The Pressbox

Did you notice who picked up the save for Tampa Bay against the Detroit Tigers Friday night?

It was Troy Percival.

You might remember that Percival briefly played for the Tigers. The Tigers signed him as a free agent before the 2005 season and paid him $6 million.

What did they get for their investment? A total of 25 innings and 8 saves before he got hurt. The Tigers paid Percival another $6 million in 2006 even though he never threw a pitch.

You can’t fault a guy for getting hurt.

But what I do fault Percival for is a lack of loyalty. When he felt healthy enough to pitch again in 2007, he chose to return with the St. Louis Cardinals instead of the Tigers. He moved on to Tampa Bay this year and has 24 saves.

All of you Todd Jones bashers will enjoy the final irony of the story. It was largely because of Percival’s injury that the Tigers signed Jones to take over as closer before the 2006 season.

It is Percival who led to all of those roller coaster rides that Jones has given us over the past three seasons.

I should have posted some comments on the Tigers’ trade of Pudge Rodriguez here, but I was busy writing my column about it for Thursday’s Evening News and I never got around to it. So, in case anyone missed it, here is the link to my column:

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080731/KRUGERSPTSCOL/519096041/-1/COLUMNISTS

The abuse has been piled on Todd Jones for giving up a two-run homer in the ninth inning that pinned a crushing loss on the Detroit Tigers Friday night.

Yes, Jones screwed up. He nearly had a 1-2-3 ninth, but a seeing-eye single by Carlos Quinten somehow found its way into right field. Then Dye blasted his homer.

But I thought the game was lost earlier than that.

The White Sox looked dead until the seventh inning when Joel Zumaya struggled and Pudge Rodriguez threw a ball into left field allowing the tying run to score.

Jones deserves his share of the blame, but he simply made the last mistake.

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.

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.

Memorial day almost became very memorable for Detroit sports fans.

The Red Wings took a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup finals, the Pistons beat Boston to even the Eastern Conference finals at 2-2 and the Tigers were locked up in a great pitchers’ duel with the Los Angeles Angels.

The Tigers lost 1-0 on a bases-loaded walk in the 12th inning. It was a shame to waste a great pitching performance by Kenny Rogers.

You have to question manager’s Jim Leyland decision to intentionally walk a batter to load the bases in the 12th. The bullpen has struggled to throw strikes all season.

What a night it will be for Detroit sports Saturday!

The Pistons, Red Wings and Tigers all will be playing at home on the same night. I am certain that all three will draw good crowds. Parking will be at a premium in downtown Detroit and the sports bars will be packed.

But it is a shame that all three are playing at basically the same time. At least they could have staggered the starting times a little bit.

It is a good problem to have. No other city can boast the kind of basketball and hockey success that Detroit is enjoying.

Personally, I will stay home an soak it all in on TV. I’m lucky enough to have the night off. My TV clicker will get a workout.

Jim Leyland finally blew up at the Tigers on Tuesday and since then they have won three straight and scored 30 runs in those games.

Seems like his explosion was long overdue. Something needed to be done to light a fire under this team.

Granted, the 30 runs came against a Seattle pitching staff that is struggling, but it should restore some confidence in the hitters.

Leyland has to accept a good share of the blame for the Tigers’ awful start. I wrote about Leyland and Flip Saunders of the Detroit Pistons in my column this week. Here is a link:

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080522/KRUGERSPTSCOL/350875574/-1/COLUMNISTS