So that's what those are like?

Jason, Well written. I hope I speak for us all, you've done a great job! Your own joy shows clearly through this piece. Thank you for providing this forum. I know I can be one of the biggest complainers and worse, get down right "goofy" at times. While I have not agreed with all the moves JL has made down the stretch, I really do love what he and his staff (not to forget them) have meant to this team. What ever his reasons, most of what he has done has worked. Glad to hear of the tender side of him. Someone referred to him as an "old coot" (an all black waterfowl/kind of duck)which is frankly a hilarious term, but I'm sure it was given in an endearing way. Thanks for mentioning Vance's point. I had mentioned in an earlier blog that there will never be a way to measure how much Trammell and his staff meant to this team. Inge et. al. can savor the sweet victory after the bitter defeats but Trammell can only wonder. It would have been nice if he had at least been kept on in some supporting role with JL. But, in reality, this is not how things are done. I hope Alan and his coaches are made to feel just how important they really were. Hopefully most of us will always remain very appreciative. But tip your hat, as they say, to the "grand cootba" for getting them over the top. JL is just as well deserved, and certainly has come full circle from his days as a Tiger minor leaguer. Seems these kind of guys end up becoming the most successful managers in the end. You don't have to look beyond Sparky Anderson to see that. Anyhow ,Kudos to Vance for graciously mentioning Alan. I kind of thought he was a class guy. Thanks again Jason.

Marty--THAT was well said. Ditto for me.

I must take "crdeit" for the "Old Coot" label. And it was said in a relatively enderaing fashion.

I like Jim Leyland and actually identify with him quite a bit. I understand the staid gruffnes (ask my grandchildren and children if they recognize that!).

My problem with Leyland is that we are so similar--I can't understand that what is so obvious to this old coot isn't as clearly to that old coot.

He has done an incredible job with this group. He has allowed them to be themxelves and at the same time to provide a stable and safe environment for their development. He's obviously raised a teen-ager or two.

The stubbroness he has is really more of a virtue than a defect (at least so far), and it has paid off for him at times. i.e. Letting Ordonez play himself out of what looked like a career changing performance drop into a producing hitter again.

Not so sure about his affinity for inserting left handed hitters in when they are slumping but that's another story.

Leyland is a noble individual and for a guy who seems to want people to think he has no finesse, he is quite the opposite. And he is also mindful of how his players feel and think.

Full credit to the old coot--and many thanks to him for helping put this team where it is now.

My apologies, guys, for not joining in today. My entire internet service went out most of the day. I was afraid, with the Tigers in the playoffs, that **** had frozen over and was causing the cable to freeze.

That was a good post, Jason. I also wonder about Tram. I'm sure he's proud, but you have to wonder if he's thinking of what might have been. The pitchers matured, and there were no real injuries, nothing like what he had to deal with. And he didn't have Rogers, Verlander or Zumuya. One can say he's not a good enough manager to have accomplished this, but we'll just never know now. Well, here's to you, Tram, and your staff. You deserved this season too.

Hey, what struck me as strange was, after all the gnashing of teeth the past few weeks, how quickly and easily the "end" came. Guess I wasn't prepared. I put "end" in quotes because, obviously, it's certainly not over yet. More excitement (and teeth gnashing) to come.

Living in San Diego, I didn't get to see either weekend game, nor the celebration......and I am still pouting. Thanks for the report, Jason. I did get to see the blurb on SportsCeneter, with Leyland crying. He is obviously gleefully surprised at his teams coming of age.....but then again, so are the rest of us.

While some of the players performances are NOT a surprise: Rogers, Bonderman, Robertson, Monroe, Inge, Guillen, Rodriguez. However, like most any other team that goes to the playoffs, there have been some performances that have SERIOUSLY surprised:

Granderson.....This kid is going to be good, and when Spring Training started, who could have predicted that CF would be handled so deftly?

Ordonez......injury free, and nicely productive. While not putting up monster numbers, I am sure there isn't a Tiger fan around who wouldn't have taken his numbers before the season began.

Verlander......where'd this come from? It is almost unprecedented(see: Fidrych)for the Tigers to have a pitching phenom. The kind of performance from a player no one was counting on, that makes for a successful season.

Zumaya.........same as Justin, he has been beyond our wildest dreams. That may sound like hyperbole to those who didn't watch all year, but this kid has been unhittable, and came out of nowhere.

