Red Wings Goaltender Honors Detroit Tigers Greats

On February 27th the Detroit Red Wings will play the Colorado Avalanche in a NHL Stadium Series game outdoor at Coors Field, Home of the Colorado Rockies.

Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard  will honor past Detroit Tigers players Alan Trammell, Ty Cobb, Al Kaline, Kirk Gibson, 1984 World Series Championship skipper Sparky Anderson, and legendary Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell. 

Howard's mask also recognizes the four Tigers World Series Championship teams of 1935, 1945, 1968, and 1984.

One of my favorite things as a fan of all four Detroit professional sports teams, I love to see the interaction between players and coaches supporting each other,and this Howard mask is a tremendous showing of that...and, both teams, the Red Wings, and the Tigers, are both owned by the Illitch family.



A big shoutout to Bishop Designs and Jimmy Howard designing that great Hockey Mask honoring Detroit's oldest professional sports team, my beloved Tigers! 

PLAY BALL⚾...er, Drop the Puck! 

New Spring Training Caps for 2016.

When my Detroit Tigers report to spring training on Friday, February 19th (my 56th Birthday...coincidence? ), the team will be sporting new ballcaps.

Every big league ball club will wear new caps and jerseys, some teams, like Detroit, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay, will have two different caps and jerseys, and each cap will have either a FL patch for the Grapefruit League or AZ patch for the Cactus League.

There is already, as expected, a buzz on social media about the new look for the teams, and yes, there are some hits... I, for what it's worth, love the Tigers caps, as well as the new White Sox, Blue Jays, Athletics, Twins, and Red Sox.

The very best cap may well be the retro Milwaukee Brewers cap.

Another big winner is the cap for the defending World Series Champion Kansas City Royals.

There are also some misses, like the Rays light blue cap.

The Rays other cap is much better.

Some of the caps are just OK, and are kinda like the teams regular caps.

What ballcaps do you like, don't like?



What about your favorite teams caps, Yes or No?


Feel free to leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter... @freehan11



For a gallery of all the new Spring Training ballcaps, go to http://mlb.mlb.com/photos/gallery.jsp?content_id=162996878&c_id=mlb




★All ballcap photos from mlb.com ★



PLAY BALL! ⚾

Happy Baseball Birthday...Ernie Harwell

Today we celebrate the 98th Happy Baseball Birthday! of legendary Detroit Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell.



To all of us young baseball fans who grew up listening on their transistor radios in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ernie Harwell was our voice of all things Tigers baseball.



Ernie Harwell was everything that was great about baseball, and his love of baseball wS probably best embodied by his acceptance speech at the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981 as the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award.

Happy Baseball Birthday Ernie!


PLAY BALL! 

My Mailbox...Jim Abbott

A month or so ago I asked former Michigan Wolverines and big league pitcher Jim Abbott ( @jabbottum31 ) on his Twitter page about his book IMPERFECT, and about getting a autograph.

Jim sent me this awesome signature card and note.

Jim Abbott was born in Flint, Michigan, pitched Michigan to two Big Ten Titles, was the 1987 Sullivan Award Winner as the top amateur athlete, was on the 1988 USA Olympic Gold Medal winning baseball team, and played 11 years in the big leagues.


You can reach Jim Abbott on his website, jimabbott.net


Thanks Jim, for responding so nicely to this Wolverine fan.


GO BLUE!

The Baseball Hall of Fame welcomes Ken Griffey, Jr and Mike Piazza

On Wednesday, January 6th, 2016 the Baseball Writers Association of America  voted two new members into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, former Seattle Mariners centerfielder Ken Griffey, Jr. and former New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza.


99.3% of all the ballots cast had Junior Griffey's name on it, setting a HOF record previously held by HOF pitcher Tom Seaver.




Junior was elected on his first year of eligibility, and will enter the HOF wearing a Mariners cap on his plaque.



86% of all the ballots cast had Piazza's name on them, catapulting the former All-Star into Cooperstown in his 4th year of eligibility.



Piazza will have a Mets cap on his plaque, joining Seaver as the only Mets players in the HOF.



Earlier this week I cast my Baseball Bloggers Alliance HOF vote, and it included both Junior Griffey and Mike Piazza.


I was particularly happy to see Piazza voted in by the BBWAA, as I've bern a huge Piazza fan since his rookie year with the Dodgers.

Griffey, Jr was a future HOF player tge day he stepped into the Mariners lineup, and he had the sweetest swing I've ever seen.



I have, over the years, collected some baseball cards of both Junior Griffey and Mike Piazza.




This is my favorite card of Junior.

Junior Griffey posing...I do believe..at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. 

