The Pressbox

I was happy to see the Detroit Red Wings get picked to play in the NHL’s outdoor game on New Year’s Day, but it came with a price.

The Wings will not play their traditional New Year’s Eve game at Joe Louis Arena.

That’s too bad. I’ve always enjoyed watching the Wings on television before ringing in the New Year. It was developing into almost as nice a tradition as the Lions on Thanksgiving Day.

But it would have been unfair to ask them to play on New Year’s Eve, then travel to Chicago for a game the following afternoon.

Let’s hope the New Year’s Eve game is back next year.

Still bleary-eyed after the All-Star marathon last night, I am wondering this morning why the game didn’t start until almost 9 p.m.

The pre-game festivities were nice, but Major League Baseball knew that they were going to take a long time. Why not get them started at 7 or 7:30 p.m. Then, the game could have gotten started at 8 or a little after.

Even if it has been a nine-inning game, it probably would have stretched past midnight. Doesn’t baseball realize that people have to work the next day? And what about the people at the game. If they stayed until the end, they probably didn’t get to bed until at least 3 a.m. I bet a lot of people in New York called off work this morning.

This interesting item came across the Associated Press wire a little while ago:

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Cleveland Indians signed free agent pitcher Jeff Weaver to a minor league contract on Saturday, giving the veteran a shot at making his sixth big-league team.

Weaver will report to Triple-A Buffalo of the International League.

The 31-year-old Weaver is 93-114 with an ERA of 4.72 in 284 appearances over nine seasons from 1999-2007. He’s pitched for Detroit, the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis and Seattle. He had a career-best 14 wins for the Dodgers in 2005 and won three games for the World Series champion Cardinals in the 2006 postseason.

Weaver was 7-13 with a 6.20 ERA in 27 starts for the Mariners last year and pitched this season for Triple-A Nashville from May 1 to June 11 when he was released by the Milwaukee Brewers.

With the problems the Detroit Tigers have been having with their starting rotation this season, I wonder if they had any interest in Weaver.

It might have been worth giving him a look at Toledo, but perhaps he burned too many bridges in his first stint in Detroit.

There are a lot of nice things about winning the Stanley Cup.

You get to put your name on the greatest trophy in the world, you get a swell parade and you get to bask in the glory of being a champion.

Another less obvious benefit is that players want to be part of your team.

That seems to be what happened Wednesday when the Red Wings signed high-scoring winger Marian Hossa (for more details go to http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HKN_RED_WINGS_HOSSA?SITE=MIMON&SECTION=SPORTS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-07-02-15-54-00)

Hossa had offers for more money elsewhere, but wanted a shot at the Stanley Cup.

This is another brilliant move by Detroit general manager Kenny Holland. He swooped in to grab one of the plums of the free-agent crop when no one expected the Wings to be interested.

And the real beauty of this deal is that it is for one year. It will not interfere with the Wings signing some of its own players after next season.

If Hossa is a bust, they can just let him walk away. If he helps them win a Stanley Cup, they can worry about finding the money to re-sign him later.

Marcus Thames of the Detroit Tigers got ejected from a game the other day.

That’s not all that newsworthy. It happens all the time in the big leagues.

But how Thames handled his ejection was noteworthy. Thames made a point of apologizing later to the umpire who ejected him and then made a public apology through the media. “Too many kids were watching,” Thames said. “I don’t like that kind of stuff.”

Kudos, Marcus, for being man enough to admit your mistake. Your apology taught a lot to those kids who were watching.

Clete Thomas became a hero for the Detroit Tigers today without swinging the bat.

Thomas drove in two of the Tigers’ three runs by drawing bases-loaded walks. It was great discipline by a young player, especially after he fell behind in the count 1-2 in the bottom of the 10th inning.

It was a questionable move by St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa to intentionally walk Miguel Cabrera to load the bases in the 10th. Sure, Cabrera has earned far more respect as a hitter than Thomas probably ever will, but he put a ton of pressure on his pitcher by doing that.

But the Tigers are not complaining. Now they are just two games under .500 and have won five straight series.

Mickey Lolich, star of the 1968 World Series for the Detroit Tigers, spent a half-inning in the TV booth Tuesday night and said some very interesting things when asked if he watched many Tiger games.

Lolich admitted he had never been a huge fan of watching games, even as a kid. He said he watches many of the Tiger games now, but often flips channels. The pace of the game is too slow for him. “You have to remember,” he said. “I used to pitch a nine-inning game in two hours and 15 minutes.”

He hit on one of the biggest problems with today’s games. There are too many pitching changes, too many delays for batters to adjust hitting gloves, too many trips to the mound, too many long at-bats…. just too much time wasted.

Did you ever notice how often get-away games (the last game of a series when the teams have to move on to the next city) are played in less than three hours.

The players can pick up the pace when they want to.

Tayshaun Prince of the Detroit Pistons has been selected to play for the United States in the Olympics.

What a nice choice.

Too often in the past U.S. Olympic teams have simply been a collection of stars with little or no thought to how the pieces would fit together. Every team needs a player like Prince - a guy willing to do the dirty without worrying about being in the spotlight.

The Monroe Evening News All-Star softball and baseball games scheduled for Saturday night have been postponed by rain.

Both have been rescheduled. The softball game to be played at 6 p.m. Sunday at Monroe High and the baseball game to be played at 6 p.m. Monday at Airport..

The Evening News All-Star Baseball and Softball games had to be postponed because of Saturday’s thunderstorms.
Tentative plans call for the softball game to be played at 6 p.m. Sunday and the baseball game to be played Monday.
I will post an update when I know more.