Polanco......while last year was a sign that he was better than his last team thought, one never knows until a full season is in the books, and this kid came better'n advertised.

Thames......the kind of role player a winning team needs, his production goes even beyond what his fans thought it would.

Shelton.......despite his late season woes, his phenomenal April got the team off and running, and was a big part of the Tigers beginning to believe in themselves. I hope the kid comes all the way back.

Maybe the best part of this season, are the prospects for next year and beyond. While all of the Tigers had good years, NONE of them seemed to have "over the top" seasons. When taking a look at each of their stats, it looks like all of them could easily repeat, and many could have even better years in '07.

As a fan who has listened to almost every game since I was a kid (40 yrs old now) this is by far the best season I can remember. Yes even better than '84 so far. Not sure if it was just me but when I saw Kaline on TV I started to tear up a little. This has truly been a magical season so far and if it continues will be the sports story of the decade to date.

As for Alan Trammel: I was able to watch some of the post-game celebration last night and Leyland gave full praise to Alan Trammel and referred to him as a friend I believe.
Great hands and really a clutch player and leader. He and Lou Whitaker were a force in the middle of the infield and in the batting order. The heart of thoe team in those days.

Nice celebration! Now on to winning the division. Great choice to celebrate and great focus by the players on winning the division. With their pitching, the Tigers DO have a chance of winning playoff series. I won't be betting on them, but I will be rooting and praying.

Nice to see guttermouth Guillen's Sox fall apart. Today Garland gives up 12 runs and the Sox have three errors so far. Now if only the Twinkies would lose a couple of games...

My postseason roster:

Starting pitchers

Rogers

Robertson

Bonderman

Verlander

Bullpen

Jones

Zumuya

Rodney

Walker

Grilli

Maroth or Ledezma

Miner

Catchers

Rodriguez

Wilson

Infielders

Casey

Shelton

Polanco

Infante

Santiago

Inge

Guillen

Outfielders

Ordonez

Granderson

Monroe

Thames

Gomez

I take Gomez over Clevlen only because we might need the lefthanded bat, and he has much more experience.

Grilli, Miner, Maroth and Ledezma are a logjam. I take Grilli and Miner because I don't think we need three lefthanded relief pitchers. Maroth, as has been well documented, is a question mark. He deserves the spot if he can pitch. He was a big part of the early success, just as Shelton was. I'm afraid Ledezma will commit a fielding miscue at the worst possible moment.

As always, open for discussion, but I tried to give my reasons for the more "controversial" of my selections.

I have just a few cigars left from a cabinet of San Luis Rey, Serie A that were boxed in the summer of 1987. The brand, San Luis Rey, named after a sweet country town in the west of Cuba where the finest wrappers are grown, is not a famous name like Partegas or Montecristo, is not highly sought after or very well known. It is just an old-school blend of rich, Cuban tobaccos offered in classic Pinar del Rio cedar. I just love them. This cabinet, which I bought, oh, seven, eight years ago is so good that I have made it last all this time because, well no occasion really qualifies as good enough.

Well I smoked one last night. With a glass of 7 year old Havana Club and it was reamarkable and very different from the last one I smoked 2 or 3 years ago. It is not well known but fine cigars evolve drastically over time, the oils and congeners are constantly interacting and changing the aromas and flavors of the tobacco. So the San Luis Rey from 1987 that I lit up last night had a flavor and an aroma that was totally unique to last night; it started quietly with slighty bitter chocolate giving way to toasty tobacco and then about a third of the way through exploded in cashew and sweet caramel. All the initial harshness had been attenuated by careful aging and the mysteroius rigors of time. I couldn't possibly prove it but no one will ever persuade me that after 19 years that cigar is perfect, that the 1987 San Luis Reys have reached their ultimate expression only now and need to be smoked in the late summer of 2006.

No more than I can prove that this is the perfect Tiger season, that no other championchip season could be as beautiful, as satisfying and as heart-rending as this one. That the interminable wait of 19, mostly pathetic, certainly all painful years was not only not in vain, or without purpose but in fact derived its consummate beauty and richness,its tremendous power from all those years of endless futility. As Proust said, nothing diffuses and dissolves the sense of Time so thoroughly as the endlessly evocative powers of aroma. But what he couldn't know, as an early 20th century French writer is that the most compelling scents, the ones that annihilate decades in a whiff are those of freshly cut grass, burgers sizzling on the backyard grill, stale bad beer in plastic cups, the dry smoldering of hot flames on damp wood that is a proper beach-fire and tobacco, floating on a summers night up toward a guilty moon, mingling with the faint traces of womens perfume -- oh, if they could bottle that last combination.

