Sigh

To renew or not to renew. I hope in a year or two that we are happy with the talent that came to the Tigers. I think the trade will be a plus for the team on the talent side, but losing Granderson hurts. He is(was) the face of this team and is an ambassador for the sport(literally). He will do very well in New York, and that town will love him. Jeter will continue to be their favorite, but Granderson will be their 1A,

I will probably renew, but it will be a rough year.

Anybody need tickets? $40 a pair.

Goodbye Polanco

The Tiger's did not tender an arbitration order to Placido yesterday, which means the end of Polanco as a Tiger. The Phillies have had some interest in him as a 3rd baseman and I am sure other teams will send him some offers on the cheap. He was my favorite Tiger for many reasons. The way he wore a scuba suit in April and October(November of 2006, too). I mostly like his approach to batting. Short stride, short swing hit it where it was pitched. Not a lot of guys like that these days.

I hope to be able to have Granderson as my favorite Tiger for next year. We'll see how the Winter meetings go...

632 Games, 2589 AB, 393 Runs, 806 Hits, 139 Doubles, ,13 Triples, 37 Home Runs, 285 RBI, 26 Stolen Bases,146 Walks, 162 Strike Outs, .311 Batting AVE, .355 OBP, .418 SLG% and a .773 OPS.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091203/SPORTS0104/912030466/Placido-Polanco-back-with-Phils---never-wanted-to-leave-


Well that didn't take long...Why didn't we offer him arbitration to get the bonus pick???????

Update Time

The best(in order so far) A mix of chain and locals. locals always get preference.

Lindell AC(RIP)
Howell's
Sandy's by the Beech
Red Coat Tavern
Mr. Joe's
Poole's
CheeBurger CheeBurger
Five Guys
Fuddrucker's
Miller's
Nemo's
Cutter's

The Good

Grenwich Time
Mason's
Fatburger
Jaws
Lakepoint Yacht Club
Harry's
Blarney Stone
Bar Louie


The Not So Good

Bagger Dave's(1st try)
Balloon Saloon
Checker Bar
O'Charlie's

CheeBurger CheeBurger/Five Guys

CheeBurger CheeBurger.Great burger. Lots of choices. They have out Fudded Fuddruckers on the free toppings. You get a 5.5oz. burger all the way up to a 1lb. burger. The burgers have a nice flavor and good texture. I put onion rings, onion, lettuce, tomato and mayo on mine. The buns taste homemade and the rings might be the best I have had. $6 for the 5.5, 7oz. goes for a buck more. With the stuff on it, the 5.5 was plenty. Good stuff, great rings 4 and a half napkins.

5 Guys does a nice job of self advertising. They will have you convinced that they invented the hamburger. It is a little over the top. The burgers and fries and quite good. The fries are amazing similar to Cheeburgers. They have skins still on the end and they are deep fried in peanut oil. The quantity they serve them is ridiculous. The small could feed 8. The burgers are made fresh, served hot. They offer about 12 toppings, all are free. Free peanuts abound as well. Very good chain burger. 4 napkins.

O' Charlie's

Oh God no. Never again. Went to the O'Charlie's in Belleville for lunch. A buddy recommended it. Incredible amounts of grease pouring off the burger. More grease than a 1/3 pound of hamburger can make. I was baffled. I didn't finish it and will not try it again. Gross. I needed a dozen napkins, but I rate this one a big Zero napkins. I hope that I don't get sick.

GM Meetings

Grandy is being talked about as trade bait at the GM meetings?

Crazy talk. He is a guy you can hang baseball, and therefore the Tigers, on in the D. He is an ambassador for MLB(literally). He does some amazing charity work. He has working class parents who instilled in the importance of an education and most of all, he is black. Detroit could use more positive black athletes and he is a great one. White, black or green kids want to be like Grandy and isn't that something we all like.

I don't want to lose Jackson either again, a nice role model. Grandy was dragging him around last year showing him how to do it.

Odds are we lose one of them this year. Arrgh.

Cheeseburgers? No paradise.

Cholesterol is high BP is high. Less red meat.

Fuddrucker's Best buns going. Doughy inside, nice bite to outside good flavor. Meat is still good at Fudd's, but not as good as I remember. Prices have gotten crazy too. $6.95 + Cheese + Wheat bun. Becomes a $8 buger pretty fast. Drinks are too expensive too. 2 and a half napkins, maybe 3 because you can put whatever you want on it yourself.

