Comments on: Everything is broken…arrggghhh

By: stephen

stephen — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:16:41 +0000

T, thanks for the nice words. Not sure if I could get anyone to go on the record about such touchy stuff. It is the clubhouse controversy that dare not speak its name.

As a journalist, I’m not going to either bury or praise the USA Today guy. I do know the dangers of trying to capture a clubhouse in one visit. That’s why I prefer magazine stuff. You spend a week with a team, you get a better sense of a team’s vibe. Not that’s it’s perfect, there’s a story in last week’s SI about the Brewers that clearly was supposed to be a week in the life of an upcoming team and the Brewers proceeded to hit the skids. You still gotta do the story. People might still be pissed with your story, but a writer can sleep better knowing he/she had the time to get it right.

And before anyone gets the idea I know what I’m talking about, I once advocated in a national magazine that Ryan Leaf would be a better pro quarterback than Peyton Manning.

In short, I’m pretty much an idiot.

By: T Smith

T Smith — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:48:17 +0000

One might think if Nightengale really wanted to go trolling for a story, they would have baited the players in our AAAA organization, the Florida Marlins. There is certainly some pun value there.

Oh yeah. I forgot. Our triple AAAA team is actually a first place team. Let’s ditch that.

By: greg

greg — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:36:35 +0000

Kathy – I agree, and maybe he did, and maybe he was told to go jump in a lake. We really don’t know. In any event, he didn’t name anyone specific, so I don’t understand the backlash. I can dig up countless ‘general’ quotes about team play from most players on every team, including the Tigers. No backlash from any of those general disparaging comments(we haven’t been playing well, we’re making errors, we suck, etc.)

Sean might be right that there’s something going on between the lines that I’m just not seeing.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:25:20 +0000

greg, if Inge feels guys aren’t hustling, he should say it in the clubhouse. That was Leland’s point and also to stop pointing fingers at other people and look in a mirror at yourself.

By: Sean C. in Illinois

Sean C. in Illinois — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:25:11 +0000

Matt in Toledo, I liked your angle on the article. But the quotes within it were what seemed to get everyone going. The article itself is ripe for parody. Anyone want to give it a try?

Dombrowski comissioned this article on the sly, and Nightengale may be receiving the back end oif the payment in October.

Hey, is Jeff Larish ready to help the Tigers or what?

By: Matt in Toledo

Matt in Toledo — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:27:05 +0000

Nightengale’s article didn’t really bother me at all. I imagined it as either he had the idea, or he was told, to “go find out what is wrong with the Tigers”.

So when he went in and didn’t see players in the throes of a potentially season-ruining slump all fired up and pissed he ran with the listless, lazy and incohesive angle. It almost writes itself, and I bet a similar story has been written about under-performing teams 100 times.

To me, the best indicator of hackery here was when he implied the team was broken because Maggs and Thames didn’t wear their socks high the day after the gimmick coincided with a win. I believe Leyland would say that’s horse****. I’d bet a lot of money the skeleton of this story was written on the plane to Detroit and he just needed to fill in the details.

By: Ryan In Brooklyn

Ryan In Brooklyn — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:47:19 +0000

Stephen and TSmith have tied this thread up for me. Those two posts hit the nail on the head for the main issues of this discussion.

(Oh yeah – and I’m still not buying the “chemistry” argument – one thing I agree with Leyland about).

By: T Smith

T Smith — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:19:31 +0000

stephen:

nice post. You might even want to pitch that one to your editor.

By: Sean C. in Illinois

Sean C. in Illinois — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:27:23 +0000

Nope, can’t see anything so terrible about what Inge said. If Leyland can, it’s because he knows Inge and can see things in between the lines I can’t.

By: Sean C. in Illinois

Sean C. in Illinois — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:18:46 +0000

Jim, I think you’re allowed to say bad things in the press about your team, as long as you don’t single out teammates for blame and include yourself in the negative picture. I’ll have to go back and look at the Inge quotes.

By: Sean C. in Illinois

Sean C. in Illinois — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:12:13 +0000

“Let’s give pettiness a chance. It’s been 24 years and we’ve tried everything else.”

Good one, Ron. All we are saying…

Nice idea about the barbecue at Inge’s place, too.

By: Sean C. in Illinois

Sean C. in Illinois — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:10:06 +0000

Greg, team chemistry can be viewed from a cultural perspective, but yes, I don’t know that Inge was saying anything about race or culture. Until some member of the press is bold enough to put the question directly to Detroit Tigers, I’m not going to read anything into what Inge or Grilli said. People have grudges and grievances for all sorts of less sensational reasons.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:08:34 +0000

Greg, not saying its a racial thing. However, Inge broke the cardinal rule of baseball. You dont go to the media + talk bad about your team. He could have said it face to face or even to Leyland. That is why Leyland got so mad. I think he was most upset with Inge. Thats why I think Inge will be gone. Interesting to see what his teammates think of him. Maybe if they had some guts, one of them would take Inge out back + whip his @3$.

By: ron

ron — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:00:02 +0000

Let’s give pettiness a chance. It’s been 24 years and we’ve tried everything else.

By: Sean C. in Illinois

Sean C. in Illinois — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:31:18 +0000

Oh, man. The Leyland audio is priceless. But if that’s a “tirade,” it’s the mellowest one I’ve ever heard.