Ok, so the dream scenario comes from the mind of ESPN.com Page 2 writer David Fleming, a Detroit area native, but I read that, and thought about the reactions my friends out here in cheeseland had to the Packers winning it all last year, and it got me thinking about how it might actually feel if the Lions were to win the Super Bowl. I'm 36 now, I've been chained to the bandwagon these last 31 years, from the earliest days of Billy Sims though 0-16, and now in this new era of hope, and honestly in the last 15 years, ever since that 58-37 playoff debacle at the hands of the Eagles, I've never allowed myself to imagine that moment.

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Great post idea, and one I'm curious about as well. --Kurt

Talking about the Maple Street Press Tigers 2011 Preview that Kurt edited, and that Alli and David and Matt and others around here had roles in putting together. Mine came in the mail on Saturday, and I've been slowly perusing that gem, enjoying a couple articles a day, and resisting the urge to devour it all at once. Although, I suppose that once that was done, I could just go back and read 'em all again.

The question here, though, is one born from curiosity, and based entirely on my own actions when receiving the preview. I spent a moment admiring the cover shot, then turned to the table of contents, like a kid in the proverbial candy deciding what to sample first, and ended up going with Ian's article on Sparky Anderson, followed by Tom Gage's Ernie Harwell reminiscence.

I found it telling, even as I was holding a preview of the season to come, that my first instinct was to pay respect to the Tigers of the past, those men who held such sway over my childhood.

And so, I'm curious as to what articles those of you who purchased this preview first went to, upon opening up the magazine?

I was in Chicago for work the latter part of the week, and on Friday, I was up way too early, and had the TV on, and saw news of Ronnie Woo Woo's passing. Just the day before, at the clinic I was working at, we'd been talking baseball, about the Cubs and White Sox, and I totally ripped on Santo, as I usually do, since he was probably the worst color commentator ever. From a non-Cubs fan perspective, anyway. And the Cubs fans in on the discussion jumped to his defense saying, he's a guy who totally loves the game, and totally loves the Cubs. That's something I appreciated; the only problem was that his inchoate homerism usually led to absolutely nothing useful coming from the color man's microphone, in terms of understanding of the game, in terms of amusing stories, in terms of anything, to the point that Pat Hughes pretty much has to carry the Cubs broadcasts all on his own.

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Provocative fanpost title aside, I promise, I come in peace. I'm a Tigers fan, a regular over at Bless You Boys, and an occasional visitor to these parts. And after seeing those (darn) Yankees do what's become a depressingly familiar number to your Twins last week, I've been wondering about something. As a fan, is it better to be a frequent visitor to the postseason, or to have that one big run at glory to hang you hat on? Because, for all of the Twins' Central Division titles in this past decade, if you count up the number of games the Twins and the Tigers have won in the postseason, Detroit comes ahead 8-6.

A few thoughts on this after the jump.

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Major league schedule for 2011 was released last night, and just perusing it, and thinking if the teams next year hold true to this year's form, with no huge leaps in talent, or shifts in the balance of power, if the Tigers are in it at the start of August, they will stand a decent shot at bringing home the Central Division crown.

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And would have home ice advantage for the rest of their stay in the Eastern Conference playoffs by this point in the playoffs? I just wanted to call you a LIAR!

Now that we've gotten that out of the way...allow me to marvel at how much easier the Pens road back to the SCF looks than since two weeks ago, when the Devils, unbeaten against the Pens this season lurked as a threat, and the Ovechkin led Capitals juggernaut stood in the way.

Jaroslav Halak is getting fitted for his halo in Montreal right about now, but you guys might want to take up a collection and send him, as well as Brian Boucher a thank you gift for their effort in clearing major obstacles out of your team's way.

Doesn't mean that the Pens will still be standing, defending their crown in the final round of course, there's still a couple of tough rounds to play before they get to that point. And frankly, if Detroit doesn't get there (which I don't expect the Red Wings to do, for the record), I'd be rooting for the Pens if they did. Especially if it's against Hossa, again. Not necessarily because it's Chicago, but because it'd be funny if Hossa lost in the SCFs in a row.

