• The Tigers’ collection of All Stars is the largest since 1985 when the club sent six players to the Metrodome for the game managed by Sparky Anderson. Here’s a look at the largest classes of Tigers All Stars since 1984 and the team’s record that season:

1984 (104-58)
Willie Hernandez
Chet Lemon
Jack Morris
Lance Parrish
Alan Trammell
Lou Whitaker

1985 (84-77)
Willie Hernandez
Jack Morris
Lance Parrish
Dan Petry
Alan Trammell
Lou Whitaker

2007 (88-74)
Carlos Guillen
Magglio Ordonez
Placido Polanco
Ivan Rodriguez
Justin Verlander

2009 (86-77)
Curtis Granderson
Brandon Inge
Edwin Jackson
Justin Verlander

Clearly, the better the Tigers were, the more players they sent to the All-Star Game. For a long time though, the Tigers were a team that had little to offer the American League manager. From 1996 through 2003, Detroit sent a single player to the game. In some cases the pickings were particularly slim (see 2002).

1996 (53-109)
Travis Fryman

1997 (79-83)
Justin Thompson

1998 (65-97)
Damion Easley

1999 (69-92)
Brad Ausmus

2000 (79-83)
Todd Jones

2001 (66-96)
Tony Clark

2002 (55-106)
Robert Fick

2003 (43-119)
Dmitri Young

Ugly, no?

• I still think it’s remarkable that Alex Avila is the starting catcher in tonight’s game. Whoda thunk it, especially after a dreadful Opening Day series against the Yankees when Avila looked about as lost as a player can look. I guess that’s why, as Rod Allen says, you play the games. Jason Beck has a nice piece recapping the Tigers’ All Stars’ respective experiences in Phoenix.

• The water is so far past being under the bridge, but isn’t it still a bit weird to see Curtis Granderson starting in the All-Star Game … as a Yankee?

• Six years ago today in the Home Run Derby at Comerica Park, Bobby Abreu destroyed the records for a single round, the championship round and the grand total for all three rounds of the derby by hitting 41 homers into every part of yard. The Phillies outfielder went deep 24 times in the first round, tacks on six more in the second round and finishes with 11 more in the championship round.

• Looking ahead to the pitching matchups for this weekend’s series against the White Sox:

Friday | 7:05 p.m. FSD/1270 & 97.1
Justin Verlander (12-4, 2.15 ERA) vs. Gavin Floyd (6-9, 4.59 ERA)

Saturday | 4:10 p.m. FOX/1270 & 97.1
Max Scherzer (10-4, 4.69 ERA) vs. Edwin Jackson (5-7, 4.30 ERA)

Sunday | 1:05 p.m. FSD/1270 & 97.1
Brad Penny (6-6, 4.50 ERA) vs. Jake Peavy (4-2, 4.83 ERA)

• Hey, look who’s available: The Dodgers designated Marcus Thames for assignment today.

• Happy Birthday to Mike Schwabe (47) and Mike Munoz (46).

Finally, on this date in 1979 the White Sox were forced to forfeit the second game of twi-night doubleheader against the Tigers when more tha5,000 fans refuse to leave the field during Disco Demolition Night. I wrote about it on the 30th anniversary.

We will restart the podcast machine after the All-Star Game and take the second half by storm. More or less.

Thanks to everyone who’s been asking — and thanks for your patience as we carve out time to do a show we love producing for our listeners.

• With Justin Verlander’s complete-game win yesterday at Coors Field, he limited the Rockies to one run on four hits. It marked the second-straight outing in which he tossed a complete game while limiting his opponent to as few as one run and four hits. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he joins Jack Morris (July of 1986) as the only two Tigers pitchers to accomplish the feat in consecutive outings during a single season over the last 33 seasons.

• One-hundred years ago today Ty Cobb broke the American League hitting streak record with an infield single against Cleveland’s Willie Mitchell. It’s Cobb’s 30th straight game with a hit. He adds two stolen bases to help the Tigers win, 8-3.

• Paul Swaney and crew at StadiumJourney.com continue their stellar work publishing reviews of pro and college sports stadiums. His goal this summer is to post a review of every affiliated minor league ballpark. Recently he posted reviews of Lakeland’s Joker Marchant Stadium and Fifth Third Ballpark in Comstock Park, Mich., home of the West Michigan Whitecaps.

• How’s this for timely? Just the other day we wrote about Tigers players filling in at third base. The most prominent name on the list was Al Kaline. Fifty years ago today played third for the first time in his career. His two hits and two RBIs lead the Tigers to a 5-4 win over the Senators at Griffith Stadium in D.C. He will return to the OF and play third base just once more in his career, in 1965.

