2011: Thank You Tigers

(special thanks to Samara from Roar of the Tigers for allowing us to use her image.  Check out her brilliant work here.)

Please add yours…

Thank you Alex Avila for your perseverance.

Thank you Jim Leyland for your class and an abundance of next-morning-talking-material decisions.

Thank you Dave Dombrowski for Delmon Young, Wilson Betemit and Doug Fister.

Thank you Brandon Inge for remaining faithful to your work effort and this team.  I think you may have a few new (old) fans.

Thank you Jose Valverde for keeping things interesting on the field and immediately after the last out.

Thank you Miguel Cabrera for showing us that a kid at heart can be the best player on the field.

Thank you Justin Verlander for your determination and resolve.

Thank you Ramon Santiago for being Ramon Santiago.

Thank you Don Kelly for your ALDS magic.

Thank you Nick D for the Minor League Updates.  Great work.

Thank you Dan Dickerson and Jim Price for being my best friends all summer, even if I do all the listening.

Thank you Tigers for another glorious summer of baseball.  I don’t know what I’d do without you.

Thank you billfer for letting Coleman and I have some fun with DTW, and thank you everyone for stopping by.  Plenty of off-season talk coming up.

33 thoughts on “2011: Thank You Tigers”

  1. Rayburn and Inge sucked for 120 games and did ok for 50,……both have to go!!!!! the season is 162+ games
    Guillen and Ordonez have contributed a ton but its time to retire and start coaching!
    Jackson cannot bat first but that is more about Leylands ego than anything else so you can plan on Jackson batting first. You will never convince Leyland those 180 K’s and 50 first at bat K’s mean anything
    Middle relief is a crap shoot …so see who’s out there….if middle relievers werebetter pitchers they wouldn’t be middle relievers!
    Lamont has to go…Leyland won’t allow this so just switch him with Brookens. Lamont can do less damage at first…
    Sign a .275…20 HR…75 RBI third baseman….and know thats not Inge
    Either start Santiago, which I am fine with 120 games, or sign one…
    Bring Turner up to be the 5th starter…..live with it…..
    Boesch,Dirks, Young, Jackson, Kelly nice solid outfield nothing needed there
    Sign up and actually use a back up catcher…he needs to catch 40+ games

    not much of this is major and most at least has some validity to it……..
    Lastly THANK YOU TIGERS for accomplishing much more than we expected!!!!

  2. …and great job Coleman and Kevin for maintaining/updating the site – and giving everyone an opportunity to comment and vent

    a lot to be optimistic for in ’12

  3. JL constantly gets outmanaged Tigers you did a great job thanks for the memories, beena tiger fan for over 50 years

  4. Thanks to Coleman and Kevin for keeping the site up, even for those of us who only comment rarely but visit often. As for the Tigers, I’ll thank some of the other folks who made my 30 trips to CoPa enjoyable — Mr. Reginald, best ice cream and now beer seller (although they still need to bring back Boston Coolers to the ice cream shop), Walt the red-striped old-fashioned hot dog vendor and Mr. Shirley for checking the tickets every time.

  5. Thanks to Kevin in Dallas and Coleman for continuing this outstanding blog. I don’t post often, but I read regularly and the banter here is the best! Have a great winter–GO Tigers!

  6. I was pulling for the Tigers and was sorry to see them lose, but they did have a great season. And they took out the Yankees, for which I am grateful. Texas is just an unbelievable team with all kinds of weapons…it will take a team of destiny (like the Cardinals seem to be) to beat them.

    I visited Comerica Park for a game in June of this year and thoroughly enjoyed it. You guys have a beautiful ballpark…one of the best in the major leagues. Best of luck to you in 2012.

  7. thanks to Kevin, Coleman and everyone who makes this site enjoyable. Living in Alabama, I don’t get to see that much of the Tigers, and this site helps me follow them all summer.

    Great year, let’s win it all in 2012.

