One Swift Moment of Promise After Eight Years of Mess

It seems that in one swift moment – albeit after two years of anticipation – the world has changed.

I knew that it would be a historic event if it were to come to pass. How could it not be? Barack Obama is the first black man to be elected President of the United States. That's a big deal. An achievement I did not think I would see in my lifetime.

In this year, man found water on Mars. And in this year the United States of America elected an African American to the highest office in the land.

But I thought in this apathetic society of today, it would happen, it would be acknowledged like a new home run record, and then off we would go to the next thing.

But I was wrong.

I have never been so moved by a political event. The falling of the Berlin wall was close, but this made me kind of well up inside. This was magical.

The scenes of the rest of the world so surprisingly erupting in celebration surprised me beyond words. I do not believe these scenes were staged. I don't think they could have been? Who could have staged them?

The whole world breathed a huge sigh of relief. And that sigh produced the warmest global breeze of change of attitude the world has felt in my lifetime.

And I wonder.

I wonder, had the election turned out the other way – how would the world have reacted? Would they have pointed to America again as frauds – as they did after Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, only to have George Bush's brother Jeb's state Florida upset the cart declaring hanging chads on ballots would decide the Electoral College for the Republicans?

I think that for as fine, decent, honest and sincere I believe John McCain to be, I believe the world would have cried out "FOUL!" if somehow this time he would have come from behind and won this election.

So now the world awaits the inauguration of President Elect Obama.

A feeling of awe is in the air around the globe.

But usually when great news breaks – compelling as this historic moment – the New York Stock Exchange reacts in an upswing. A rise as though riding the wave of optimism.

But instead the NYSE continues to fall.

Is it a sign that this optimism is premature? Or perhaps artificial?

Or is it a sign that the current American President has made such a mess in world affairs and economic policies that there is doubt even a change as large as the one to President Obama shows little hope of cleaning up such a large mess.

So in one swift moment – indeed the world changed.

But the mess will take much longer to fix. It took eight years to make.

Congratulations Mr. Obama. I wish you all the luck and best wishes. And I believe that you will have a world full of prayers behind you.

What a truly amazing time to be alive.

Tampa Bay Is A Shoe-In To Win The AL East

I have been told by those in the know that I have a knack for stating the obvious.

Here we roll into the final six games of the 2008 regular season, and it is obvious to me that the Tigers are not going to fulfill Sports Illustrated pre-season prediction and win not only the AL Central, or the American League, or the World Series.

In fact as I write this, Detroit is in game two of a three game series with Kansas City to stay out of the AL Central Basement. And it's not looking good, as game one was lost last night due to bullpen failure, and the Royals just struck early in the first two hitters to take a one – nothing lead in the first.

The Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins are still battling for the AL Central title . In fact, they are playing each other in the next to last series of the year with Chicago taking the first game and leading the Twins by two and a half games. Chicago will finish the year against the Indians of Cleveland, and the Twins against the same Royals my Tigers are facing right now. Only the winner will move on to the playoffs. And in my opinion it will be close but the Twins will take it in the final game of the year.

Write it down.

Because in the AL Central, you have to win the division.

Because the wild card in the American League sits in the East. And the war is on between Tampa Bay and Boston.

Boston is also two and half games back. But they are finishing the season against the Yankees. Against the Yankees in Fenway. And I do not give any edge to Boston in this year of a disgruntled Yankee club who is embarrassed not to be in the playoffs.

No, this year, the edge goes to Tampa Bay. The Devil Rays probably don't even need to make contingency plans. They pretty much have the final four games all wrapped up.

And it breaks my heart. Because the Devil Rays finish the season against my beloved Detroit Tigers. A team I love more than any other team I have ever rooted for – obsessively my friends and family will tell you – ever in my life.

The Devil Rays will face pitching that will struggle to put in six innings, but likely stay in for seven because there is no bullpen. They will face Tiger hitters that sound intimidating – but are meek in these final four games. They will face defense that looks great on paper, but on the field make stupid mistakes and errant throws.

Writing this piece, I feel like a father telling the bully not to be too worried fighting his son, "He may look big, and has a known name", advises the father, "but you should take him no problem."

It just breaks my heart.

The Heart of Summer is Berries and Cream

It's berries and cream weekend.

It's the weekend where the shortest grass is well worn with bare spots.

