorrow, and I'll be headed straight to Best Buy after work to purchase my copy.

First things first, I would like to say thanks to DennisKytasaari, editor of The Simpsons show guide, for making me a "trusted contributor." Pretty Sweet. So, thanks again to Dennis.

Now, on to the Tigers. They go 5-2 for the week, sweeping The Tribe this weekend. I was at Sunday's game, where Ledezma did a fine job on the mound, in a fill in role for the resting Justin Verlander. Ledezma got Hafner to strike out twice, which was impressive to me, because back in late May, I was also at Comerica, when I watched Hafner park a Kenny Rogers pitch right over the "Ditch the Dish" sign in right field, some 330 feet away, in like point 2 seconds.

Got to see Pudge play 1st base, which was pretty cool, I believe he has only started at 1st, 4 times now, so it's pretty rare to see him play that position. He made a nifty and kind of unconventional double play. He was holding the runner on 1st and stepped off the bag when Ledezma went home with the pitch. Ground ball came right back to Pudge, who looked at little out of position, but he quickly scooped it up, ran a few steps to 1st for the force, and then turned and gunned it to 2nd in time for the tag. The atmosphere at Comerica is awesome. I thought it was great in May, but man, you get that feeling like you're witnessing history in the making when you're at the stadium.

I was at a restaurant/bar on Sat. night and could not hear the game, but I could see it on TV, and I got goose bumps watching Pudge run around the bases like an excited kid at Christmas time, after his walk-off homer. I'm only upset that I missed Dan Dickerson's home-run call on the radio. I love his tater call, can't say the same for Jim Price though, but man Dickerson gets me all pumped up. Plus, Monroe hits the go ahead homer in the 8th on Friday. Missed that call though, I'm embarrassed to say that I turned off the game after they were trailing 5-0 in the 4th.

Anyway, man are the Tigers getting really, really exciting. And also football season is quickly approaching. This is a bittersweet time of year: Summer is ending, but baseball playoffs and the NFL are arriving. I Look for the Lions to be much improved this year in a weak NFC North. And I look for my favorite team, the Colts, led by the finest pass/catch duo in the league, to win the AFC South for the 4th year in a row, and thus making the playoffs for the 5th year in a row. I'm always confident that they'll win on Sundays, but man has it been disappointing the last 4 years. Especially after last year, you go from 13-0 to getting beat by The Chin, The Bus, and the rest of the 6th seed, wild card Steelers. NICK HARPER, JUST KEEP RUNNING STRAIGHT! Oh, it's painful to watch that replay, it's the most gut wrenching football game I've ever watched, so many ups and downs. I'm also looking to make it back to Indy for a game this year. I was there in 03 and 04 (both wins over the Falcons and Titans respectively). But I couldn't get tickets in 05.

Whoa, starting to ramble. Let's end it with: Go Tigers!

As the aforementioned title suggests, this weekend was pretty good. I spent time in beautiful Traverse City MI. And the Tigers go 4-2 for the week, nearly sweeping the Twins.

Watched the Tigers through 6 innings on Sunday, and then left the TV to go swimming and get some sun. Let's set the stage: Santana was chased from the game. The Tigers were up 3-0. Bonderman was cruising with a one hit shut out. Recent call up Brent Clevlen was having a nice rookie debut game, going 2-3 with 2 runs scored and he throws out Luis Castillo at the plate So, when I check back later to see what the score ended up being, I expected maybe a Bonderman complete game shutout or at the very least, something like 5-2 or 7-3. But a crazy bottom half of the eighth inning in which the Twins score 6 happens, and I'm shocked to find out that they lost. Oh well, 8.5 ahead in first and 36 games above .500 is still nothing short of spectacular.

Also, Tigers get Sean Casey, with his .304 career batting average and decent glove at first, and they send Shelton down to Toledo to work on his swing. With any luck, Red Pop will come back up in September, when the roster expands, with a revamped swing. Plus, since Casey is probably just a rental for this year, Shelton should still be a Tiger in 2007. So, kudos to Dombrowski for getting a guy that's not going to upset the balance and chemistry in the clubhouse, and is going to provide left-handed pop at the plate.

And, this upcoming Sunday, Verlander should be on the mound against the Indians, and I'll be in attendance cheering him on to what very well could be his League leading 15th win, barring Tuesday night in Tampa of course.