I believe this was Junior's first TOPPS baseball card, because of the TOPPS Rookie Team logo on the bottom left of the card.



This is my favorite card of Piazza.

This card is awesome, it's plain, it's simple...Mike Piazza is a catcher for the Dodgers. 

Some other cards I've gotten over the years...no special autographed or memorabilia cards, just some cool cards of two great baseball players. 

Congratulations to both Ken Griffey, Jr and Mike Piazza in their receiving the ultimate compliment for any big leaguer, election into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. 

PLAY BALL! 

Alan Trammell belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame

I love the Detroit Tigers...there, that's out of the way.

I stated my love of the Tigers, my favorite baseball team since I was a little kid growing up in Western Michigan in the late 1960s, stated my love of the Tigers so people don't have to say that I'm biased about Alan Trammell ... its all out in the open...not that I've ever hidden it.

Alan Trammell belongs in the Basebal HOF, not because I'm a biased Tigers fan, but because I'm a baseball fan 50 years now....and a biased Tigers fan.

In the debate about the HOF... Trammell's stats... are easily found on his baseballreference.com page...I don't need to give them to you...not right now anyway.

Here's why Alan Trammell is a Hall of Fame baseball player... I saw him play.

Yes, that's it, I saw him play...and that seems to be lost in today's Sabrmetrics analytical baseball writing and TV.

OK, I am no fan of Sabrmetrics, and you're gonna say I'm unfair in criticism of the numbers...and you'd be wrong. 

I love the passion of Sabrmetrics fans, but for the majority of them, they want most of the stats I grew up on eliminated in favor of the new stats, instead of trying to add the Sabrmetrics too go in addition to the traditional stats.

You want a stat...OK...here goes...Alan Trammell played 1,918 games at shortstop with fellow Tigers second baseman Lou Whitaker for 19 years...BOTH...BOTH are big league records.


Trammell and Whitaker...19 years...

Trammell and Whitaker were the BEST DOUBLE PLAY COMBO in the American League for over a decade...they were in the lineup every day...Whitaker and Trammell, Trammell and Whitaker...for 19 years.



Trammell was the Captain of the Detroit Tigers...he was the BEST SHORTSTOP in Tigers history...and he was the BEST SHORTSTOP to play baseball in the American League in the 1980s.

What didn't Trammell do to be a HOF player?



1977-1996...all wearing the Olde English D of the Detroit Tigers.


.285 batting average, 2,365 hits, 185 home runs, 1003 RBI, 4 Gold Glove Awards, 4 Silver Slugger Awards, 6 All-Star teams, 1984 World Series MVP.


1987...


.343, 28, 105.. Batting Average, HRs, and RBIs for Trammell, who took a veteran Tigers ballclub, put them on his back, and led them to an amazing come from behind American League Eastern Division Championship over the Toronto Blue Jays.





The answer is that Alan Trammell did everything he could,  everything he was asked to do for 19 years, 2,393 games.




Baseball is a game of stats, that's what's built the game...but we also watched baseball games, and we used what we saw with the stats, instead of coming up with some stat to try and make a player look better.


I don't know what Trammell's WAR is...well, actually, I do, it was zero...WAR didnt exist, neither did OPS, or OPS+, or BABIP.


Let me say this in closing... I'm saying that Alan Trammell should be in the HOF...Trammell...not Travis Fryman, or Kiko Garcia, or Tony Phillips, or Eddie Brinkman...all good infielders....but not HOF players.


I'm not trying to sway Carlos Guillen to the HOF, I'm writing about Alan Trammell, and he belongs in Cooperstown.

Trending... #tramforhof ...

#tramforhof is a new hashtag I saw on Twitter tonight...there are many, many Tigers fans...and baseball fans, who would live to see Trammell enshrined in Cooperstown next Summer...but we also know it's probably not going to happen.




What we are doing, is laying groundwork for a few years from now when ghe Veteran's Committee starts their next deliberation and voting...and we're hoping that both Trammell and Lou Whitaker...and pitcher Jack Morris...all make the Baseball Hall of Fame.



Good Luck Tram!


Play Ball!

My BBA 2016 Hall of Fame Ballot

Every year in early January I have the honor and privilege of voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame as a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.



The BBA asks us to vote, like the BBWAA, for up to 10 players to be inducted into the HOF, and will put any player who gets the required 75% of the into nomination for the HOF.


Here are my 10 players that I voted for on my BBA ballot...


Allan Trammell


Mike Piazza


Ken Griffey, Jr.


Tim Raines


Edgar Martinez


Fred McGriff


Trevor Hoffman


Jeff Bagwell


Curt Schilling


Larry Walker




There it is, my ballot.