  8. Great write up Kevin. Let me validate the good words about Ramon being “Ramon.” I recall being at a Rangers v. Tiger game during the 2010 season where we were sitting on the 3rd base side between the dugout and foul pole. About 10 minutes before the start of the game, several Tigers, including Ramon came out to stretch their legs. For the fun of it, I yelled with a rolled tongue “RAMON!” in the normally quiet Ranger ballpark. He immediately turned around and smiled as he appreciated the recognition. He has since become a favorite of mine and after watching his play more closer I have learned Ramon is “Ramon” and a good dedicated ballplayer and more importantly observed him as a great teammate.

  9. Yeah thanks to the guys who ran the site and participated in the site, but no thanks from me to the team. In fact it made me sick to my stomach to see how many people are giving thanks to the team when they did everything wrong. This team was a sad miserable sack of crap and they don’t deserve any praise. We are disgusting for what we have done to our town yet again by perverting baseball logic and squandering an opportunity to take a WS title when every other team was laying down begging for a good managed team to pass through.

    Shame on you Tigers, you guys are pathetic losers because of the foul-stenched bad apples that ruined this team and the enjoyment of this sport for me. Hopefully in 2012 there are serious changes. All of you lovely naive fans deserve so much better. Good luck to us next year in making the proper changes!

    1. I have stopped going to this site solely because of TSE. Can we ban him for next year?? He has been banned off of Motown Sports. There is really no need to let him post his hateful irrational fantasy-baseball non-sense here.

        1. This is very interesting. How many visitors are we losing b/c of TSE? I’m inclined to consider Shane’s request.

          I always want to respect every viewpoint, no matter how narrow. Some of TSEs points are thought-provoking. Though posts like this one are uncalled for and lack creativity.

          1. Re: TSE
            How about a warning with guidelines. Points are one thing, but to me we are all Tiger fans and nobody in baseball or life does everything correctly. As a fan its OK to me to vent in a positive way, but senseless ongoing vicious babel is not helping to make this a place to “talk” baseball. I love the game day baner and insight people bring. No one here is looking for over the top behavior.

            We have a pretty decent team, I have said many times here, try being a Royals or O’s fan and you will see we have it pretty good with an owner who will and HAS spent a lot of his cash.

            Hearsay on getting banned elsewhere, but if its true my opinion either way is to let him know what is acceptable and what is not and that there is a very short leash. I would think we want all the Tiger fans we could get not a negative harsh voice.

            Looking forward to spring training.

            Steve

          2. Do we have actual written guidelines? Swearing, insulting other commentators etc. should be obvious no-nos, but it would be nice to have a prominently displayed link where all visitors could (and should) review a “DTW Rules of Order.” Ignorance would then be no excuse and any violation grounds for a virtual trip to the woodshed if so deemed by the moderator.

            In the interest of getting community involvement in setting up such guidelines, perhaps a new topic thread could be initiated and left up for some good length of time, allowing for ample opportunity for suggestions to be submitted.

            1. I don’t mind it, but we really don’t need it, other than for TSE. I’ve been posting on there for 6 years (I think), and have been moderating for over a year, and while I censor a comment or two every few weeks, I haven’t seen/don’t get complaints about anyone other than TSE. (disclaimer, I’m not remembering much older than 2 years). I’d like to give TSE a chance to respond, because I really do value his viewpoint. But I’m having a hard time justifying some of the comments above.

              1. that’s nice thought, but after following his posts for a summer, I doubt he would ever admit he was wrong. about anything.

              2. As much as TSE’s comments may not be enjoyable for others to read, it seems hard to justify banning him.

                He’s not usually offensive or insulting to other commenters, or in violation of any of the house rules. (And, I think fans have the right to insult team management as much as they like, even if they are mistaken.)

                What he is is someone whose opinions are radically different from most other people, and he expresses those views quite forcefully and with an excess of confidence.

                It seems like if he were banned it would be because people just don’t like him, rather than for actual misconduct. I think an “ignore” button would be a better solution, for those who choose to use it. Or. if you have specific rules you want to lay out, then let everybody know.

                Personally, I find he reduces my enjoyment of the blog much less than the deep negativity that pops up around here at the first sign of a couple losses, etc. But I guess every fan is different.