Northville Sports Pub Good burger, well cooked, might be frozen, if so, is the best frozen burger I have had, but not as good as most fresh burgers. Monday nights burger, fries and a beer for about $5 makes it taste even better. 3 napkins

Washburns 1st outing

Arrgh! That's all I've got. Washburn hasn't given up a home run in a thousand at bats and he gives up 2 of them in his debut as a Tiger. It will be all they talk about on sports radio until his next start. The offesnse was pathetic. We left more that a few runners in scoring position and scattered the hits across all nine innings.

Do people know that it is bad manners to leave or enter a row during a play? At a Red Wings game the ushers won't even let you pass by until a whistle. At the Tigers game, people will get as the ball is hit and act confused when you are grumpy.

The $1 bag of peanuts are still good.

Harry's Detroit

Seriously, you guys really should go to a game with me. More crazy stuff happened in one day in Detroit than in a month of "normal" days any place else.

Which of these did not happen yesterday;

A.Benny Napoleon, the newly appointed Wayne County top cop, shows up with the boys.
B.The Tigers win two from the White Sox.
C.Bum fighting.
D.A seven foot tall Asian woman(?) in a latex suit with pink balloons for boobies was posing for
pictures in front of the Leyland Hotel on Bagley.
E. Homeless guy thinks I am Joel Zumaya.

OK. It was a trick question. D. happened last year. All the rest were yesterday. All part of a full day in the D.

Benny and his boys were at Harry's post press conference reveling in his new J. O. B.

The bum fighting started when one of Mr. Napoleon's constituents wanted to share his personal views on the city of Detroit and the parking drunk at Harry's got between him and Benny.

Homeless guy has been calling me Zumaya since I changed my beard. Oh well it could be worse they used to call me Todd Jones.

The chick(?) in the latex? All true. My 12 year old son and I were coming home from a game. We came around the corner and there she(?) was. 9 inch platfrom boots and a full body latex suit with cut outs for the face, a two foot long pony tail and the boobs (which had bright pink balloons with black nipples instead of the real things) sticking out. Camera shooting pictures like crazy. I tried to point in the opposite direction to take my boy's attention away from it, but it was too late. Innocense lost.

Oh yeah, the games. Great day to be a fan. Both games were close interesting contests. Verlander pitched the whole game, saving the bullpen for the second game, when it was needed. Guillen got a home run and a couple of other hits, and there was a suicide squeeze. 2 game lead on the Sox. Nice.

Harry's burger was juicy the tomato and lettuce fresh. Nice grill marks with a little bit of a crispy crust sealing in a juicy center. Nice burger. 4 napkins. The bar is open air upstairs and it was a perfect day at Harry's. and I do mean day.

Mr. Joe's and a doubleheader

There are some burgers I need to revisit before I post. Want to make sure I get it right. Then there is Mr. Joe's. I have eaten so many burgers at Joe's that I could do this one in my sleep. The burger used to be my all time favorite. Between Lindell AC and Mr. Joe's, who needed another burger? It is still a great burger a good bar, but they changed a few traditions that kinda piss me off. Hey they still drop a basket of popcorn on the table, at least.

The burgers are probably 1/3 to 1/2 a pound. They are pre-made, but they are the ones making them from pure hamburger, no fillers. They grill them and they hit your table in a basket that just barely can hold the burger and the bag of chips they throw in. They used to bring the biggest condiment tray in all of Michigan on the table with ketchup, mustard, mayo, 4 kinds of hot sauce, steak sauce, worshteshire sauce, fresh cut onion and a bucket of pickles. They don't anymore. It is much more petite. I remember eating pickles as a kid until I couldn't taste them anymore. It is probably all my fault they stopped bringing the pickles. Good grill flavor, a little juicy with a good bun on it. Gotta be 4 napkins.

Oh, yeah. The double header. We all know that the true double header is dead. The MLBPA killed it because their little doo-doo's couldn't work that much. The double header could shorten the season and keep Placido Polanco from having to wear a scuba suit in April and October(Yes I know November baseball is here!). Anyhoo, thanks to a rain out I am going to the Tigers vs. White Sox day/night double header as it were. I am going to the 1:05 visiting a few establishments. For research of course. Then coming back for the 7:05 game if it doesn't get rained out. I love summer. We need the offense to do something, please, while Verlander is on the mound today.

and just for fun, I think Verlander ought to get a perfect game just so Chicago doesn't get to uppity.

