Author Archive
Monday Morning Manager Returns! My Weekly Take on the Detroit Tigers
Posted: 12th April 2010 by Greg Eno in MLB
Welcome to the fifth season of “Monday Morning Manager,” where I take a look back at the Tigers’ past week and a look ahead to the current one.
Last Week: 5-1This Week: KC (4/12-14); at Sea (4/16-18)
So what happened?
The Tigers have only played one week of the 2010 season, and already they’ve won four games in come-from-behind fashion.
The kicker, of course, was Sunday’s 9-8 thriller over the Indians, capping a comeback ...
Miguel Cabrera’s Future: Hall of Fame and Mass Destruction
Posted: 10th April 2010 by Greg Eno in MLB
He’s 6'2", with arms the size of Paul Bunyan’s and thighs that look like folded over sandbags. He doesn’t have a chest, he has Rhode Island, and maybe a little of Vermont.
He doesn’t walk, he advances.
He’s just shy of 27 years of age and already has 211 home runs, is edging nearer to 800 RBI, and has collected over 1,200 hits. He has a career batting average of ...
Major League Baseball says it’s likely—read: a sure thing—that the 2010 World Series will end in November, yet again.
So why is it April 9 and we’re only in the first week of the season?
November baseball makes me wince, every time. You may as well say “cod ice cream.”
Two things, and two things only, can prevent this travesty from becoming an annual occurrence: a) shorten the season, and/or b) start earlier.
We ...
The home ice advantages might not be quite what they were back in the day, when cunning coaches like Scotty Bowman would have the visitors' locker room re-painted pink just before the playoffs (true story) or when outsiders might find rats in their skate boot in the old Boston Garden (likely true).
But that doesn't mean that there aren't still some tough buildings to contend with in today's NHL.
Here are one ...
The rookie goalie who is going to lead the Detroit Red Wings into the playoffs has one thing going for him.
He’s too dumb to know what he’s getting himself into.
Don’t gasp; that’s not a put-down. First of all, I didn’t call Jimmy Howard stupid. I’m calling him dumb. As in “ignorance is bliss.”
Howard is 26 and he’s played as many minutes of playoff ...
Nate Robertson the Last of a Dying Breed: The Year-Round Detroiter
Posted: 3rd April 2010 by Greg Eno in MLB
They used to be scattered all over the state, particularly in the tri-county area.
The tony suburbs of Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills were popular for them, but towns like Washington and Livonia were home to some of them as well.
Theirs was a time when you not only played baseball for the Detroit Tigers, you stuck around to experience our winter months, too.
They weren’t commuters. The Tigers’ roster, when it contained names ...
From a cheap shot hit that turned into a tear-jerking moment, to the overcoming of great physical maladies, with many other moments in between, the NHL has had its share of stories that capture the best of the human spirit.
Here are ten of those. They're ranked in some semblance of order, but 100 different people might have these listed in 100 different ways.
The point? They're all great moments, no matter ...
Mike Babcock: The NHL’s Best Coach is Having His Greatest Season Ever
Posted: 27th March 2010 by Greg Eno in NHL
You can never tell if the great hockey coach is winning or losing.
When he stands behind the bench, he always looks as if he’s trying to remember if he left the stove on—while also having to go to the bathroom.
His team could be ahead by three goals or down by two. You'd never know.
If he didn’t make a mint in hockey, Scotty Bowman could have fleeced all comers in a ...
Magglio Ordonez: The Straw that Stirs the Detroit Tigers’ Drink
Posted: 26th March 2010 by Greg Eno in MLB
Did you hear? Sounds like Magglio Ordonez is going to have a big year.
Literally sounds like.
The audible feeling is that Maggs is going to look more like the Ordonez of 2006-07 than the impostor who wore his uniform for all but the final month of the 2009 season.
More than once this spring training Manager Jim Leyland and GM Dave Dombrowski have alluded to the sound that Ordonez’s bat is ...
Detroit’s Austin Jackson Takes Center Field, Baseball’s Most Glamorous Position
Posted: 21st March 2010 by Greg Eno in MLB
It’s the most romantic, glorified position in our most romantic, glorified sport.
Even when baseball was played with mushy balls by men wearing baggy uniforms and pillbox hats, and you traveled to the ballpark by horse and buggy or traipsed there by foot, center field was the glamour position.
Ty Cobb started it, pretty much.
Cobb used his freakish speed and sheer determination to patrol center. And he slap base hits all over ...