When Pigs Fly

     For those of you who don't know, three teams clinched division titles last night: the D'backs, Rangers and the Brewers. I think the most important clinchers were the Diamondbacks and the Rangers because the Giants and the Angels were both closer in the division than the wild card and even though the Angels are only 3.5 games out of the wild card, the fact that they are eliminated from the division is pretty crushing.

     Another subject of this blog: Boston is collapsing!!!!!!!!!!!! Personally I want the Rays (Ow, my brother just hit me) but the Red Sox collapse is pretty pathetic; as my brother would say, "Epic fail!" I say, "Pigs have flown! Boston lost three out of four to the Orioles." In the National League, however, the Cardinals are just three games out of the wild card behind the Braves.

     In other news around Baseball... MLB is going to celebrate its 200,000th game tonight... Justin Verlander of the Tigers could get his twenty-fifth win if he wins tonight, against the Orioles, and there are five more regular season games left counting tonight.

     Thanks for reading, and go, Verlander!

CLINCH!!!

     I'm sure all of you have noticed that I've been slowing down on my posting of blogs and I'm very sorry, but I started school a few weeks ago and for the first time in my life I've been having homework, so I've decided to try to post a blog once or twice every week.
     Now let's get down to business: The main topic of this blog (if you haven't guessed already) is: THE TIGERS CLINCHED THE CENTRAL DIVISION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, since I'm a Tigers fan (if you didn't know) I think everything about them winning the division is great, but to me one thing stood out in particular: they won it by themselves. When I say that I mean they won it without help from any other teams. For example, if the Indians had lost the Tigers still would have clinched, even if the Tigers had lost. Now that the Tigers have clinched, their next goal is to have more wins than the Rangers, because if they do then they will have homefield advantage in the ALDS.
     In other news around baseball...with the Astros losing to the Cubs today, they now have 100 losses, a mark they have never set in their fifty-year franchise...Congratulations, Houston.
     Thanks for reading, and go Tigers!
P.S. I would have posted a picture but my mom's Mac is broken so I typed this blog with my step-dad's PC and I can't figure out how to get a picture on to my blog from a PC.

Playoff Preview: National League

     In my last blog I said I would do a preview of the National League pennant race and what I think about it, so here it is:

     I'll start with the east: Philly has this division basically locked down with eighty-eight wins and forty-six losses, with the closest team behind them being the Braves at eight and a half games, so I won't say to much about it except this: since the Phillies have the division locked down, I think their goal should be to have more wins than the Astros have losses.
      Now for the Central: it was only two months ago that the Central was an interesting, four-team struggle to win the division with the Pirates, Reds, Cardinals and the Brewers. But now, what can I say? It's the Brewers' division to win or lose, as they are currently ahead by 8.5 games.

    
     Who would have thought that after the Giants won the World Series last year they would be neck and neck with Arizona, lowly Arizona?  As my stepdad would say, "Who would'a thunk it?" My thoughts?  Well, the first thing I said when my brother told me the Giants were tied for first with the Diamondbacks was: Ha ha! Good joke... wait,  you're joking, right? When he confirmed that he was not joking, I realized that well, the Giants weren't going to be winning the World Series any time soon if they were tied for first place with the Diamondbacks.
     Thanks for reading and go, Tigers!

Playoff Preview: American League

     Now that we're in the heat of the pennant race I'm going to preview the teams who might be in the playoffs, saying why or why not I think they will make it all the way.
     Let's start with the A.L. East: just so everybody knows, I think that the Red Sox/Yankees race is totally overrated because both teams will make the playoffs, one winning the division and one winning the wild card, so there's not much point in writing about this race.

      Now for the A.L. Central: you may say it's just the Tigers and Indians but actually as of today the White Sox are 6.0 games out of first and the Indians are 6.5 out. Also a few days ago I heard someone say, "The Tigers are up by six games, the Indians will never make it." Wrong again; the Tigers play the Indians six more times in the season, including a season-ending series at Comerica park.
     And finally, the A.L. West: I don't have that much to say about this division except that the next six games will change the division because the Rangers play the Red Sox and the Rays while the Angels play the Twins and Mariners (both fourth-place teams).  Here's my prediction: even with these next six games, the Rangers will win the West by at least three games.
     Stay tuned for my predictions about the National League.