And this version of the Saturday final day was fought by two sisters who put their sibling love aside to fiercely contest the most coveted of trophies in their sport.

I do love Wimbledon. It is the second most prestigious and elegant sporting event, in my book. Second only to golf's The Masters.

I know that tennis has fallen off the North American radar screen, just a small blip as it appears to be wandering off the screen over the horizon in the mind of western culture. But Wimbledon holds an air of legitimate royal legendry. And sports need that level of legitimacy in this era of steroids, corrupt officiating, and the overall consistent contempt shown by professional athletes.

I have always loved tennis since my brother Paul was successful as a junior. I had the joy of being his best rally partner – and the dismay of consistently being beaten by him although I tried my best to better him.

Big brothers are supposed to be better than their little brothers, right?

There is beauty to stand behind a baseline and strike a well hit ball in the heart of the face of the racket driving it hard over the net and the top spin drawing it back down into the opposite side of the court by the base line. The grace of a well struck serve as you toss the ball over your head in a rhythmic movement as your racket swings back behind you - moving in motion to strike the ball with a twisting spin move to curve the ball into a corner of the service line – the racket thrown at the ball in almost the same motion of a pitcher throwing a curveball.

Tennis is a beautiful game of trying to drive the ball to an area of the court where your opponent is not. Trying to guess where your opponent will hit it and moving into position to set your feet to ready your swing to drive the ball back.

I miss it.

And while next year I will be able to play again, that's not enough. Because my brother Paul is not here to play against. He is in Baton Rouge. And in my book, there is playing tennis, but then there is playing tennis against my brother Paul.

There's nothing as fun to me as playing tennis against Paul. Okay, maybe playing golf with Paul.

So when Wimbledon plays out like it did this year, with big sister Venus Williams playing against little sister Serena, I can identify with just how great an experience that would be. And I watch every point. And I love it.

Yes, the Williams sister play at a couple levels higher than either I or Paul, although I strongly think Paul had the potential to get there.

And yes, I do root for Venus – as we older siblings have to stand together against those obnoxiously arrogant younger siblings who teased us until we punched them only to get sent to your room or get grounded.

Damn those younger siblings.

Today Venus won. And I believe her sincerity when she said in the post-match interview that her first responsibility is that of big sister, and to be conscious of her little sister's disappointment so as to not over celebrate her victory.

And that's where Venus is a better older sibling than I am. Because I would have been dancing around that pristine palace of tennis among the royalties of the sport – pointing my finger at my brother and screaming at him "Who's the winner lil' bro?! Who's the winner now!."

And they probably would not have invited me back the next year. And I probably would have gotten sent to my room.

Wimbledon, to me, is the heart of summer.

And the heart of summer is when I miss my little brother Paul the most.

Tiger’s Cross The 40 Game Line

Legendary former Detroit Tigers manager Sparky Anderson had a rule to not judge his baseball team until forty games had been played. His thinking was that forty games would give you a good breadth of games to judge where your team really sits. This is the point where you see what kind of team you have.

How does a guy get a nick name like “Sparky” any way?

Yesterday Detroit finally reached the forty-game line.

The Tigers reached the line while playing their second series against the Kansas City Royals. The same team they opened the season against.They have yet to win a game off the Royals. And the Royals are not a very good team at all.

But this year they are better than the Tigers. So far.

Here are the standings as we sit at this point, on the morning of May 15, 2008.

The Detroit Tigers, picked by Sports Illustrated to win the 2008 World Series are sitting in last place in arguably the weakest division in the American League. Five games behind the Cleveland Indians who are also disappointing their home town fans, despite being at the top of the American Central.

The Tigers payroll is second only to the New York Yankees. Note that the Yankees are in fourth place in the AL East and three and a half games behind the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The Devil Rays?

After forty games, the Tigers have scored 182 runs, but have allowed 214 runs. The Tigers have scored only 45% of the 396 runs scored in games involving the Tigers this season. The remaining 55% have been scored by the opposing teams.

In November of 2007, the Tigers made what was considered to be a block buster trade getting Miguel Cabrera – considered to be one of the best sluggers in the game today – and Dontrelle Willis – a solid pitcher who would fill in the final spot in an already strong rotation – for two of our best triple-A players.

Then what the hell is going on?

Simply put, Tiger batters are not living up to their potential.