              3. You wouldn’t need to sensor any of my comments if TSE weren’t around. He is adept at making me angry. Apparently, others feel the same as well.

              4. Alternatively, we could all “install” our own personal ignore button; it should be simple enough to pass over comments by those posters found irritating in some way.

              5. What’s wrong with any of my posts and i’m free to respond to what anybody would like me to respond to. I don’t understand how other people are offended from what I consider to be a very well substantiated set of opinions. I haven’t posted in a long time and it’s going to be a long off-season so i doubt I will have much to say for a while anyhow. I’ll just check out and lurk for the time being and maybe start posting again when any new topic comes about that is relevant to comment on.

                I was banned from MTS but not for any rules violations. I was only banned because the owner of the site sent me an email to my personal address about a topic that had nothing to do with anything going on in the board. He stated something that was factually incorrect and I pointed that out, in a very polite way mind you, and then asked him how he could substantiate the following half of the sentence of that opinion when his premise was clearly wrong, which technically it was and he admitted that. He then said ok fine I was right but I was a smartass and I had to apologize to him for being a smartass and using his own technical language to make a fool out of him in our own personal email string and that if I didn’t apologize and kiss his ass that he would ban me. I simply said there’s nothing to apologize for as all I did was contest the truth of what he said, and then he sent me a laughing email back about how I was banned, and then he proceeded to tell people on the board a completely made up story about why he was banning me so that he could sell a story to the board that they would find justified moreso than the actual reason. I even copied the entire email message and had sent it to a couple of other board members that I had email addresses for to prove everything I said and to this day i have seen 3-4 different stories posted on that board about the reason why I was banned, and none of them are remotely accurate. So that’s what happened there for anybody who does want to know the true accounting of events.

                Nevertheless I still read MTS every week (I used to read every day but I’ve been very busy lately) cause there’s lots of good tidbits and I don’t need need to post in order to be a passive reader on that site or this one, so if you guys don’t want me to post here then that’s ok and I’ll just pop in to see what people say from time to time and keep quiet, no problemo. So don’t know how I could be wrong about anything, as all I have done is rendered my opinion and an opinion of which that seems more justified to me than everybody else’s opinions. I think the quality and logic of my opinion has more merits than the average poster whose opinions just don’t seem to make a lot of sense to me.

                Anyhow, happy posting guys and I’ll slip into the background and you guys won’t hear from me again unless anybody has any specific questions they would like to address. Keep in mind though that I may not be coming through every message on every post so if there is a pertinent question that you happen to have that I don’t happen to spot then if you want the question answered you will have to ask the admin here to send me an email and I will gladly follow up, or anybody can find me on RealGM in the Lions or Tigers pages if there’s anything important to talk about. Otherwise I will just assume that I’m not needed for a comment and will just go about my business and you guys won’t have to worry any more about what I have to say. Problem solved?

              6. I would just like to add that I have no problem with TSE posting here, but I guess now that we have heard from him, the ball is in Kevin’s court. I hope this can get resolved quickly so we can get back to baseball.

    2. The Tigers put on a great show this year. Gave us a good ride right up til the end. Wished it could have lasted a little bit longer, but maybe next year?

      I’ve been watching the Tigers more than 40 years. They gave it all they got.

  10. I think TSE has heard our concerns and I trust that he’ll pop in with his insightful, yet respectful, commentary from time to time.

  11. “So don’t know how I could be wrong about anything, as all I have done is rendered my opinion and an opinion of which that seems more justified to me than everybody else’s opinions. I think the quality and logic of my opinion has more merits than the average poster whose opinions just don’t seem to make a lot of sense to me.”

    Seriously, you are not wrong about anything and your opinion is more justified than anybodies? That is non-sense. That is not rational. Name one person, who is infallible, who is always correct, and who does not seek input from others? It makes no sense that you, of all people, have it completely figured out. Why aren’t you famous? Why are you not the GM of a team that has won ten straight World Series?

    Please look up two things: Pragmatism and delusions of grandeur.