But first you gotta get past Saint Halak. You might want to talk to Caps fans before you get too overconfident about this series.

24 hour waiting periods are such a pain in the ass...but then again, at least it's not 48 hours, right? Anyway, mostly harmless troll like creature here, otherwise identified as a Red Wings fan, stopping in for the first round. I tend to jump around the SBN blogs during the playoffs, and sometimes, I even come back on occasion during the season. Maybe I won't do so quite as much this postseason, since Winging it in Motown has a critical mass of commenters going, and is going to be a consistently lively place to be during the playoffs.

Then again, I've interacted with a few different opponents blogs during the playoffs the last couple of years, so I figure, why not keep it going? So here I am, to grace, or infest  (as the case might be) you guys with my presence. Imagine some WWE style entrance here, complete with overbearing theme music, and arrogance dripping from every pore. Except, and I'll hope you'll agree, without the arrogance. The music, I'll go with some Cradle of Filth, and just try to scare the hell out of you. Or at least scar your ears.

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Hey, all along, we've been saying, "look out, ol' Tiberius has a shot at grabbing some hardware at the end of the season," he's been playing solidly, and maybe there's an outside chance that he pulls down the Calder Trophy for best rookie in the NHL. That in itself would be a pretty sweet trick, as no Red Wing has grabbed that trophy since Roger Crozier won it in 1965. But I hadn't heard any speculation whatsoever past that point.

Taking a peek at the ESPN.com recap for tonight's game, an outcome I can't quite wrap my head around (a scoreless tie? Following by Jimmy Howard stopping ~10 shootout shots to earn a shootout in the 11th round? For serious?), I notice a sidebar, with a thought from Scott Burnside that Howard might actually be in the discussion about the Vezina Trophy.

It's worth a read, even if I don't think anything will come of that speculation. Burnside goes as far to say that, hey, Ryan Miller is getting attention as a potential HART Trophy candidate, why not Howard as well? I'm not anywhere nearing that stance, just passing on some speculation from the ESPN page.

But it has been interesting to see how our collective response to Jimmy Howard has changed over the past few weeks of post Olympic play. Now to see if any of our breathen will bite on the rumors mentioned by Rosenthal, and whether we might see a couple of Howard for Hart posts show up on WiiM.

Granted, that's not such a bold prediction when the team is sitting pretty in 8th place, 3 points away from the LA Kings in 5th, and 4 points clear of the Calgary Flame in 9th place in the Western Conference standing. But I'd intended to post something along these lines on the weekend, before life got in the way.

I'm glad I waited, since a couple of kind people on other team blogs went ahead and did the work I was planning to do, in breaking down what games remain for which teams in the playoff race.

DanGNR over at St Louis Game Time brings it in chart form, accessible at

http://www.stlouisgametime.com/2010/3/23/1386686/a-look-at-the-western-conference

Click on the chart to bring up a larger view.

The text breakdown of what's represented there can be seen on Quisp's excellent post at Jewels from the Crown, covering the Kings.

http://www.jewelsfromthecrown.com/2010/3/24/1389392/tom-brokaw-is-calling-it-the-ducks

As Quisp puts it:

The Flames face NYI, BOS, WAS, PHX, COL, CHI, SJS, MIN, VAN. They need at least six of those, and that's if you think Detroit is only going to win four of its remaining nine games. Which I would have said was possible a couple of weeks ago, but now? And, also, look:

Detroit, in contrast, has: MIN, NAS, EDM, CBJ, NAS, PHI, CBJ, CBJ, CHI. Yes, three against the Jackets. 

Given that Calgary sits 4 back, with the same number of games to play, I think it'd be a fair bet to say that the Detroit Red Wings will likely make the playoffs.

Then again, we got to the point where that was actually an open question post Olympics because this has been a season unlike any we've witnessed, as Red Wings fans, over the past 17-18 years. So I wouldn't be betting the house on it, quite yet. But it does look good.