In 1987 I was 14 and probably smoked my first cigars that fateful summer. Not sure that I could have found Cuba on a map in those days I can defifitely tell you that my tobacco purchases were confined to to the corner store on Napier Ave. in St. Joe, which gave me a choice of Swisher sweets or Hav-a-Tampas. We smoked whatever we could get and liked it. We smoked them down on the beach, not with aged rum but with Schlitz in cans or Jack Daniels or Wild Turkey nicked from our fathers collections and passed around the plastic cups in front of the fire. I wanted to drink enough to talk to the girls but not so much that I couldn't talk at all. It was a delicate balance that took some practice to master. And for me, a constant companion that summer was my little Radio Shack transister radio, even on those almost romantic nights down on the beach there would be no dancing until the music of Ernie and Paul had come to an end. Ernies cello baritone reassuring me that a young lady from Grand Rapids had indeed caught that foul ball and then, that yes, another Tiger victory was in the books.

Nothing so completely absolves us and unhinges our prosaic faith in time as a little magic from the boys of summer, our beloved Tigers. And of course as Motown boys we don't be needin a whole lot of magic just, well, just a little somethin somethin. With their inspiration we begin to decipher and slowly elucidate something not yet quite clear but something that fills us with a unfounded and unstinting sense of hope. Its an endless summer of possibility completely unhinged from rules of time and space where Rich is at Game 5 in 68, Norman, not yet ready for for drinking and docks is up at the plate wielding furniture and goes yard, and then of course, sweet, Sweet Lou flips one to Trammel and he fires to Shelton for the double play -- Tigers win!

Rich--I agree on the roster.
I lean toward Ledezma albeit reluctantly.

The other option Clevlen vs. Gomez is IMHO clearly Gomez.

I like Clevlen a lot but it is not the "right" time for him. We do need the LHB.

I will actually be upset if Perez is taken.

I know it is very unconvetntional but if Miller were to show signs of dominance I would consider him over Ledezma.

Maroth is preferred but I don't think it will happen because I don't think his body will answer the bell.

You may be right on with that roster.

Wow. There's Proust, Ernie, Paul, Norm, Tram, Sweet Lou, Shelton.....and me. I'll gladly accept the company. Very descriptive and beautifully written piece, Mr. Rubel.

And Dan and I have agreed on a playoff roster. What a night!!!!

Or,in other words -- congratulations boys of summer 2006. Thank you so much for an amazing, improbable, wonderful season. And a special note of thanks to all the 03 fellas for hanging in there and giving us one the greatest summers we'll ever know. Thanks Brandon and the boys for such a magical season. And an important word of gratitude to Jason for creating this space and tending to all the crazy children who are drawn here.
I've never written on a blog before, don't know that I've ever used the word before this summer (such an ugly word), but Jason, you've really created a terrific forum here for which I am grateful. Jason, I'm sure you and the rest of the fellas might be grateful if I didn't talk quite so much but such gratitude as that unfortunately, is something I will have to live without.

I wish I'd discovered y'all in April but I have to tell all you muppet heckler types how much fun its been to pop up here and see what the good folk of Tiger Town are up to. Though its been a rough season at points, with marriages on the rocks as well as much whisky, it looks like we've finally made it.

So enough mushy stuff, this is an incredibly important week coming up and we've got a lot of work to do. So pour another drink, take your meds, finish your pilates and lets go to work.

As for rosters, we know our four starters and top four in the pen. So in addition to those eight

Miner

Ledezma

Grilli or Maroth

Monroe

Thames

Ordonez

Granderson

Gomez

Santiago

Shelton

Inge

Guillen

Infante

Polanco

Casey

Rodriguez

Wilson

As I understand the rules, Santiago(who was sent down the day after the Neifi effect took effect), Clevlan and Shelton are all ineligible. Because Tony was on the DL Sept 1st we're allowed to switch in one infielder which is Shelton on my roster. The way to get Santiago on the post season roster is simple. Tomorrow in the first inning, Nefarious fakes a serious injury. Now, it will need to be pretty dramatic as he already appears to be suffering from a number of maladies. So we put Nefarious on the DL (before his release in mid-November -- pay him off Dombroski, be a man and admit you made the dumbest trade in the history of basesball. You're still a genius or whatever and for what its worth we love you. We really do. But, enough is enough. Oh, and while we'd like a written apology it isn't really necessary but a verbal one to Infante along with a hefty raise is mandatory). And we add Santiago to the roster. We have two middle infielders coming off injury so infield depth is no joke.

