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This is obviously the big news of the day as Rafael Palmeiro was suspended for 10 days for using steroids. While we’ll probably never know exactly what it was the Raffy got nailed for, it definitely will leave a stain, at least for now unjustifiably in my opinion, on his career.

I’ll touch on this a little more when I do my Business of Baseball Report over at the Hardball Times.

Dan Holmes, who runs the website for the Baseball Hall of Fame, has a blog with a ton of interesting information called From Cooperstown. There’s also some great pics taken this weekend at the activities surrounding the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Be sure to check it out. He’s also a Tigers fan.

August 1, 1935 Tigers 6, Browns 3 (59-37)

General Crowder held the last place Browns to only eight hits and they didn’t touch him for a run until the ninth inning. Four of the eight hits he gave up were in that ninth inning and Mickey Cochrane brought in Chief Hogsett to get the team out of the ninth inning jam. Crowder helped out his own cause by going two for three with a triple and two RBIs.

Billy Rogell drove in two runs and five different Tigers had multihit games. The Tigers did a lot of their damage early as they scored four runs in the first two innings.

I really didn’t see this one coming. Kyle Farnsworth was traded to the Braves for Roman Colon and Zach Miner. Looks like the inability to lock in Farnsworth spooked Dombrowski, so he figured he should cut bait while Farnsworth’s stock is high.

As always, when I’m dealing with minor league players, I reach over to my book shelf and pull out my latest Baseball Prospectus. Roman Colon is in his second year, will be 26 in a couple of weeks, and to date hasn’t done all that well. His .272 batting average against isn’t too special. He did start four games, so he has that ability. He was the Brave’s AAA pitcher of the year last season and had a solid 64/32 strikeout to walk ratio in the minors.

Zach Miner wasn’t in the book but his AAA stats aren’t off the chart. 63 strikeouts through 89 1/3 innings, but he also has 45 walks. And while I don’t put too much stock in the win/loss record, it is only 2-7. His ERA isn’t great either (4.23). So if anyone knows anything about this guy, definitely drop me a line because I’m not seeing much.

I commend Dombrowski with trying to get something for a guy who didn’t seem like he was willing to sign with us next year. Hopefully Colon can fill a role in the pen. He did start in the low minors, so I could see him filling a spot starter/long relief role. Miner will probably be headed to Toledo.

With Oakland finishing their sweep today, I think we can put to rest the hopes of the Tigers backing into a Wild Card spot this year. They’re now eight games out with seven teams ahead of them. They’re closer to Seattle, who’s just behind them, then they are of making the playoffs.

UPDATE

Jeff has me covered. There’s reviews on both players over at Bless You Boys, so be sure to check them out.

July 31, 1935 Tigers 9, Browns 3 (58-37)

This game was all Hank Greenberg. He went three for four with a triple, a homer, three runs and two RBIs. Marv Owen drove in three runs and Pete Fox scored three times.

Lost in the Tigers offensive onslaught was a quality start by Tommy Bridges. He won his fifteenth game, giving up three runs on eight hits.

July 30, 1935 Browns 8, Tigers 6 (57-37)

Schoolboy Rowe once again struggled as the Tigers walked away with a loss against the worst team in the American League. The Browns scored their runs in bunches. The racked up four in the fourth and three in the seventh to put the game out of reach.

Rowe took the loss and while Joe Sullivan stopped the Browns from putting any more runs on the board, the Tigers failed to come back. Pete Fox homered for the Tigers and Jo Jo White scored two runs. Hank Greenberg had two RBIs.

I love Minor League Baseball.com. If you’ve never been to the site, they now (at least I’ve just noticed it) a great feature to where you can listen to just about any game live on the net. Right now I’m listening to Zumaya throw a gem. Twelve strikeouts and counting through six innings.

July 29, 1935 Indians 6, Tigers 5 (57-36)

The Tigers twelve game winning streak over the Indians ended as the Indians scored all six of their runs in the sixth inning. The Tigers had given General Crowder a 3-0 lead, but it went up in smoke after he was beaten down in that inning. The Tigers got runs in the seventh and eighth to cut the lead to a single run, but couldn’t manage to tie it despite having the bases loaded with one out in the ninth.

Marv Owen drove in two runs and Goose Goslin homered. Crowder walked away with the loss. The Yankees trailed the Tigers by 2 1/2 games, but they were tied in the loss column, so their lead was hardly comfortable.

July 28, 1935 Tigers 14, Indians 6 (57-35)

The Tigers gave Schoolboy Rowe an early 7-0 lead, but in the bottom of the second, he ran into trouble. By the end of two innings, Rowe was on the bench in place of Chief Hogsett and the Indians had cut the lead to only two runs.

