Garret Craig

It’s the magical number which symbolizes sweet, sweet, mediocrity. It’s the number teams like the Red Sox and Yankees fear falling to. The same number teams like the Nationals and Mariners can only dream of reaching. It is the number that can make or break a franchise, and the number that separates the champions from the wannabes.

It is also the number that the Detroit Tigers–the team picked for the 2nd year in a row as not only a competitor, but a favorite–has been chasing all season. That is until now. Finally, on Saturday, June 28th, 80 games into the yearly recurring roller coaster we call Major League Baseball, the Tigers have finally clawed their way back to .500.

It was an electric atmosphere at beautiful Comerica Park tonight, and the rowdy crowd of 42,729 certainly got their money’s worth. The Tigers broke the game open in the 4th inning as Ryan Raburn unloaded on a two-strike pitch with two outs and hit a majestic grand slam over the wall in left. But Colorado battled back, scoring four runs off Todd Jones in the ninth inning to take the lead, and just when it looked like the Motor City Kitties would fall short again, the Tigers delivered an exhilarating 9th inning comeback, capped by a two-run walk-off double by Miguel Cabrera.

Call it what you like, but the last 20 games for the Tigers, I describe as magical. In a twenty-game stretch that may have saved their season, they went a cool 15-5 , with four wins in heroic walk-off fashion.

It all started on Saturday, June 7th at Comerica Park against the Tigers division rival, the Cleveland Indians. The Tigers had dropped the opener of the series the night before, but the loss was overshadowed by the news that came shortly after; “Jeremy Bonderman Will Likely Miss Rest of Season.” Bonderman’s jersey was hung in the dugout on Saturday night as the Tigers dispatched of the Tribe behind a six-run rally in the 8th inning. The Tigers went on to split the Indians in the four-game set, followed by a three-game sweep of the division-leading Chicago White Sox, and a four-game sweep of the playoff-bound Los Angeles Dodgers. The Tigers went on the road and took four of six in an exciting pair of Inter-league series’ in San Fransisco and San Diego, then continued their recent tear at Comerica Park, winning four of their last five games and finding themselves sitting in the lap of Mr. 500.

The Tigers will go for the sweep of the Colorado Rockies Sunday afternoon behind Kenny Rogers, and then start an extremely important stretch of games with Minnesota, Cleveland, and Seattle leading up to the All-Star Break.

Don’t be surprised to see the Old English D in October, 2008.

This is a video I made Wednesday in response to the NHL’s new rule concerning a $10,000 fine for Octapi swinging.

It was recently featured in a Yahoo sports article, which is pretty exciting! As of April 26th, it has over 20,000 views.

I have been all over the internet advertising this petition in an effort along with avid Wings fan and season ticket holder Ryan Morin to reverse this highly illogical NHL ruling.