You guys have probably seen it by now, or at the least heard about Alexander Ovechkin's latest dirty hit, this time on Brian Campbell of the Blackhawks. The quick version is, Campbell plays the puck with Ovie in the vicinity, and after the puck has been gone for a second or two, clearly "late", Ovechkin shoves Campbell down. If it's a center ice hit, it's two minutes for being an ass. But in this instance, they were going around the goal, around the red line when the hit occurred, and in going down to the ice, Campbell also went into the boards.

It was immediately clear he was hurt, since he lay there for a few minutes. But it turns out that he might miss the rest of the season, according  to ESPN, as well as Second City Hockey.

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This article in the News recounts an apology made to Jimmy Leyland by one Mr. Randy Marsh, about a certain pitch in a certain game that I'd rather not think about, given the chance to ignore its outcome.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100215/SPORTS0104/2150403/1129/rss15

But this article, it's just throwing it in my face, and your faces, too, the fact that the ump who failed to make the right call in a tremendously pivotal moment of what would turn out to be the ultimate game of the Tigers season knew that he had screwed up so badly, he felt moved to call the manager of the team he had so royally screwed over, and apologize.

And one might think that hearing of this apology might make a fan of said team just a little bit less pissed off, that, wow, this guy was man enough to admit a mistake, we should cut him some slack. But no, one would be wrong to think that. Because, frankly, this apology wasn't made to you or me, it was made to Leyland, and if the writer's notion about how Marsh might feel at its disclosure is correct, then there was no intent for the apology to go beyond a guy that Marsh would have to deal with throughout the season. The rest of the people affected by the horrible travesty? Who cares? What are we to him?

I'm ranting, and maybe this isn't making much sense, but Randy Marsh apologizing for blowing the call on the Brandon Inge 12th inning of game 163 HBP that wasn't, the obvious foul we all saw and agonized over, ultimately for naught, that's pissing me off. As if I haven't got enough other crap sending the blood pressure through the roof, now I have to ponder the possibility of what the Tigers might have done with a one run lead in the top of the 12th, with the bases still loaded, and with only one man down in the frame. You'd think Minnesota would have to pitch to Laird differently...or maybe Leyland sends Avila out there with an extra out to play with, who knows? Maybe with a lead, Fernando Rodney doesn't get sent out for a 4th frame, who knows? Maybe, with....

I told myself I wouldn't do this, that I wouldn't play this game...but (fill in your choice of expletive here, because I'm thinking all of 'em, including some in different languages), this 'apology', this admission that they screwed up, enough that an umpire felt that he actually had to call up a manager and unburden his guilty conscience, I can't help but think, "what if..."

Freakin' Randy freakin' Marsh. I hope he catches many multiple foul tips squarely in the mask this year...and then some.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=4888109

Pierre Labrun reporting that Kovy's going to New Jersey. Didn't see that one coming, if it's true. Given the way that Brodeur seems to have the Pens number this year, probably bad news if the Devils and Pens meet in the playoffs.  Of course, that depends on who NJ gives up in the trade, and how that might affect team chemistry. After all, trading for a superstar player late in the season is no guarantee of ultimate success in the Stanley Cup chase, as you guys found out a couple of years ago.

Still, given the Pens struggle against New Jersey this year so far, this has to be a bit worrisome to the Pittsburgh faithful.

As sports fans, we can all think of negative moments we can recall instantly, with perfect clarity, but this isn't one of those stories, this tale is about one of the good moments, one of those we remember with that same clarity, but one of those that elicits a smile rather than a scowl.

I wandered out to the gym this evening, and it's one that has a number of TV mounted up on the walls in front of the workout machines. I picked an elliptical that had a view of both the Vikings/Saints game as well as a TV showing Game 1 of the 1988 World Series (Gibby's bomb), but since I knew the ending there , I was mostly watching the football game. But then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something the brain *knew*, and intimately so. You know those situations where there's no real reason that you SHOULD recognize something, like a song based on two random notes, or a picture based on an incidental detail? This was one of those situations.