It didn’t take too long for the Tigers to put the game away. They added three more in the third to essentially put the game out of reach. Goose Goslin had a big game. He went four for six with five RBIs. Jo Jo White scored four runs and Hank Greenberg had four hits and two RBIs.

Hogsett walked away with the win, and the Tigers increased their lead over the Yankees to three games.

July 27, 1935 Tigers 6, Indians 2 (56-35)

The Tigers continued to roll and pad their lead over the Yankees as Tommy Bridges won his 14th game of the season. He gave up only two runs on nine hits, but those two runs were scored in the bottom of the ninth when the game was well out of reach.

Hank Greenberg doubled twice, drove in two runs and scored once. Charlie Gehringer and Goose Goslin both had multihit games.

The win was the Tigers fourth straight and with the Yankees losing, the Tigers now had a 2 1/2 game lead in the American League.

July 26, 1975 Tigers 8, Indians 2 (55-35)

This game started out as a pitching dual between starters Elden Auker and Thornton Lee as the score was only 2-1 after five innings. In the sixth and seventh, the Tigers opened the game up with five runs to walk away with the win.

Hank Greenberg continued to mash the ball. He went three for five with three RBIs. Pete Fox drove in two runs and Goose Goslin scored twice. Auker went the distance, and despite giving up ten hits he only allowed two of those to cross the plate.

The win put the Tigers a game and a half up on the Yankees and for the first time were twenty games above .500.

Probably the only thing I love more then baseball is baseball history. I’d rather scan Babe Ruth’s statistics then I would Barry Bonds, and while I don’t read enough of them, I love a good baseball book.

While this list isn’t all inclusive, here are some websites that are doing some pretty neat historical columns:

The Hardball Times – Steve Treder’s column comes out every Tuesday and it’s a must read. This week he takes a look at the business of baseball back in 1954, but he’s touched on a variety of subjects. He’s not the only one who writes about baseball history, so it’s best you stop by there every day.

Baseball’s Savior – This is a relatively new blog about the Yankees. Nick is going back and looking at the Yankee’s World Series appearances and he’s started with their first in 1921.

Black Sox Blog – This White Sox website has been taking a look at the early White Sox season. While the Sox aren’t a favorite team of mine these day’s it’s interesting to see the evolution of one of the storied franchises in the American League.

Tom Seaver Fan Club – This Mets blog is true to it’s word. While it focuses on the current day Mets, Jon also is doing a season by season retrospective of Tom Seaver. His latest was one of Terrific Tom’s best seasons of his career so be sure to check out the 1969 installment.

Reds Cutting Edge – Blade will be annoyed I put him last, but he’s been doing a series of Cincinnati Reds All Decade Teams. If you to read about how the Reds had a chance at nabbing Babe Ruth or how they lost out on both Christy Matthewson and Sam Crawford then be sure to check it out. You’ll also find the 1975 Reds diary I’ve been working on this year.

Justin Verlander made his second major league start of the season on Saturday. In the second game of their day/night doubleheader, Verlander started and lost his second game of the season. In the process, I hope he’s getting something out of all this. It was another big inning that did him in as he gave up three runs in the fourth. The Tigers offense was absent for this game and didn’t give him much help either. Hopefully next time he’ll be able to walk away with the win and a game ball.

The trade deadline (at least the first one) is coming up this weekend. I hate to be a pessimist, but I think the Tigers should be sellers. Jason Johnson, despite getting roughed up in his last start, has to be a guy a contender might be interested in for the back of their rotation. He’s done this well so far with his control. While his strikeout numbers are down (60 in 126 innings), his walk totals are even lower (20). A 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio and a guy who’s gone eight innings seven different times should be a guy who can net us some prospects or even better, a left handed bat. I’ve heard Anaheim might be interested in Rondell White, but I haven’t seen anything to confirm this. Finally, Dmitri Young is very expendable now that Chris Shelton has shown what he can do after an extended stay at the big league club.

Carlos Pena is a guy I’m on the fence about. Getting sent down to AAA when you haven’t been there in a while is pretty humbling. And he’s tearing things up down in Toledo (.326/.435/.541). Marcus Thames is also doing a number on minor league pitching (.378/..477/.782) but I haven’t heard much about the franchises plans for him.

The Tigers took three of five against the Twins this weekend. Despite the White Sox current success, many still look at the Twins as the bench mark of the division and to win a five game series is big. Now the Tigers head out west, so I’ll probably be missing some of the games.

The 1935 diary is caught up and the Tigers are now in first place. Can they remain there??!! Be sure to check back to find out.