• From the Game Notes: The Tigers are batting .312 with 95 runs scored, 31 doubles, seven triples and 20 home runs in 18 games during June. Detroit is tops among all American League clubs with a .312 batting average during the month, while the club is second with 95 runs scored and a .477 slugging percentage.

• One more historical note: On this date in 1984, Yankees reliever Jose Rijo falls to 1-7 when he serves up a two-out three-run homer to Howard Johnson in the 13th inning. The Tigers win 9-6. Alan Trammell, Lance Parrish and Chet Lemon also hit homers for the Tigers, who draw their third-straight crowd of more than 40,000.

Finally, Happy 78th Birthday to a terrific actor, Danny Aiello.

It’s a treat to be able to watch the World Series on Halloween, though the Aubrey Huff and Edgar Renteria sightings are undoubtedly the “trick” part of the equation.

• In our highest vote-gettin’ poll of the season, Fungo readers were emphatic on what the Tigers’ next offseason move should be: target Nationals’ slugger and free-agent-to-be Adam Dunn.

  Twenty-four percent (148 voters) of the 628 readers casting votes selected Dunn as their top choice. Here are the runners up:

  • Sign Jason Werth (16%, 103 Votes)
  • Sign Victor Martinez (15%, 97 Votes)
  • Trade for a starting pitcher (14%, 88 Votes)
  • Pickup Jhonny Peralta’s option (14%, 88 Votes)
  • Sign Magglio Ordonez (12%, 73 Votes)
  • Other (5%, 31 Votes)

  Thanks to everyone who voted and a special thanks for those that left comments. It was a great discussion. Keep those comments rolling in.

• As we noted earlier this week, Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson named Alan Trammell as his bench coach. It didn’t take a genius to see this as a possibility once Gibby was given the job full time.

  On Thursday the Dbacks made it official – along with the hiring of Don Baylor as hitting coach and Charles Nagy as pitching coach – and here’s what new GM Kevin Towers had to say about Tram (courtesy of Nick Piecoro’s blog):

I go back to ‘Tram’ in the late ‘80s. At the end of my playing career, I was a free agent and I had four or five different options to go to different ballclubs and that offseason there was a workout and conditioning program that they always held in San Diego. It was mainly young minor league players and the only big league player was Alan Trammell. He was the first one there, the last one to leave. When it came to running, he led the running every time. When it came to make my choice, I said, If this is what the Detroit Tigers are all about – here’s a guy who has been an All-Star, is one of the premier players in the game. If he puts this type of time and effort into his game in the off-season, if they breed those kind of players, that’s the type of organization I want to be with.”

And Gibby on his new bench coach:

“I probably talk more baseball with Alan Trammell than anybody. I think we share similar beliefs and philosophies. We have the same foundation. We were taught the same way in the Detroit organization with Sparky (Anderson). He’s a very trusted friend of mine, a great baseball man, a great competitor and he has high standards. I wasn’t sure that was going to work out and I think many took it for granted that he would be on my staff, but I know KT can attest that was one of the things I didn’t want to do. I wanted to make sure I hired Alan or anybody on my staff for the right reasons. Interviewed several other guys for that position and in the end felt that Alan was the right pick.”

• On this date in 1984, Willie Hernandez won the American League Cy Young Award, edging fellow reliever Dan Quisenberry of the Royals. Hernandez posted a 9-3 record with 32 saves and a 1.92 ERA. Hernandez becomes only the third reliever — and only the second Tiger — to win the award

Finally, Happy Birthday to the Fonz. Henry Winkler turns 65 today.

But the more I watched and considered the situation, the better I felt. After all, the Tigers only needed three to four innings out of Thomas and they could hand it over to Eddie Bonine, then the back end of the ‘pen.

Both guys were solid and showed a national TV audience why the Tigers are hanging around the upper floors of the A.L. Central: the relief corps, of course. This is a much more preferable scenario than the tension that normally accompanies a Dontrelle Willis start.

Other thoughts rattling around my brain:

• While it wasn’t ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, it was an ESPN national broadcast, and it sure was nice to see the Tigers perform capably. In case you hadn’t noticed, they’ve stunk up the airwaves during their ESPN appearances since 2008.

• Speaking of pitching, the Thomas experience has worked out twice this season, but I think we’d all agree that we’d rather see a bona fide starter. And who would Fungo readers like to see in that rotation, if given the choice? Here are the results of last week’s Fungo Pulse Check:

  Who Would You Rather See Join the Tigers Rotation?