     Thanks for reading, and go Tigers!

The Big Potato

This is a guest post written by my mom, Louise Ducote.  I asked her to guest-write something because I am going on a trip with my school for a few days.  I'll be back soon; thanks for reading and go Tigers!

     Papa Grande.  Now there's a nickname to make a woman's blood run cold.  I don't want to be a "big potato." I want to be a slim flower, an elegant little slip of a thing, a slight and lovely shadow of a girl.  That said, I am behind Jose Valverde, a/k/a Papa Grande, all the way.  He's my favorite closer in baseball, because the closer of my own team (Cubs) is responsible for much of my gray hair.  Here are a few of the things I like about Detroit's treasure:
     1. On August 11th, he broke the Tigers' consecutive-saves record of 32.  August in Texas has been a horrific parade of triple-digit temperatures combined with total absence of rain.  I'm glad August in Detroit has this highlight.  Maybe it rains there, too.
     2. He loves his mama.  Just like Elvis Presley, General MacArthur, Sigmund Freud and President Woodrow Wilson, who invented Mother's Day.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, President Wilson, for creating a day on which I am not required to prepare food or wash dishes.  May you rest in luscious peace.
     3. He's dramatic on the field but quiet off the field.  He dances.  He performs elaborate rituals (three sticks of gum and one handful of sunflower seeds in his back pocket, no more, no less).  But he is a hermit and an angel off the field, playing solitaire on his iPad and dancing for charity.
     4. I saw him once in person, when he was still an Astro, playing against Detroit, and he actually blew the save.  I felt for him. But he left the field with dignity, and that makes me all the happier for the career year he's having this year.
     Brady asked me to keep this short.  So I'd better stop.  Thanks for reading, and go Tigers!

Tigers 4, Indians 1

      Max Scherzer pitched like Verlander. No, he wasn't throwing 101 mph in the eighth inning, or flirting with a no-hitter, but he just had that distinct aura of power around him. It also helped that he had the Indians completely off balance.

Max Scherzer.

     For example, the one run the Indians scored was on a passed ball, a passed ball that was so nasty a change-up that the batter swung at it. So nasty that even All-star catcher Alex Avila couldn't catch it. That's a pretty nasty pitch.     Here's my one crazy prediction of the year : If Max continues to pitch like he did last night, the Tigers will win the World Series.
    In other news.... the Little League World Series has started (go Kentucky!) and the Kentucky/Pennsylvania game Friday drew a Little League World Series record crowd of 42,683 people.
     Thanks for reading and go Tigers!

How to Make History

     If you want to make history, hit 600 home runs. That's exactly what Jim Thome did last night at Comerica park: he made history.

     Thome became just the eighth player in the elite 600 home run club. He joins Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willy Mays, Ken Griffy Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa as the only players with 600 or more home runs. 

     At forty years, 353 days old, Thome also became the oldest player to hit his 600th homer. Sammy Sosa previously held that record at thirty- eight years, 220 days when he reached the mark in 2007. But although Thome was the oldest player to get to 600 he was also the second-fastest to reach the mark, hitting his 600th in at-bat  No. 8,137 which is second to Babe Ruth's 6,921 at-bats. 

     Thome deserves a lot more respect... I mean, in the weeks before A-rod hit his 600th home run everybody was saying how amazing he was after he hit No. 599 and then thirteen days later when he hit No. 600 everybody acted like he was some sort of hero.  Then Thome comes along and hits numbers 599 and 600 in the same day.  Unlike A-Rod, Bonds and Sosa, Thome has never had the word "steroids" mentioned as a possible cause of his high level of play.  

     The Brewers added even more excitement to yesterday's baseball news.  If the Brewers had stopped at a double play in the second inning of Monday's game against the Dodgers, it would have been highlight-worthy enough.  Instead, they turned three and made some history.  Four Brewers defenders combined for the sixth triple play in franchise history, an amazing play that bailed starter Randy Wolf out of a two-on, no-out jam and helped them win 3-0 over the Dodgers at Miller Park.  My thoughts on this play: the way they turned it was really cool because it looked like it was just a double play.  But when Matt Kemp tried to go home, Prince Fielder threw home and–ta da!—a 4-6-3-2 triple play.  

     Thanks for reading, and go Tigers!