Happy 51st to perhaps the classiest guy ever to wear the D.
Today’s also the birthday of two former Tigers pitchers:

Bill Slayback, a member of the 1972 A.L. East Division champs, turns 61. A seventh-round pick in the 1968 draft, he pitched three years in Detroit posting a 6-9 record and 3.84 ERA in 42 [...]

Clearing out a mental notebook — and a paper-based one, too — on a dreary Friday afternoon:

Morris Left Out Again: Our most recent poll question, Does Jack Morris deserve to be in the Hall of Fame?, pulled in 57 responses, 61 percent (35 votes) said yes; 39 percent (22 votes) said nay. Early on, [...]

It’s hard to believe that it has been nearly five years since Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez signed with the Tigers as a free agent — only a few months after winning the World Series with the Marlins. I tuned in to ESPNEWS on Feb. 6, 2004, to see if they were going to broadcast Pudge’s introductory [...]

Happy 64th Birthday to the man who wore number 3 before Gary Sheffield and Alan Trammell:
Gary Sutherland.

Don’t feel bad if you don’t remember Morris Madden’s mini-career with the Tigers. He pitched just twice for Detroit during the 1987 season and one look at his stats tells you why.

On June 11 versus Milwaukee at Tiger Stadium, he came in during the sixth inning to relieve Eric King (who had relieved starter Jeff [...]

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Here we are, approaching the third weekend of August, and the Tigers are mired in third place, nine-and-a-half games out of first place. And, as I’m always reminding myself, only five games out of last place. This was supposed to be like 1984, 1968 or even 1945. It [...]

This is the second and final installment of my conversation with former Tigers outfielder and pinch-hitter extraordinaire, Johnny Grubb. You can find the first installment here.

Mike McClary: Heading into the 1984 season, was it a long off-season? It would seem like you would be chomping at the bit to get back on the field shortly [...]

Every four years we elect a president and now, it would appear, every four years Brandon Inge comes to Spring Training without a job.In 2004 he was displaced as the Tigers catcher by an All Star from the Florida Marlins — Pudge Rodriguez. Inge came to camp as a backup to Pudge and a newly [...]

If you believe the voters in Sports Illustrated’s online mock voting, today we find out that Travis Fryman’s Hall of Fame candidacy comes to a quick and painless end. (He’s not alone; get a load of Brady Anderson, Shawon Dunston and Todd Stottlemyre’s, ahem, support.)

There are, of course, two former Tigers on the ballot [...]

You want some spirited debate (of the non-Iowa Caucus variety, that is)? Try the Internet. More specifically, browse the comments of any Rob Neyer piece on ESPN.com — especially when he’s writing about the Hall of Fame.
Today Rob raised a terrific Tigers-related question in his column titled: Trammell being unfairly judged? (Insider only).
Actually, he [...]