Grlli deserves to be on the roster but I can't for the life of me say that Maroth shouldn't go. His pitched terrible of late and I don't know whats up with his arm but he has with class, patience, talent and characther won that Tiger uniform for years now and absolutely deserves to go. I feel bad for Grilli but how do leave a person and a player like Maroth off the roster?

Has anyone noticed how effective Infante has become at laying down bunts? You think that might be the Perez factor? You think that's what Leyland had in mind the entire time? Now, I've managed a few teams in my time and I wouldn't be above doing that to light a fire under someone.

I watched the Twins win their clincher tonight. They were a little more animated on the field, but they were playing at home, after all. They deserve it, they've played very excellent baseball down the stretch, since June, in fact. And you can put the name of Rod Gardenhire into the hat for Manager of the Year. They will have to win away from the Dome, however, to go anywhere in the postseason.

This is all going to be very interesting indeed.

Rube, erudite as usual! I don't know what else you're smoking other than Cuban tobacco but whatever it is, it is powerful stuff.
I don't see how we can dialogue with you anymore as you have entered a stratosphere of incomparibility.

And beside that--Helms & Burton are gonna be sending men in black suits to your door. They don't cotton to Cuban tobacco and rum in these parts!

BTW--I enjoy Havana Club quite often and have experienced the joy of having visited that wonderful country a couple of time now. One of the coolest things I did was to play a softball game against a fishing village team (not far from Guantanamo). I was the shortstop on a tourist team of players mostly from Canada and we got our a$$es kicked. I'll never forget the goats being lead across from left field by an old lady in the middle of the game! Of course prioites the way they are, we all patiently waited for the procession to cross the right field line and then to continue the game.

I learned from that experience why so many Latin ballplayer have such wonderfully honed fielding skills. The field was an abomination--ruts, holes, mud, dirt, grass, weeds, rocks, sticks, branches, coconuts, etc.

Can you imagine how fabulous it is to play on a manicured diamond with nothing but surface perfection to contend with?

How the heck are you getting Havana Club?

Have a Mojito and a Cuba Libre on me partner.

Saluda

Great story above Jason and the photo's definitely a keeper (maybe Ordonez didn't cut his hair because he knew how good champagne would look flowing through it. He can't cut it now, ****, hes Sampson as far as I'm concerned. No shorning till November). I keep finding myself re-reading it. My thoughts last night went back to DY and Higginson and without question Trammell. The man had the most thankless job in the world and was firied the minute his work would start to bear fruit. I'm glad Leyland gave him props in the post-game interview. We know how much you gave Alan and we won't forget.

Leyland, who has done an incredible job in the clubhouse this season, while I tend to disagree with a lot of his tactical choices, has been given way too much credit by the national media. Now Leyland in his typical very charming manner disarms this at every turn but it goes on largely because ESPN has no idea who plays for the Tigers. You hear all sorts of silly things from the media because you can't learn a team from box scores, you have to watch them. And nobody has been watching the Tigers for a while. But with the postseason coming up and the Division title on the line the spotlight is going to on those small tactical decisions that you can overlook in a long 162 game schedule but which magnify to ten times of their size in the postseason.

There is something between Earl Weaver ball (Homers, preferably with 2 on) and what has come to known as small ball. It is exactly what we saw a lot earlier this season and again a little the last two weeks, and that is 6-7 hits in a row -- the big inning. With our problems with on base percentage if we can smell blood we have to put our foot on the opponents throat and get 7 runs if we can. The big inning yesterday was the exact opposite of what Leyland was trying to do. Both Inge and Infante were trying to sacrifice and we got lucky because they both got on. The other day Granderson led off the GAME with a single and Leyland had Rodriguez bunting. That is a gift out from a team that gives away enough outs as it is. A lot of people are saying we discovered small ball but it is a critical misunderstanding that could have pernicious consequences.

Down by 1, leadoff double in the 7th, you bunt but all this early inning sacrificing is really misguided and could kill us in the playoffs. There, that should get some of the hecklers going. What do you guys think?

We absolutely want to go to Oakland. We match up better there but more importantly I want the Twins and Yankees but beat up on each other and exhaust their pitching staffs in a nasty 5 game series. If the Twins win, Santana will throw game 5. That will take him down to 2 rather than 3 starts in a championchip series.

