Twenty four hours ago, had I predicted that the Tiger’s wouldn’t just win their first game, but that they’d take Roy Halladay deep three different times, driving him out of the game well behind on his home turf, where he’s owned the Tigers, you would have said I was nuts.

Had I further predicted that Jason Johnson, along with three relievers, would shutout the Jays, I probably would have been fit to be institutionalized.

And sometimes, reality is much more bizarre then fiction. Because that’s just what the Tigers did today. Ivan Rodriguez, Carlos Pena, and Rondell White all went yard, and Jason Johnson pitched 6 shutout innings, getting out of a couple of jams.

And with one game, like the Lions at the beginning of the year, people are excited. This probably doesn’t mean the Tigers will finish .500, but it’s something to build on. Some people say that you’re only as good as your last game. And if that’s the case, the Tigers are looking pretty good.

Last year, it took the Tigers seven games to score their seventh run.

And the last times the Tigers had a shutout on the season opener was before even I was born. Mickey Lolich, the MVP of the 1968 World Series, shut the Washington Senators out in the season opener for the Tigers. The year was 1970, and the Tigers went on to win 79 games.

And I’ll be posting the 1984 Tigers diary under a different category, so for those of you just coming to keep up on what that great Tiger team is up to, I’ll have a seperate link to that section.

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