  • Armando Galarraga (49%, 119 Votes)
  • Eddie Bonine (23%, 56 Votes)
  • Someone Else — Anyone Else! (20%, 48 Votes)
  • Zach Miner (8%, 20 Votes)
  • Total Voters: 243

  Be sure to vote in this week’s poll –>

• I posted this on Twitter last week but it’s worth mentioning again: James Finn Garner crafted a nice poem on Ernie Harwell at Bardball.com. As usual, it’s great. Check it out here.

• With the win Monday night, the Tigers are now 508-470-6 all-time at home against the Yankees, and 20-20 all-time at Comerica Park.

That’s all I got.

• Would you have guessed that one week into the season that Justin Verlander‘s ERA would be three-times higher than Willis’s?

  Go ahead and poke all the holes in that question. I’ll wait.

• If you had to guess which lefty trade acquisition has a better ERA during his time in Detroit, who would you guess: Willis or Jarrod Washburn? The answer? Washburn by an eyelash — 7.73 vs. 7.77.

  Take Dontrelle’s first start of the year out of the equation and Washburn wins running away, though hardly worth bragging about. Willis’s Detroit ERA coming into the year was: 8.34.

  By the way, both pitchers have a single win to show for their respective time with the Tigers.

  Discuss.

• Speaking of ill-fated 2009 Tigers trades, Aubrey Huff‘s hitting .280 for the Giants.

• How’s this for depressing? With the loss on Monday, the Tigers are 45-46 all-time against the Royals at Comerica Park. The Royals have an overall 674-952 record since the Tigers’ ballpark opened 10 years ago this week.

• One last Dontrelle item. In last week’s Fungo Pulse Check we asked: How many games will Dontrelle Willis win this year? And here’s what you said:
  • 6-10 (45%, 80 Votes)
  • 0-5 (30%, 52 Votes)
  • 10+ (25%, 44 Votes)
  • Total Voters: 176

  Take our new poll, won’t you? –>

That’s all I got.

• I attended the Tigers Winter Caravan one time, in 1991 when I was living in Kalamazoo and had some connections with the local paper. Back then, only the media was invited. Or so I thought. I walked into a Kalamazoo hotel and saw dozens of fans asking for autographs from the players and Sparky Anderson.

  If memory serves me, Cecil Fielder was there. Recently signed Tony Bernazard was too. This I remember because I asked Sparky during the Q&A how he’d work Bernazard into the lineup without Tony Phillips losing at bats. The answer was classic Sparky and basically amounted to: “I have no idea but Tony is Tony and we’ll be all right.” Uh, yeah. (Bernazard was released in April after playing in just six games and hitting .167).

  The real story that winter was the recent firing of Ernie Harwell and, lo and behold, new Tigers President Bo Schembechler was on hand to answer questions about it. As you might guess, Bo was not happy with the first round of reporters’ questions being about Ernie and not the team. After that, he said he wouldn’t answer other questions on the topic and though people tried, he wouldn’t bite — other than to bite their head off for even asking.

  It was a great experience. If you get an opportunity to attend a Winter Caravan event, do it.

• I tweeted about this yesterday, but I think it’s worth repeating: Dave Dombrowski insists that the Tigers have no interest in Johnny Damon. Fine. But he said the same thing about Ivan Rodriguez and Magglio Ordonez. Wouldn’t be surprised if Damon arrives in Lakeland in a few weeks.

• Speaking of moves, I don’t understand all the anger around the Jose Valverde signing. While he drove me nuts as the Diamondbacks’ closer a few years ago, that was mainly because of his antics after earning a save. Remember: no one could make sense of the Tigers signing Todd Jones and Kenny Rogers in the winter of 2005-06 but that worked out fine. Expect the same with Valverde.

• On this date in 1993, Tigers Hall of Fame second baseman Charlie Gehringer died at the age of 89, one month after suffering a stroke. During his 19-year career in Detroit, The Mechanical Man posted a .320 batting average with 184 home runs and 1,427 RBI. In 1937, he led the American League with a .371 average.

Finally, Happy Birthday to a pair of former Tigers: Wil Ledezma,29, and Tom Urbani, 42.

1. Why can’t this Tigers team sustain any momentum? Miguel Cabrera seemingly got the Tigers on the path to victory tonight during the ninth with his opposite-field shot. Instead, the Tigers hacked away at Kerry Wood’s offerings — despite Placido Polanco leading off the inning with a four-pitch walk. Infuriating.

2. Here’s a nugget from Baseball-Reference.com: On this date in 1917, Boston’s Babe Ruth tops the Tigers 1-0 in Detroit, allowing just Donie Bush‘s scratch single in the 8th. Ruth deflects the ball but the throw by the shortstop is too late. Ruth has a single and triple, but a pinch triple by Chick Shorten in the 9th drives home the only run. Ruth strikes out Bobby Veach, Sam Crawford and Ty Cobb in the 9th; for the last he shakes off catcher and player/manager Carrigan. In early 1942, in a speech in Los Angeles, Ruth will call this game his greatest thrill.

