sabretooth

My rule of thumb is that if I have to speak at the reception, it's probably approaching zero (or less).

Yeah, Ive been there.....the human part of me feels bad for the bride and groom, I mean it is their special day and everything, but the sabre side of me knows that their parents needed to hear that, the people that hadn't yet bought presents needed to hear that...and the bride and groom need to be prepared for disappointment.....this is what I do.

I don't disagree with this...frankly anything that seeks fulfillment beyond a 2-3 year window is a dream in my opinion, not a realistic plan.

This is a really good post, and I think what it says to me is that if there's going to be a focus on luxury taxes and penalizing teams that spend too much, there should also be some kind of penalty assessed for teams that don't spend enough over a few years to remain competitive. This could be flexible but still keep things balanced towards competitiveness. The whole idea of the luxury tax as I understood it was to increase competitiveness. If the spread of national revenues making it possible for teams to tank while also making a profit year over year, then teams should be penalized for tanking, as it also reduces competitiveness.

Outstanding post....agreed. I think the Tigers have stuck themselves now with number 2 above but don't have the ability to pull it off successfully. For myself, I see a long grind with Chris ilitch and Al Avila....maybe not as bad as the Randy Smith era but its still likely to be a failure to compete for a long time. Oh well, as long as Chris Ilitch can make money while losing consistently, I know fans will likely be happier and better off than they were with Mike I, DD and Jim Leyland winning with a big payroll. Salary scolds FTW

Speaking only for myself I was one of those hollering for the team to do what they could do to maximize the "today" potential of the roster... I realized that could cause a rupture after Mike I passed away, but the alternative was to start a crappy rebuild with a crappy future even earlier than we did. Alot of smart folks like Randy Marsh believe in the rebuild as a deliberate strategy that can be replicated by good GMs, but I dont see the evidence that supports this theory. Rebuilding is a low percentage shot in the dark, even for good GMs, with the rare exception of rebuild superstar GMs such as Epstein or in the case of the Cardinals; these are the extreme exceptions of front office people who did it multiple times. I'm not yet convinced that the Astros art a one off. The vast majority of teams only become reliably competitive for a few years because they capitalize on decent to good talent with some additional spending. Getting to the point of having decent to good talent to start with depends on whether you screwed up your system or not. The Tigers did not become a bad team by trading away minor league talent; it was by going the fire sale + rebuild route, a deliberate move endorsed by many on this board that I never agreed with. I'm not sure the exact right strategy should have been but I am strongly convicted that this will not work with Avila at the helm....though I do think he had a pretty successful off season but the acquisitions of Liriano, Feirs, Goodrum and Martin....I wish he had made high quality complimentary acquisitions like these when the team still had top flight talent.

They never really got close to being like the horrible Phillies...they were mis-managed and underperforming, but they were still a decent team...then WHAM, the firesale, and I see basically little/no reason to believe that we will be competitive again as long as this owner/GM combo is in place. Maybe our savior is a from-the-ground-up GM, or maybe another DD type....I'm fine either way, but I don't believe AA has what it takes to make this happen regardless of the basic approach.

...and before you throw Manning, Perez, Faedo and the gang at me, I believe that TINSTAAPP.

Yeah, Chris Ilitch saved a lot of money (and probably some serious red ink), which is good to an extent, but I don't see **any** evidence that we have repositioned ourselves with young talent that will make us a winner again at some point in the future. We have several decent prospects and younger players, but we are not looking like an up-and-coming team at all.

Yes sir Sgt. Hulka!

And we're just the guys to do it.

That story of Gibby running over Sparky is really sad. Sparky meant it in a playful way, and Gibby absolutely humiliated a great and kind man who loved him.

Ernies last years were a bit of a bummer because his depth perception wasn't so good and he had a harder time keeping pace with the contemporary needs of broadcasting. He probably should have retired a couple of years earlier.

Paul carey was great too... I put him at George Kells level....a great broadcaster, but not a legend like Ernie, and not someone I enjoy as much as I enjoy Dan.

It's almost impossible to compare Ernie and Dan because their styles were so completely different. I love them both but for very different reasons. I guess if I had to choose I'd want Ernie on the radio and Dan on the TV. I also love George Kell but he never was in their class as a PBP guy in my opinion.