Now, it's not perfect, there are more players that I could've voted for, but that's the ballot.


A few things....


I didn't vote, nor will I ever, for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, or Sammy Sosa.


I believe the steroids era has ruined sacred baseball records, and has therefore permanently harmed the game and the baseball players who did the right thing and play on their God given abilities alone.


I also don't belive in grouping players like Piazza and Bagwell into "supposed" PED/Steroids users just because they played at the same time as Bonds and other abusers...no one ever includes Ken Griffey Jr in the bunch, and rightfully so...Griffey Jr. probably had the sweetest swing ever.


Players like Trammell, Edgar Martinez are HOF baseball players who numbers get over shadowed by steroids and ped users that put up video game numbers.



I could've voted for Garry Sheffield...500+ home runs is still, to me, an automatic HOF vote, but I believed also that Fred McGriff, Tim Raines, Edgar Martinez are better players than Sheffield.



Mike Mussina isn't a HOF pitcher...people who try to tell me he's a HOF guy better show me he's a better pitcher than Jack Morris, who belongs in the HOF.



No one ballot is right, or wrong, but I believe in voters responsibility as well, and writers who refuse to hand in ballots, submit blank ballots, or vote for just one player, as a protest in balloting, those writers voting privilege should be revoked...forever.



Ken Griffey Jr. will come as close as any player ever has to getting 100% of HOF votes, but someone will, as usual, leave him off their ballot, or, worse, leave their submitted ballot blank.


If Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, WillieMays, Al Kaline, etc., can't get 100% of the votes, then, as the old writers say, noone should.



As a old school fan, I never get that, but that's part of the BBWAA problem.



Good Luck to all the eligible players who played the game the right way.


PLAY BALL!

Happy National Bird Day!

                                               Happy National Bird Day!

Ty Cobb is the Greatest Detroit Tigers player ever, and he always will be.

They were born 48 years apart, one on December 18, 1886, in The Narrows, Georgia, and the other on December 19, 1934, in Baltimore, Maryland.



Two men, Ty Cobb, and Al Kaline, the two greatest players in Detroit Tigers history, are forever joined in a great debate this time of year, on their Birthday's... "who's the greatest Tigers player of All-Time, Cobb or Kaline?"



Two great baseball players, outfielders who could run, hit, field...there was nothing either one of those men couldn't do.



The annual debate as to what player is #1 in Tigers history had always baffled me.


Why?


Because Ty Cobb, the owner of 4,192 base hits, a .367 lifetime batting average, 12 American League Batting Championships,  and the first player ever inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame, is the best player to ever wear the Olde English D.



Look, I get it, it's Al Kaline, Mr. Tiger... 399 home runs, the most ever by a Tigers player, 3,007 base hits, 10 Gold Glove Awards, the youngest batting champion ever, at age 20 in 1955...beating out Ty Cobb by one day, and also, like Cobb, is in the HOF.


I grew up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, saw Kaline at the end of his career....never saw Cobb play, we just see old black and white photos and news reel clips of The Georgia Peach dominating the game.



Now, with every game on TV, highlights of the newest greatest Tigers player, Miguel Cabrera  is causing debate that he, not Kaline, or Cobb, is the best Motown ballplayer ever.


Cabrera, the best hitter in baseball today, has won two American League MVP Awards , in 2012 and 2013, and in 2012 won the Triple Crown, just like Cobb did in 1909, although Cobb's 9 homers pale in comparison to the 44 home runs Cabrera hit in 2012.


Cabrera's 2012 Triple Crown was the first by any big leaguer since 1967.



I love Miggy, he's been a great Tigers player since he arrived in Motown in 2008, but the simple answer to the annual debate starts and ends with Cobb.



There's simply nothing any player, Cabrera included, can do to unseat Ty Cobb.



On Twitter I often see baseball fans...Tigers fans, try to use Cabrera's stats as being far superior to any player to ever play in Detroit.


The retoric is unfounded.


Why?


Because Cabrera played 5 years in Miami, and those stats are Marlins stats, and not Tigers stats.


Ty Cobb collected 3,900 base hits as a member of the Tigers... that total will never be approached by any player in Detroit.


Cabrera may reach 3,000 hits in his career, but his total isn't likely to include 3,000 hits as a Tigers player...he has 1,489 base hits as a Tigers player... Al Kaline sits at 3,007 base hits as a Tigers player...


COBB... 3,900 Detroit Tigers base hits

KALINE... 3,007 Detroit Tigers base hits

CABRERA... 1,489 Detroit Tigers base hits


Cabrera needs 1,518 more hits to tie Kaline...and 2,411 more hits to get to Cobb.