Well the Tigers go 4-2 for the week, should have swept the A's though. On Saturday, Miner couldn't hold a 5 run lead and the Tigers left 7 men on base. I think it was the 6th inning when Shelton is up to bat, 3-0 count, 1 out, and runners on 2nd and 3rd. Shelton takes the next pitch for a strike. That's fine, he shouldn't have the green light on 3-0 anyway. Next pitch is a slider away, swing and a miss. Next pitch is a letter high fastball, way out of the strike zone, swing and a miss. (Insert random string of expletives here). Golden opportunity for at least one run should have been two. Oh well, just have to tell myself that if this is all I have to complain about, then it's a good thing I'm not a Royals fan.

Excited about the fact that the Twins are looking past the White Sox, who they play this week, by moving their rotation around to make sure that Santana and Liriano both face the Tigers this weekend. That's fine by me, gotta beat the best to be the best.

Also, I love the fact that the Sox are scared enough of the Tigers making a deal for Soriano, that they've put themselves in the bidding for him in an effort to block the Tigers. If the Sox do get him, they'll probably just turn around and flip him for some starting pitching.

The return of Young to the lineup was awesome, maybe now the Tigers just might stay pat and not trade. While Dombrowski knows what he is doing, I like all the guys in the clubhouse and you'd hate to see some of the chemistry broken up in the clubhouse if someone had to go, to make room for Soriano or anyone else.

Up next is Cleveland and Minnesota, both on the road. We should have a great chance at 6-4 or 7-3 on this road trip because after the Tribe and the Twins, the Tigers travel to Tampa for 4 games with the D-Rays.

Pre-Trade Deadline Playoff Predictions:

AL East: Red Sox NL East: Mets
AL Central: Tigers NL Central: Cardinals
AL West: Rangers NL West: Giants
AL Wild Card: Yankees NL Wild Card: Braves

Heckuva All-Star Game last Tuesday. Kenny Rogers gets the start and allows one run over two innings. Really nice to see Pudge and Kenny get to be battery mates during the All-Star Game. Pitching dominated the game the whole way, and Brad Penny was pretty impressive, striking out the side in the first. For the most part all he threw were fastballs, and all in the high 90's. Feel kind of bad for Trevor Hoffman, one of the more dominating closers of this era. With two out in the top of the ninth he allows three straight hits, including the game winning 2 RBI triple.

Anyway it was a great weekend for the Tigers they took 3 of 4 from the Royals, while the White Sox got swept by the Yankees leaving them 4.5 games back of the Tigers. This is the largest lead for the Tigers this year. I listen to the 670AM out of Chicago and its great listening to those guys worry about the Sox and give respect to the Tigers This all makes for some very interesting baseball starting on Tuesday when the Tigers and the Sox take each other on for a three game set in Motown.

With the trade deadline looming, I'm getting a little antsy, as I wonder what the Tigers will do. There's a lot of talk that they need a left handed bat, which is true. Hopefully Dmitri Young can come back and add a little more pop in the lineup. If they do make a trade I could see them offering up Zach Miner who although is a good young pitcher, the Tigers don't have that much invested in him. They got him in the Kyle Farnsworth trade last year from the Braves. They still would have plenty of good young pitching in the minors, plus Maroth should be back soon and they've got Jordan Tata, who was used in relief earlier this year and did well. He was sent down to gain experience as a starting pitcher because he just couldn't get much game time due to the success of the stating pitching this year.

Let's go Tigers!

Whether or not anyone reads this, doesn't really matter. The fact that I can actually write about the Detroit Tigers current success is awesome. For so long they have been a bottom feeder team in Major League Baseball, and all I wanted was for the team to play .500 ball and make the season interesting. To go from the 2003 season when they lost 119 games to this; 30 games over .500 at the All-Star Break is great. Truth be told, I thought that the Tigers had decent talent last year, but they underachieved and had problems in the clubhouse. Alan Trammell was a great player, and is a great person, but I just don't think he had what it took to keep a clubhouse in order. To his credit he was too much of a nice guy. (God Bless Jim Leyland.) Like I said, I think the talent was already there, granted they did add Kenny Rogers in the off-season, Magglio Ordonez came back from injury, rookies Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya are pitching off their heads and Zach Miner has really stepped it up as a fill-in starter for the injured Mike Maroth. But this team could have easily finished at .500 instead of 71-91 last year. Anyway here's to the Tigers continued success and hopefully an exciting playoff run.