3. Remember how the loss of alleged catching prospect James Skelton in the Rule 5 draft seemed like a catastrophe waiting to happen? Funny how things turn out:
   

   James Skelton, who hit just .182 in Mobile, was demoted to Visalia this week. He went 3 for 12 with two doubles and three walks in his first three games. He had just 10 extra-base hits in 214 at-bats with Mobile.

One bonus item of sorts: here’s a Q&A with former Tigers first baseman Tony Clark.

• There’s no place to put him, unfortunately, but I wish the Tigers could right and old wrong and bring back the now-available Frank Catalanotto.

• In case you were wondering, with the Opening Day roster set, the Tigers have assigned official uniform numbers to: Ryan Perry, 74; Rick Porcello, 48; Juan Rincon, 59; and Josh Anderson, 13.

• Speaking of Rincon, talk about a guy who flew under the radar all spring. I’ve got a feeling he could be the most important reliever leading up to late innings.

• And while we’re talking numbers, my post-Sheff release commentary the other day had a misleading headline. I intended to go off on his wearing of Alan Trammell’s number 3 but got, as you saw, sidetracked. I was never happy about him wearing Tram’s number and I think the Tigers need to be more protective of stars’ numbers.

  No one should be able to wear #3 again, or Lou Whitaker‘s #1, Jack Morris‘s #47, or (sorry, Josh Anderson), Lance Parrish‘s #13. Years ago I read somewhere that clubhouse guy Jim Schmakel is very protective of those 1984 stars’ numbers. I think they should make it a policy, plain and simple. What do you think?

Finally, it wouldn’t be Opening Day — or the baseball season for that matter — without more doggerel from the guys at Bardball.com. Chances are you’ve never seen baseball predictions in haiku, so you’re in for a treat.

Go State.

Without further ado, here are the first Non Sequiturs of the 2009 season powered, as usual, by a fresh pot of Peet’s Coffee:

• We have our first box score of 2009 for the Tigers. Enjoy it in all its linear glory.

• Did you catch the MLB Network’s “30 Clubs in 30 Days” program focused on the Tigers on Monday? (If you missed, catch it here.) I caught the West Coast replay and, like so many things related to the fledgling network, I was underwhelmed. I enjoyed the interviews, seeing Gary Sheffield‘s beard, watching Al Kaline say absolutely nothing interesting, etc., but if you’ve followed the Tigers even in the most casual way this offseason, chances are you learned nothing new.

  
  But, in the spirit of a positive mental outlook, I determined that these shows likely aren’t produced for the hardcore Tigers fan. They’re for everyone else. If I watch the episode on, say, the Marlins, I’ll probably learn a lot. In the end, the show was worth watching for these three nuggets:

  • Mitch Williams picking the Tigers to win the division.

  • Dan Plesac picking the Tigers again to finish last (this after raving about how great a manager Jim Leyland is).
  • Plesac somewhat butchering a nice attempt at complimenting Ernie Harwell‘s “he stood there like the house by the side of the road and watched that one go by.”

• Not that you care, but I’m booked for three Cactus League games next week in metro-Phoenix and in Tucson. Fungophile John Milton and our friend Steve will be coming to Arizona for games Friday (Indians/Brewers), Saturday (Giants/Rockies) and Sunday (Rockies/Padres).

  The Friday game is of interest mainly because it will be at the Indians’ new Spring Training facility in the middle of nowhere also known as Goodyear, Ariz. We also wanted to attend that game because, let’s face it, seeing the Indians 19 times against the Tigers this summer just isn’t going to be enough. Of course, the Saturday game will give us one more chance to boo Edgar Renteria at close range.

• Be sure you add Ian Casselberry‘s Morning Prowl at BlessYouBoys.com to your daily reading agenda. Ian reads it all, summarizes it neatly and we’re all the better for it. Now if only he’d do the same for The New York Times and ESPN.com…

• Happy 45th birthday to once-heralded Tigers catcher-o’-the-future Rich Rowland. After four partial season and 83 at bats with Detroit, he was dealt to the Red Sox for John Flaherty on April 1, 1994.

Finally, I stumbled on this gem from The Onion. It’s from 2007 but it’s still funny and, very likely, still relevant. Here’s the lede:

Following their game against the Twins Tuesday, Tigers outfielder Magglio Ordonez and second baseman Placido Polanco stayed in their hotel room all night, giddily discussing their favorite in-game hitting situations.