Cabrera has a magnificent. 326 batting average as a Detroit Tigers player... he beats Kaline at .297, but can't reach Cobb at .367...the highest lifetime batting average in baseball history.


Kaline hit 399 HRs as a Tigers player, Cabrera has hit 270 HRs as a Tigers player...Cabrera is likely to become the teams All-Time HR leader.


Ty Cobb had 1,800 RBI in Motown, Kaline had 1,582 RBIs in a Detroit uniform, and Cabrera has 922 RBI and counting.

It's possible...not likely though, that Cabrera could get to Cobb in RBI... Cobb had 164 RBI his final 2 years as a Tigers player.



Now, none of what I'm saying is meant to diminish either Cabrera or Kaline, I wouldn't ever do that.


What I'm showing is that no matter how fans try and insert their favorite Tigers player as the best ever... hey, Sam Crawford, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Alan Trammell, they all have their place in the 114 years of Detroit Tigers baseball.



The Detroit Tigers will begin their 115th season in the American League next year looking to get back to the top of the A.L. Central Division again.


Miguel Cabrera has 408 HRs and counting, and it's going to be great in a few years when Miggy hits HR #500.


Let's just remember that Marlins fans get to rejoice along with us Tigers fans, after all, he hit 138 HRs as a member of the Fish.



One last thing...we, as Tigers fans, are blessed to have the players who call Detroit home...Cabrera, Verlander, J.D. and Victor Martinez, Castellanos, and new players like Jordan Zimmermann, Mike Aviles, Francisco Rodriguez, and a young man named Cameron Maybin, who returnd to the Motor City 9 years after he was traded to the then Florida Marlins for a slugging 3rd Baseman named Miguel Cabrera.



From the 19th Century Detroit Wolverines, to Charlie Bennett, to the Georgia Peach and Bobby Veach, to Must See JV and Miggy, we should celebrate every single day as fans of our great baseball team.


Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


PLAY BALL!

The 25 Best Big League Baseball Players NOT in the Hall of Fame

Historical baseball writer /blogger Graham Womack has an article on Sporting News that asks you, the baseball fan, who  are the 25 best big league ballplayers NOT in the Hall of Fame.


You can read the article and find the link to vote right here.



As for my ballot, well, here are the 25 ballplayers that I think deserve to be in the HOF.


First off, let me say this... I only voted for the 25 players I believe belong in the HOF...you can also vote NO for a player /players you think don't belong.




I didn't vote NO  for any players because I believe that would not allow for me to give players I believe desreve to be in Cooperstown a voice.



That means that I didn't vote for Barry Bonds, or any other ballplayer that I believe took steroids and performance enhancing drugs.

I didn't vote for Pete Rose, but I did vote YES on Shoeless Joe Jackson of the 1919 ChiSox.


These 25 ballplayers are the men who I think gave all they had on the diamonds since the 1869 Cincinnati Reds started to play baseball.


Alan Trammell 

Bill Freehan 

Dale Murphy

Don Mattingly 

Don Newcombe

Edgar Martinez 

Gil Hodges 

Jack Morris 

Jeff Bagwell 

Jim Kaat

Ken Griffey  Jr.

Lou Whitaker 

Mickey Lolich 

Mike Piazza 

Roger Maris 

Sadahara Oh

Shoeless Joe Jackson 

Tim Raines

Trevor Hoffman 

Steve Garvey

Lefty O'Doul

Larry Walker

Harold Baines

Curt Flood

Charlie Bennett



The 25 big league ballplayers above are my best choices for the HOF, but they're not the only list, because every baseball fan has their own thoughts on who should be elected.


For all of those who think I'm a Detroit Tigers homer fan because I selected Trammell, Freehan, Morris, Whitaker, and Lolich, well, hey, guilty as charged, including 19th Century player Charlie Bennett.


Just so you know, I didn't vote for Norm Cash and RockyColivito either, both former Tigers teammates in the early 1960s.


There is a question after the vote that asks " True or False,  There are too many people in the Hall of Fame."


As the article by Graham Womack notes, over 18,000 ballplayers have played in the big leagues, and as of today, there are only 310 ballplayers in the Baseball Hall of Fame.


Needless to say, I voted NO, because there are easily 25 more players that should be in the HOF, including Fernando Valenzuela, Bob Boone, Ted Simmons, and Dom DiMaggio.



I hope all of you who read this post today will go to the article written by Graham and vote for your group of 25.


Thanks for reading this, and thanks for loving the greatest game ever invented, the great game of baseball.


Play Ball!