Update time

I am going to have to revisit some of these. Just in case I got a bad burger. i also need to do write ups for a few that I skipped.

The best(in order so far)
Lindell AC(RIP)
Howell's
Red Coat Tavern
Mr. Joe's
Poole's
Five Guys
Miller's
Nemo's
Cutter's
Fudrucker's

The Good

Grenwich Time
Mason's
Fatburger
Jaws
Lakepoint Yacht Club
Blarney Stone
Bar Louie


The Not So Good

Checker Bar

Blarney Stone

The Blarney Stone is the other Irish bar on Woodward. It is a good thing we didn't go to Duggan's last night as the place was on fire according to the TV playing over our heads while we ordered at the Stone. Wait staff was good, but few. I only saw two girls covering the whole bar with a bartender taking care of the regulars at the big rectangular bar. I got the Blarney special. Two 1/4 pound patties with american, lettuce and tomato. I couldn't shake the idea that the patties were Bubba burger patties. They just looked too similar. Mine was a little cold by the time I got to it. Not the fault of the staff of the Blarney Stone. I was sorting out our tickets for the next month or so, and wnated to get them put away before I ate. It looked good, just didn't have the juice and flavor I would look for in a 4+ burger. 3 napkins for all the cheese.

I thought I was going to the game last night, but got to the bar and realized that this was the only game in July that we had actually sold. This old age is a bear. I write everything down so I don't forget, than I don't remember to look at what I had written.

What is going on with the Tigers? Thank goodness the Seattle starter was throwing batting practice for the first 3 innings or we would have let this one get away too. Does every pitcher coming in from the bullpen have to give up a homerun? I still think that if we don't get to the playoffs this year, it will be because of the weak hitting, not the pitching.

Since Zoom-zoom is on the DL, how about we use this as a time to make him back into a starter? He looked great in the 16 inning game pitching 5 innings. He took a little off of the fastball, located it better and it seemed like he belonged there.

I have had some complaints of comparing Bar burgers to others. Let's face it there are some different kinds of places to get burgers. There is the bar burger, then there is fast food burger, a high end fast food burger. I will not rate true fast food chain burgers.

So far, I have a
chain bar-Bar Louie's
upscale fast food chains- Five Guys and Fatburger
fast food(or dives) Jaws
and bars(the best options)

Road trip.

Me and the wife and kids went to Florida to go on a cruise with her Dad. Was a first for all of us. We had a good time. Food was both better than I expected and worse than I expected. I had a cold butternut squash soup that was the best soup I have ever tasted. I also had some very greasy duck, that a chef should have been embarrassed to serve. The important part of the trip was the road food we chased from the days we lived there.

A Cuban with black beans and yellow rice at the Ybor Cuban Restaurant in Plant City, FL. The ham was crappy polish deli ham, but even so it tasted great. Fresh Cuban bread, slow cooked pork and ham with white Cuban cheese pressed into molten perfection. Aaaaaaaaahhh! The beans had been cooked in the pork drippings and then mix in the saffron cooked yellow rice. You eat a spoonfull and then take a bite of the buttered Cuban bread, Wow! One of the best things in my memory of Florida food. I have got to go to Vincente's downtown.
4 out of 5 only because of the crappy ham.

BBQ. If you know me, you know after burgers(I was called Wimpy by one of my uncles as a child) I love me some BBQ. I always test a joint by their pulled pork. I figure that if you can't do a decent pulled pork, you have no business calling yourself a BBQ place. We tried a new joint in Valrico, FL named (I will fill in blank later when my memory comes back in from sunning herself). The pulled was good, even though I couldn't find the pile of wood stacked outside. This place had a lot of good ideas, though. They had 7 different sauces, also a touchstone of good 'Q'. Each better than the last. They had names like tractor grease and pine tar and veried from sweet to hot and were quite enjoyable. They restaurant had pickup tailgates fashioned into benches to sit on and also used big 'ol coolers as benches too. Very clever, these fellers. My son had a Motherclucker sandwich. Did I mention he just turned 14? Anyway, it was a chicken breast marinated in BBQ sauce covered with bacon and an onion ring. Did I mention he started band camp and football conditioning?
4 out of 5 for no big pile of wood.

P.S. The Sun Goddess has returned. The BBQ place was called Bubba Q's, I think I will add half a napkin for the name.