Simply put, Tiger pitchers are not living up to their potential.

In fact both hitting and pitching have been very disappointing.

The Tigers pitching rotation of Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman, Kenny Rogers, Nate Robertson, and Dontrelle Willis were poised at years start to be among the strongest in baseball.The Chart below shows every American League teams record against each other. By reading the rows going across the table, you see the wins the team has against the opposing teams. By reading the columns down, you see the losses the team has against the opposing teams.

The Tigers wins this season have been highlighted in blue across the middle row. The Tigers losses are highlighted in yellow going down the center column.

By examining the teams that have done the most damage to the Tigers so far this year, you see that it is those other teams in the Central division (with the exception of Boston) who have beaten the Tigers most often.

These games are the most important.

And so far, at the forty-game line, it looks like every other team in the AL Central want to win more than our boys.

From the fan’s perspective, there is absolutely no reason for such a pitiful start to 2008.

And from the fan’s perspective, there is absolutely no reason to think this course will change.

The entire roster has just recently been signed to fairly long-term big money contracts. The Tiger’s payroll is second only to the Yankees.

But the theories abound all around sports talk radio in Detroit.

“The coaches are not coaching” say one pack, “Fire all the coaches!”.

“The player’s have split into groups”, say another. “The Spanish follow the leadership of Pudge Rodriguez, the rest follow Gary Sheffield”.

“Manager Jim Leyland has given up and doesn’t know how to fix it – and is starting to want to quit like he did in Colorado” say a third pack.

And you know, there are probably little trickles of truth to all three. But most of such talk is all hyperbola.

Errors. Missed throws, sloppy base coverage, missed opportunities. Just complete and utter lack of concentration. Or maybe this slew of mega-millionaires wearing our beloved old-English D are just trying to hard?

Nobody knows. Everybody’s frustrated. And we are starting to give up.

Personally I blame Sports Illustrated. Nothing good has ever come from being on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Unless you’re a swimsuit model.

And our boy’s were not wearing swimsuits on that cover.

March Goes Out Like A Tiger

As I sit here writing this post, the final minutes before the Detroit Tigers opening day at Comerica Park are counting down.

Currently the temperature is eleven degrees Celsius (or 50ish for you metrically impaired Americans). The wind is blowing cold from the north and the air is wet, very wet as we sit between rain clouds.

Perhaps it's not a perfect day for the Detroit season opener with Kansas City. Perhaps not as warm as when March arrived like a kitten just thirty one days ago. But it is better than last year. Last year at this time the temperatures were below zero. The second game of that opening series with Toronto was snowed out. But we don't expect that to be the case today.

This will be our first chance to see the new face of the Tigers since last year's block buster trade. We will see Cabrera at third. Renteria at short. Guillen moves to first. But center field will not see Granderson for a couple more weeks as his broken finger heals. Instead the Detroit fan favorite Brandon Inge will take the center stage. And Inge has had a great spring at the plate!

Starting for our boys this afternoon is Justin Verlander. Verlander had a tough spring pitching what appeared to be grapefruits in two of his outings – getting slammed pretty hard. It will be interesting to see – and telling as well, I think – what kind of outing he has today.

I think it's important for these guys to start off with a win. But this year's KC squad is said to be built much tougher than the previous years. I guess we will see.

The Tigers were picked this last week to win the World Series by Sports Illustrated. This is a nice compliment – but unfortunately SI put their prediction on the cover of the magazine. And as many of you know, SI cover stories predicting the future of a team or individual rarely pan out. It is somewhat of a curse. But for every early prediction I have seen so far, the Tigers have always been predicted to at least make the post season.

But they were last year too.

I will not be at the game today. The first pitch is to be tossed at the 1 PM mark, just eight minutes from now. I will be at my desk, working ever so dutifully on reverse engineering rate analytical spreadsheets. I will be sitting in meetings discussing how the progress of the project is shaping up. I will be talking on the phone to Toronto to get clarification on some questionable points.

But I will have a web browser open. And that browser will be showing me the most up-to-date scores I can find. Discretely, of course.

Very discretely.

Discrete until someone hits a long double to drive in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. There might be a slight holler from my cubicle then.

So to answer the question I asked on March first: "But what the heck will (March) go out like?"

The Answer is hopefully "A Tiger!"

Go get 'em boys.