With the Twins 1 game out we need to take at least 4 of the last 6 games to take the division. Our pitching staff would line up perfect in a 4 man rotation for the playoffs. I don't think the order of the staff matters that much except I think its important that Rogers go first. I think the Rogers, Verlander, Bonderman and Robertson in that order is good.

The possibility of a 1 game playoff next Tuesday is a real one. Do we throw Miner or Ledezma next THursday to save Robertson for the one day playoff so we can still have Rogers for game 1?

Among the stuff we shouldn't have to talk about anymore is that Thames needs at-bats. I almost threw my computer out the window when Leyland pinch-hit for Thames with Stairs last saturday. Marcus is one of the keys to the postseason and as I've been saying and Jason pointed out back in June, he belts right hand pitching just as good as left.

All the pen needs a little work to stay sharp. Take care of that first before you pitch Miller or Tata.

Same goes for hitters, I doubt seriously that Hooper needs the at-bat as much as Infante.

Get Ordonez, Guillen and Polanco the rest they need.

Jason, is Monroe battling a knee problem again?

I'm sure theres tons of other stuff but I don't really know much about the postseason. I'm sure that y'all will remember the important stuff and tell me what it is. I just figure we should change nothing and play the way that got us here. this is going to be fun.

There will be no one game playoff. If the two teams tie, and both are already in the playoff, the tie breaker is head to head competition, which the Tigers have over the Twins. So you can take this one game lead in the division and think of it as two. The Twins have to pass us, not tie us, in order to avoid opening with New York.

Rube, Does anyone ever call you Hemingway? That was a wonderful post! Erudite, as Dan described. I'm surprised you're only 33, your insight and creativity seem to eclipse your years.
In fact all the above posts are beginning to reach their "ultimate expression thanks to the oils and congeners working their magic." rube06

Not till you mentioned Swisher Sweets and Hav-a-Tampas did I have a clue what you were talking about. (Picture one of those Muppet Hecklers lighting one up) In the summer of 1969 I remember smoking a yellow field plant called Common Cinquefoil, which, for those interested, is in the genus Potentilla. I succeeded in getting a headache if nothing else. Unfortunately none of its harshness had been "attenuated" by any careful aging whatsoever. I used to smoke but have been smoke free for 16 years now. Fear even enjoying a fine cigar would hook me again. Now I run both physically and metaphorically from tobacco. But if you can enjoy a fine cigar, that can be a beautiful thing.

Seems we are all pretty much in agreement on the post season roster, except for minor tweeking. And I'm still not clear on all the eligibility issues. Anyway, I posted my thoughts on Jason's previous blog, if anyone is interested.

If I may expand further on this standings thing, the Twins have to win two more games than Detroit to get the division. So if we go 3-3, they have to go 5-1. They do have Chicago this weekend, but they're playing like (insert your own word). Anyway, this thing can have a happy conclusion. It will be interesting, however, to see how the Twins handle the situation. Do you go all out or figure it's too tall a mountain and just concentrate on preparing for a trip to Yankee Stadium?

An interesting Bonderman stat:

Pitching at night: 12W - 2L

Pitching in day: 2W - 6L

Good nickname would be Tootsie Roll

Solid when its cold and melts in the heat!

Rich, Good to hear they win the tie, no tie breaker game needed. Too much to handle at this point. I'm afraid the Twins will at least go 4-2 from here on. Unless Chicago musters some pride and takes a game or two. I don't think 3-3 gets it. 4-2 maybe, but you almost have to assume 5-1 is necessary. Would be nice to run the table and finish 100-62. Bats will have to really come alive so the pitching is not stressed, course the Tigers have to figure out a way to beat Halliday, assuming he's pitching in one of the games. Still like to see Maroth if he can do it.

Dan, That would explain his July-August struggles.

I belive Halliday is out for the season. Jason, could you or someone official list who is and who is not eligable for the playoffs and why?

Rube, such well written, beautiful prose might lead me to take up smoking again!

You're right, I just saw that on the Toronto site. Thanks.

I've heard that stat on Bonderman, and I've attributed it to the hitters having a harder time picking up the slider at night. Other explanations are hard to come by, other than plain coincidence.

Marty, I agree, I was using 3-3 as an example. 4-2 forces the Twins to run the table, ending up with an eight game win streak. And I still want to get that best record over New York, just in case we get that far.