A few more bars

I can add a few more bars and restaurants. I didn't go to a game in June, not planned, just the way it went down. Saw the game on Monday and Wednesday and my streak is broken. Hadn't seen a loss, but Monday we snatched success from the jaws of misery and managed to witness a loss with Madison. She got to see Zoom-zoom pitch, so she was happy. The nachos and peanuts probably helped too.

Anyhoo... Checkers in Cadillac Square downtown is a nice clean bar with checkered tables. Plenty of things to choose from on the menu, but I am only there for one thing, the burger. I had read reviews raving about the bun. It was the worst part of my burger. It was dried out and stale. It might of been nice two days before, but not the day I was there. We didn't get a choice of how it would be grilled either. It was medium well or nothing I guess. I was pretty disappointed. It had potential, but not on this day. I would have to give it a 2. Maybe next time.

Update as promised.

The best(in order so far)

Howell's
Red Coat Tavern
Poole's
Five Guys
Miller's
Nemo's

The Good
Cutter's
Mason's
Fatburger
Jaws
Lakepoint Yacht Club
Bar Louie

The Not So Good
Checker Bar

Cutter's Bar in Detroit

Small bar just outside of the Eastern Market. Not necessarily the place to take the wife and kids, not because of the bar itself, but the slaughterhouses nearby. The dumpster down the street was a bit ripe. Having said all of that, the bar itself was nice, not fancy and the burgers were good. 8oz of fresh hamburger with cheese and a little seasoning(my friend thought it tasted like Chef Prudome's) Good, fresh bun with tomatoe, lettuce and onion. The onion rings were just like I like them too. Still chewy inside and good lightly crispy batter.MMMMmmm.

3 and half napkins out of 5

Bar Louie's

Went to Bar Louie's in Livonia last night for the $1 burger night. If you like just ketchup and lettuce on your burger you get it for a buck. They start charging for sides at $0.50 a pop. Still, it is a decent deal. I just wish the burger were better. They say it is Black Angus and I would guess about 1/3 of a pound on a nice roll, but it is too lean. Making it too chewy. I am sorry guys, but a burger needs it's grease. Not too much, but it's gotta have some.

The bar itself is nice. Lotsa screens, attractive staff and a nice menu. Not crazy about the burger though 2 napkins out of 5.

Want to go back to try some of the other stuff on the menu for sure.

Monday vs. Chisox

Cold yucky game. Neither coach wanted to change pitchers and just left them out there to hang themselves. It didn't save the bullpen for either team, though because both starters stunk. The Tigers have been getting a lot of walks. Keep 'em coming. We will take advantage of it. We hit the ball hard. Just right at White Sox. Polanco got robbed twice. Wasn't our day.

Two Sox get their 300th HR and Quentin goes 4-4. He might just have an MVP season this year. The boy is a stud.

George Kell

He hit it a my- al!

I was always an Ernie freak, but reading all of the catch phrases that people have been bringing up reminds me how much I watched Dubba-ya dee-eye vee channel 4. I wrote an email to George Kell Motors in Arkansas(not in Swifton, but just down the road) asking if I could purchase a licsence plate surround or a bumper sticker that said George Kell on it. I never heard back from them. i tried again the other day and the replied right away, saying they would miss George, too and would be happy to send me something free of charge. Sound like they had Mr. Kell's spirit.

Good afternoon everybody and welcome to Tiiiger stadium.

Fidrych is Gone

I would like to think that if I had the amazing talent that Mark Fidrych did, I would be as normal as he was. I would like to think that if I had it all go away just as fast as it came, I would be as normal as he was. Could you ask for a better guy?

I have heard people telling stories on the radio today and it makes me smile. I was 10 in the summer of '76 and I still remember the big game against the Yankees on national TV. They showed on MLBN a couple of weeks ago. I will look for it again. My favorite story today was the one from a guy in Southgate that lived on the same block as a girl that Fidrych was dating. When he pulled up in his car they would all rush over and he would play ball with them, doing his whole pitching routine tossing a tennis ball for them to hit.

You just had the idea that he was just like everybody else and that he appreciated what he had been given and was happy as a normal Dad and husband.

We will miss you Bird.

Opening Day

Great opening day! Started at the new Bookies. Great new facility, deck upstairs and lots of big screens. Then off to Harry's. They had a band outside and koegel's for sale, which is great, because we couldn't get near anything to eat anywhere. The Park was impossible to move in and Cliff Bells still is under utilized. Great facility, but they don't take advantage of days like today. Finally went into Coachlight, not bad. I will try again when they have the full menu rolling. We parked at the Michigan Theater and got the regulars discount. Tigers now have 3 $5 lots. One by Bookies.
The game itself...Nothing needs to be said. The pitching looks OK for now. Did not get to meet any of the new season ticket holders by us. Maybe on Monday.

