Amid big expectations, just paper Tigers so far

Links (15)

Wha Hahppund: Are The Tigers Done Because Leyland Is?
Published 5/20/2008 by Camp Tiger Claw at Walkoff Walk
Bob Nightengale wrote a really great piece in today's USA Today about the Tigers that reads as a psychological profile as much as it does a sports story. It opens with Jim Leyland (that asshole), his overflowing ashtray and string of profanities. But they're not the kind of angry profanities he'd use after say, ...

USA Today: Tigers have a 'Stale and stagnant' atmosphere
Published 5/20/2008 by Big Al (noreply@blogger.com) at The Wayne Fontes Experience
... In today's McPaper, MLB writer Bob Nightengale visits our struggling Detroit Tigers. He gets more than his fair share of money quotes. Here's the Tigers' fearless leader, the Marlboro Man. ...

USA Today: Tigers have a 'Stale and stagnant' atmosphere
Published 5/20/2008 by BigAl at Bless You Boys: Front Page Posts
... In today's McPaper, MLB writer Bob Nightengale visits our struggling Detroit Tigers. He gets more than his fair share of money quotes. Here's the Tigers' fearless leader, the Marlboro Man. ...

USA Today: Nightengale: Amid big expectations, just paper Tigers so far
Published 5/20/2008 at BBTF's Baseball Primer Newsblog
USA Today: Nightengale: Amid big expectations, just paper Tigers so far The ashtray is filled with cigarette butts and the pack of Marlboros is sitting next to an empty bag of chips inside the visiting manager’s office at Arizona’s Chase Field, but Jim Leyland is just getting started. The Detroit Tigers manager takes off his spikes, opens a new box of cigarettes, lights up to ease the pain of another defeat Sunday and starts to talk about the most exasperating season of his 17-year managerial career. “I’m embarrassed. We all are,” Leyland says. “I really can’t believe this is ...

Highlights from Leyland's rant
Published 5/20/2008 by Beck at Beck's Blog
Suffice it to say, Leyland read Bob Nightengale's piece on the Tigers from USA Today this morning, and while he didn't have a problem with the messenger, he had a problem with some of the players quoted. Here's some of what he said this afternoon, with the f-bombs removed: ...

Everything is broken…arrggghhh
Published 5/20/2008 by billfer at The Detroit Tiger Weblog
... Hey, you may have heard there was an article today about the chemistry in the Tigers clubhouse. I know there has already been a lot of discussion about this in another post, but I wanted the chance to address it. Please read the article first because the points I’m going to hash out below assume you will have read it. ...

Clubhouse disharmony?
Published 5/21/2008 by Lee Panas (noreply@blogger.com) at Tiger Tales: A Detroit Tigers Blog
The story many fans have been expecting about broken team chemistry appeared this morning in the USA Today where Jason Grilli and some current Tigers cited clubhouse problems as the reasons for the Tigers poor play this year. Gary Sheffield, Brandon Inge and Carlos Guillen were also quoted. ...

Jim Leyland says many bleep-able things: causes, flip out, and effects.
Published 5/21/2008 by Samara Pearlstein at Roar of the Tigers
... Sheffield looks around the clubhouse. It is two hours before game time against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and video is being shown of Dan Haren, the opposing pitcher. No one is watching. Cabrera, who had never faced Haren, is asleep in a chair. Magglio Ordonez has his back turned to the TV and is reading a magazine. A handful are playing cards. Detroit lost 4-3, with Ordonez getting three of the six hits. The loss provided a snapshot of the year. Bob Nightengale/USA Today article Let me just start by ...

Line of the Day: Edgar Renteria
Published 5/21/2008 by Bob Taylor (noreply@blogger.com) at Fantasy Hurler
The Tigers exploded for 12 runs today, and I think it's 'cause they were pissed about this USA Today article, which painted them as a bunch of spoiled, pampered lazy-asses. Well, they weren't today -- especially not Renteria, whacking out of the eight hole. ...

Jim Leyland Doesn't Want to Hear Any Weak Sh*t from Jason Grilli
Published 5/21/2008 by Rob Visconti at The Cheap Seats
... in response to recently deposed middle reliever Jason Grilli's comments to the USA Today about his former club are a preview of things to come, it promises to be entertaining. (Grilli's response, via Jason Beck, ...

Baseball Today: Wednesday, May 21
Published 5/21/2008 by Art Martone (amartone@projo.com) at Projo Sox Blog
... COMING OUT SWINGING: Jim Leyland told Bob Nightengale of USA Today this has been the most exasperating of his 17 seasons as a big-league manager, and that exasperation apparently grew when ex-Tiger Jason Grilli said some of the team's offseason moves -- such as the jettisoning of Sean Casey -- "broke up our team chemistry". Leyland fired back at Grilli's seemingly innocuous remarks, basically telling him ...

Hey, did you know that Jim Leyland likes to smoke?
Published 5/21/2008 at Big League Stew
Of course you did. It's only the most well-known fact about the man and, strangely, he's probably the most well-known smoker (Barack says he's quitting) in a nation of 46 million of them. If you're a baseball fan, you've probably read at least a hundred articles about the man that made at least a passing reference to crushing cigarette butts, the most recent one coming in Monday's USA Today. From the lead of that article: ...

Leyland: A follow-up
Published 5/22/2008 by noreply@blogger.com (Construda) at Construda
... but also rife with truth. "...with what some guys are doing on this club, the last thing they should be doing is popping off to the newspaper, because it’s diversionary tactics and they look foolish." Focus should be on the reasoning behind Leyland's rhetoric, not his actual profanity-laden message. Tigers players were recently quoted in USA Today about unfair expectations and the beastly offense that was supposed to produce 1,000 runs. Leyland, obviously, didn't take well to those remarks. Players certainly have reason to feel pressure. The Tigers haven't won a World ...

Line of the Day: Magglio Ordonez
Published 5/25/2008 by Bob Taylor (noreply@blogger.com) at Fantasy Hurler
Detroit is finally starting to play like they mean it. That USA Today article must have really pissed 'em off. Magglio Ordonez: 3-for-3, 4 runs, 2 HR, 6 RBI

"Playing games in the press?"
Published 5/28/2008 by noreply@blogger.com (Construda) at Construda
... . His explosion came on the heels of a USA Today story that portrayed a lack of camaraderie in the Tigers clubhouse along with "unfair expectations" for the 2008 season. One of the quoted sources? Guillen. Common sense would say this is purely coincidental that Leyland is openly talking about Guillen's embarrassing personal issue. Or is this Leyland's rebuttal of sorts and his way of "playing games in the press?"