Like I said, ESPN classic was showing Dodgers/A's, 1988, but that corner of my eye spied a random shot of a pitcher winding up and delivering, and a batter swinging, and even as the rest of my head started turning in that direction, my brain was filling in the rest of the scene...my favorite player Larry Herndon running in, still running as he came to where the ball was flying, and squeezing the leather to record the final out of the 1984 World Series.

I wasn't watching that TV before that moment, I didn't register that it was Willie Hernandez delivering that pitch, nor that it was Tony Gwynn swinging the bat, but still, I KNEW exactly what the scene was, and the details filled themselves in, as fresh 25 years and change later, as they were when I was 9 years old.

And I'm riding that elliptical in a gym in Wisconsin, now 34 years old, with a silly grin on my face, and giving a fist pump to the thin air. It earned a quizzical glance from the guy on the next machine, but apparently, he had been watching that TV, because when I pointed to the Detroit Tigers T-shirt I was wearing and started to explain, he just smiled and said, "Yeah, I saw it."

Turns out it was just one of those interludes they play at commercial breaks, a memory of the 1984 season, probably shown because of the Kirk Gibson connection with the game they were broadcasting. But regardless, it made my evening. The rest of that workout just breezed by, because I was feelin' GOOD after seeing that play.

Looking at the standings right now, Detroit's just a point below 8th place in the west, which at least suggests the possibility that Chicago and Detroit could meet up in an early round of the playoffs. With that in mind, I thought I'd throw a "what if?" question out there.

If, on the road to a potential Stanley Cup Finals appearance, the Blackhawks had to go through Detroit, what round would it be best for Chicago to face the Red Wings?

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The list below is taken from http://espn.go.com/mlb/draft/history/_/team/det and it represents the last 30 years of Detroit Tigers draft history in the 1st of the amateur draft. I cut it off at 30 because it's a nice round number, and lest you accuse me of cherry picking, the 1978 first round pick was Kirk Gibson.

I haven't managed to figure out exactly what goes into this $5.2 million value that's being assigned to the generic #19 pick in the first round, so an explanation or a link to how that figure is derived would be welcomed. I'd assume that included all the bonuses, etc that are due a first round player before he has a chance to contribute anything back to the team, right?

Anyway, Dave Dombrowski seems to have done well recently with power pitchers, the Verlander pick at #2, and the pure luck acquisition of Rick Porcello standing out from the last decade's worth of 1st rounders. The book on whether the rest of his picks will become decent major leaguers is still out, mostly due to lack of data. Perry had a decent enough debut season; Miller and Maybin haven't managed to stick on the Marlins yet, etc.

Prior to the Dombrowski regime, though (and I think he may have picked Sleeth, i forget exactly when he took over), the Tigers 1st round draft history isn't exactly filled with glory. Between 1979 and 2002, I see maybe four or fivee serviceable major leaguers, depending on whether you want to call Rico Brogna serviceable. Rick Leach stuck around the majors for a while, Tony Clark had his moments, and Jeff Weaver, for all the scorn we Tigers fan might direct his way, has a few years' service under his belt. Beyond them, and Glenn Wilson, None of these first round picks really made any impact at the major league level. I mean, the making of a big leaguer is dependent on so many factors, whether the guy really has the stuff to make it, whether injuries play a role, maybe the guy is blocked by an established starter, etc. But for all the hype about the first round pick, this list suggests there's nothing resembling a guarantee that that pick will turn into someone we will enjoy seeing wear the Olde English D for years to come.

There also seems to be a disconnect between the wondering whether Dombrowski knows exactly what he's trying to do with this team, whether there's a coherent plan in place, and the apparent faith people are putting in him to make a good decision had the Tigers retained the 19th pick. Yeah, he's had a better track record short term than the Tigers have had oevr the long haul...but I'm curious, given the antipathy towards this off season's moves, whether you really think that 19th pick would have resulted in a player to hang our hats on for the next decade?

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