July 24, 1935 Tigers 4, Yankees 0 (54-35)

For the first time this season, the Tigers found themselves atop the American League, sort of, as General Crowder threw a gem. He gave up four hits, walked none, and didn’t allow a single Yankee to cross the plate. All four hits were singles.

Jo Jo White gave the Tigers the lead for good with a lead off homer to put the Tigers in front 1-0. The Tigers scored three more in the third, all with two outs. Mickey Cochrane had a one run single and Goose Goslin drove home two when he singled with the bases loaded.

The reason the Tigers only sort of moved into first is they moved a half game ahead, but because they had played five more games, the Yankees actually had a marginally better winning percentage. The matter would be put to rest the following day as the Yankees would lose and the Tigers would not only be an entire game in first, but they’d have the better winning percentage as well.

July 23, 1935 Yankees 7, Tigers 5 (52-35)

The Tigers took an early lead in the first game of the doubleheader with solo shots by Mickey Cochrane and Hank Greenberg. The homer by Greenberg was his 27th of the season. The lead was shortlived as Lou Gehrig took Schoolboy Rowe deep for a two run shot to tie the game.

The Yankees took the lead in the third with a run and extended it in the bottom of the sixth with another to make the score 4-2. The Tigers stormed right back in the top of the seventh with two runs to tie the game, but the Yankees put the game away in the bottom half of the inning with three runs.

Charlie Gehringer hit a solo shot in the eighth but it wasn’t nearly enough. Schoolboy Rowe was pretty wild as he gave up five walks through six innings while taking the loss.

July 23, 1935 Tigers 3, Yankees 1 (53-35)

Vic Sorrell outdueled future Hall of Famer Lefty Gomez to move the Tigers back to a half game back of first place. The Yankees were able to tag Sorrell for eight hits and were able to draw six walks, but only one run crossed the plate.

The Tigers were actually outhit but they made good use of their seven hits. A Pete Fox double in the fifth drove in two runs, and the Tigers actually got an insurance run in the sixth without getting a hit. Charlie Gehringer drew a walk, moved to second on a passed ball, and then was sent over to third on a bunt. He was then driven in by Mickey Cochrane on a fielders choice.

The split kept the Tigers a game back. The third and final game of the series would determine who would walk away with sole possession of first place.

July 21, 1935 Red Sox 7, Tigers 6 (52-34)

The Tigers dropped out of first place by a half game when they came from behing to score three runs in the ninth only to see Tommy Bridges blow the come from behind win by giving up three runs in the ninth. Wes Ferrell had the big blast for the Red Sox as he hit a three run pinch hit walk off homer to end the game.

Pete Fox had three hits, including two doubles, and an RBI. Ray Hayworth also had three hits while Goose Goslin and Billy Rogell each had two hits.

The loss put the Tigers a half game back of the first place Yankees and they had a huge three game series coming up against the Yanks.

July 20, 1935 Tigers 6, Red Sox 5 (52-33)

The Tigers almost gave this game away as they saw 4-0 and 5-1 leads disappear. General Crowder gave up three runs in the seventh and then reliever Elden Auker allowed the tying run to cross the plate in the eighth.

Fortunately, the Tiger’s bats had one more run in them. Charlie Gehringer singled, stole second and then scored the winning run on Goose Goslin’s single. It was Goslin’s second RBI of the game and Gerhinger’s second run scored of the game.

The win put the Tigers into a tie for first in the standings. They did trail the Yankees by a few percentage points because the Tigers had both won three and lost three more games then the Yankees.

I’ll be on KRMS 1150’s sports radio show tonight. The appearance will be sometime between 6:30 and 7:00 pm Eastern Time. While I’m sure we’ll touch a variety of topics, most of them will revolve around my Business of Baseball Report over at the Hardball Times.

July 19, 1935 Tigers 9, Red Sox 7 (51-33)

A five run sixth inning was the difference in this game as the Tigers took their second straight game over the Red Sox. Charlie Gehringer had a huge bases loaded triple in the inning as the three different Tigers had three baggers.

Tommy Bridges pitched six innings in earning the win, but he received help from three different relief pitchers. Schoolboy Rowe earned the save as he came in to relieve Elden Auker in the ninth. Rowe got them out of a huge jam after Auker walked the bases loaded.

July 18, 1935 Tigers 8, Red Sox 0 (50-33)

Schoolboy Rowe ended the Tigers mini-skid with a five hit shutout while he also got things done with the bat. He had the game’s only extra basehit (a triple) as he went three for three with two RBIs and two runs.

Hank Greenberg and Goose Goslin also drove in a pair with singles as the Tigers finally won their 50th game of the season.

With the win, the Tigers once again pulled to within a game and a half of the first place Yankees, who lost in extra innings to the last place St. Louis Browns.

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