The Burger was good. Unfortunately, I was in no condition to rate it. I will try again later.

Metro Detroit's best burgers Detroit News

So the Detroit News created this list last year and buddy of mine and I try to hit one of these every few weeks. I will update these as I go along. This is what we have so far.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=C4&Date=20081113&Category=ENT&ArtNo=811110803&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=1

Miller's Dearborn - They have been on national lists in magazines and the interwebs. Good burger, not great. The set up is what is cool. The whole no bill and served on wax paper thing. It's fun, but not a great bar to watch a game. There is better right in Dearborn, but I will get to that in a minute. 3 and half napkins out of 5.

Nemo's Detroit - Down the street from the old girl herself, Tiger Stadium(or what is left of her). Good burger, stripped down and simple(that's a compliment). Great place to be before a game, otherwise it is kinda quiet. Busses will shuttle you to the game. Tigers, Lions, Wings. 4 napkins out of 5.

Howell's Dearborn - I will save you the trouble of reading to the end of the story. Best burger so far. Nice little hole in the wall with a great burger. It takes a while to cook, but soooo worth the wait. Huge juicy and delicious. Eat at the bar and talk sports with Jimmy and you get a nifty little metal thingy to hang on the rail of the bar that gives you a place to put the basket while you eat. I didn't really need it though, cuz I wouldn't put it down. I don't remember if they had a big screen or not. It was that good. 6 napkins out of 5. I know, I know, deal with it.

Mason's Livonia - Good burger in a good bar. Tons of old memoribilia on the walls and ceiling. Screens spread around. I am going to have to hit this one again. I wasn't feeling well and it deserves another try. The cheese wasn't melted thougha nd that was unacceptable. I will try it again. 3 napkins out of 5.

Red Coat Tavern Royal Oak - Damn good burger. Long list of beers foriegn and domestic. Menu is pricy, burger is gret. Expect to stand in long lines at prime times like open to close. 5 napkins out of 5.

Jaw's Jubo Burgers Farmington Hills - I want to like this more, I really do. They are doing it right with good ingrediants and buttered buns. I just didn't like it that much. It wasn't bad, just not great and a little pricey for what it was. 2 and a half napkins out of 5.

Poole's Tavern Northville - Good burger in a packed bar. We actually went into the less crowded and trying to be hip BakBar which is attached to Poole's. Same menu, same grill just more artsy fartsy. Good bun and burger. I had this one about a week after Howell's and it didn't compare to that, but better than some of the others with the same grade. I will rank them in a future post. 4 napkins out of 5.

Duggan's Irish Pub Royal Oak - Great place that should be visited often during the summer. If you are from the area, they have burgers from many of the old diners and drive-ins from Woodward. I tried the burger from Ted's. I will rank that one now and do the others later.
Ted's 5 x 5 burger. 4 napkins out of 5. Seriously, though. In the summer go often, sit upstairs and eats burgers with a beer.

See ya soon.

Autographs

My daughter got quite a few autographs. We have always told her to say please and address the players as Mr., as in " Mr. Zumaya, may I have your autograph, please." Works almost every time. She got Leyland and Knapp. Robertson and Rodney. Santiago and Everett. Perry and Porcello, Inge, Robert Zumaya and Casey Fein. I got Joel Zumaya(her favorite) and Tom Brookens for her on Thursday. She was tickled, but it is all about the get for her. She put the autograph book down right after we got in the car and almost forgot it.

A couple of days in Lakeland

I love spring training. You go watch a practice and people are quiet. Just straining to hear what they say to get some insider info. I went on Tuesday for the whole practice and just for a bit on Thursday because of some crummy weather(for Florida, that is, I would trade their weather for mine today).

Cabrera and Polanco were talking about the new Tiawanese pitcher, Fe Ni. My wife the Spanish teacher did some translating for me. During bunt drills, attendend by about have of the pitching staff, he and Polly were chatting. I could tell they were talking about him based on body language. Miggy asked Polly if he had been watching him and he said he was. That everything he does he does well. Cabrera started saying everyone needed to hustle because he was making everyone look lazy. About then it was Ni's turn at the drill and Polly covered 1st and Ni zipped a BB at him hitting him in the palm. It is nice to see them loose and having fun.