Box scores cannot tell the entire story of a baseball game. At times, when I don’t get to catch the game on television, I rely on them for my columns. And when I checked out the boxscore for Justin Verlander’s debut, it obviously told me a different story from what really happened. If you want a different (and better) take on what happened, check out the comment Todd left on my column last night. Todd also has his own blog, Be the Power. Be sure to check it out.

Quite a bit happened both when I was getting ready to leave for my weekend trip and while I was gone. Magglio Ordonez made his real debut for the Tigers and hit a homerun in his first game back off the DL to help the Tigers top the Yankees. He doubled on Saturday but was held hitless the rest of the weekend. Fortunately he bounced back today and hit a two run shot tonight and the Tigers are up 3-1. He also has his first multihit game in a Tiger’s uniform.

Also of note was the shifting of Bruce Fields and Kirk Gibson. A lot of what I’ve read I agree with. Fields is a former minor league manager and is probably a better sounding board as far as strategy goes because he’s been there before. But I just don’t picture Gibby as a hitting instructor. In a radio interview Tram simply stated things weren’t working and things needed to change. Apparantly Gibby isn’t too happy about it, so it’ll interesting to see what happens once the season ends.

Finally, Ivan Rodriguez got the nod as the lone Tiger All Star. I thought consideration could have been given for both Jeremy Bonderman (ace of the staff with 10 wins) and Brandon Inge (third in the AL in VORP among thirdbasemen). Grady Little said Matt Clement, who was also snubbed, would have gotten the start ahead of Bonderman anyway so it looks like Jeremy will have to wait until next year.

I also want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. Some of you even wanted to send me money or presents. It’s not that I disapprove of people who do, but I don’t solicit donations. The advertising pays for any site maintenance, but I guess there’s also the time I put into the site. If you’re seriously interested in making a donation, send me an email off line or check out my Amazon.com wishlist.

Probably the best birthday present was hitting a milestone today. Sometime tonight I’ll have my 50,000th visitor. I know that’s a weeks worth of traffic for some of the larger sites, but it’s something that I’m proud of.

Permalink | Posted in 2005 Tigers