    It also makes sense that the powers that be let him continually post and the hits go down. Good bye Motown sports.

    1. Your questions don’t sound credible for purposes of having a serious discussion, nor do I see how they have a connectable relevance to anything I have said, so I decline to comment.

      1. Makes complete sense, whenever you are pressed to explain yourself, you just say the questioner is dumber than you and you cannot sink to their level to respond. Must be great to be such a genius and not have to bother with the commoner’s questions.

        Seriously, why are the best ever?

        1. Best ever what? When did I say that I was generically the “best ever”? You don’t even include the word “you” there so I just used my genius intellect to assume you meant to say that. But yeah your questions are indeed extremely dumb, and that shouldn’t reflect negatively on me, which is what your tone implies.

          And what’s with you asking me to name one person who is infallible? You seem to be contending that I think of myself as infallible. Well if that was the case, then wouldn’t I be inclined to think that if I’m the infallible one that there is no other, so why would you be looking for evidence supplied from me to uncover another as part of the process to prove that I’m uniquely infallible? Your questions don’t make any sense and I can’t explain myself through illogical questions that don’t get to the root of my qualities or the justifications of my opinions.

          I still don’t understand what your point is or what you are trying to get at other than you seem to be a mean person hellbent on trying to bring down others that make you feel insecure and inadequate about your own life. That I can’t know for sure but it is a suspected guess. You should be working on yourself before you start investing your time in trying to attack the credibility of others. You don’t have the foundation to do so properly.

          1. Just asking you to fully explain why believing that the Tigers had a pretty good season makes me a moron?

            You said this: “In fact it made me sick to my stomach to see how many people are giving thanks to the team when they did everything wrong.”

            How can a team that made the playoffs do everything wrong? Every single thing? They must have done something right. Admit it. Although they did not win the World Series, they were one of the top 4 teams in baseball. Improvements can and must be made, but they did some things right.

            You said this: “Shame on you Tigers, you guys are pathetic losers because of the foul-stenched bad apples that ruined this team and the enjoyment of this sport for me.”

            Losers lose. In fact they lose more than they win. The Tigers won more than they lost, therefore they are not losers. If a 90+ game winning team that makes it to the second round of the playoffs ruins your enjoyment of the game then maybe you should be a Yankees fan.

            Let’s hear your credibility. No more of your “let’s trade Raburn, Bosch, and 10 million dollars to get Joe Mauer” type nonsense, but moves that could actually happen, in real life.

  12. I never said that you were a moron because the Tigers had a pretty good season. in fact I never said either of those 2 things let alone connected the two. And every single thing in the literal sense is not what I meant there, that’s not the implied meaning of the sentence. The amount of “things” the team did would include tens of thousands of decisions, if not hundreds of thousands depending on how you account for what constitutes a decision. If you think that I’m stating that in the literal sense, then that’s where you first fail, because that’s clearly not the intended meaning of what I said.

    Good night, I’m off to bed.

    Your interpretation of what is a loser and not a loser isn’t the holy gospel, that’s just your opinion and I disagree, therefore it’s not valid as a rebuttal to my opinion that we are still losers. My opinion still holds water and is valid within the framework of my beliefs.

    And because our team sucks and I hate what we stand for, I should all of a sudden be a Yankees fan? How does that make sense? I think they are bigger losers than us this year as they didn’t make it as far as us and they spent even more money than us. I would be even more upset if I was a Yankees fan. They would be my last choice of a team to root for if I had to pick another team. You don’t seem to understand my logic or my opinions at all, yet you want to argue against them and attack them. You should first identify what they are before you start battling against them.

    And I have no clue what you mean by wanting to hear my “credibility”, the inquiry just doesn’t compute as something that makes sense to me. And I don’t like to debate baseball strategy with people who can’t even get on the same page with understanding basic logic of identifying a person’s position or perspective before trying to debate how to act as a result of having that position or perspective.

  13. by the way that “good night” comment was supposed to be at the end but I pushed my comments down accidentally and didn’t realize I was at the end of the wrong paragraph.

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