Monkey is off our back!

The Tigers react: 'Monkey is off our back'
FREE PRESS STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES • April 10, 2008

The Tigers and Red Sox react to Detroit's first victory of the season:


• Tigers leftfielder Marcus Thames: "It was a good win to get that monkey off our back. We knew we weren't going to lose 162 games, but we wanted to get that one out of the way."

• Tigers manager Jim Leyland: "It's a little crazy to be too giddy if you're 7-1 or 8-1 or too, too down if you're 0-7. Was I surprised? Yeah, absolutely. I can't deny that. But it happened. There's a lot of games left. It's a 162-game season. That is a fact. They give you all this other stuff — no team's done this, no team's done that — but you do play 162 games."

• Tiger Brandon Inge, who singled in two runs in the eighth: "It's the beginning of the year and it gets a lot of attention. But it's no big deal. We're over it now, I guess."

• Boston pitcher Jon Lester: "They're good hitters. I had a lot of pitches tonight that I thought were good pitches and they fouled them off. At times they were very aggressive and at times they were very patient."

• Boston first baseman Sean Casey, who spent the last 1 1/2 seasons with the Tigers: "They're too good a team to go 0-162. They were just due to win a game."

• Leyland: "It's hard to win major league games. We found that out the last week or so. We finally got some timely hits. That's more like us."

• Detroit general manager Dave Dombrowski: "They're going to hit. If they don't, I haven't been more wrong about anything in my entire life."

Compiled from wire reports, Boston Herald and news services

And that Damn Monkey is back again!

We need a long winning streak!

1-8 Sucks!

Sean played good against us too! Maybe revenge time!

laprimamirala wrote:

Sean played good against us too! Maybe revenge time!

Revenge is what it seemed like to me! And when he was on base, he did not seem to have happy chats like he is noted for.

can't say as I blame him....

Neither can I. It's so sad he had to go!

he was the glue that held us together! What player wouldn't want to be part of a winning team!

Someone just needs to step up and fill Sean's role! I think Granderson could be that guy...

he's our best bet....

We should have kept Casey

absolutely. Wish the fans had a smidgen of a say in the decision making.

I understand the dilemma the team had, Carlos has a better batting average than Sean, and Los's legs were not going to hold up much longer playing SS. They figured 1b would keep a great player's career going more years. So, who do you keep, Casey or Guillen?

We have other utility players how can fill in at SS, 2b and 1b, whereas, can Casey fill in at SS or 2b???? Probably not.

it was a rough decision, I'm sure. We just haven't seen any good justification for it yet!

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

I understand the dilemma the team had, Carlos has a better batting average than Sean, and Los's legs were not going to hold up much longer playind SS. They figured 1b would keep a great player's career going more years. So, who do you keep, Casey or Guillen?

We have other utility players how can fill in at SS, 2b and 1b, whereas, can Casey fill in at SS or 2b???? Probably not.

Another thing: Casey's contract was up and Guillen was under contract for '08. I bet that was factored in.

Things worked out the way they did for a reason. Casey is happy where he is now...

But a lot people still miss Casey!


Let's hope we can keep things going!


We need a long winning streak

We will, too many good players not to have a good season.

We really need to win the next two in Chicago and then take both games from Minnesota

By the way, it is incredable how many of the big hitters are having a slow start this year.

D Ortiz .077
J Giambi .095
C Blake .161
P Fielder .243 0HR

Wow!

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

By the way, it is incredable how many of the big hitters are having a slow start this year.

D Ortiz .077
J Giambi .095
C Blake .161
P Fielder .243 0HR

It was astounding to see Big Papi struggle at the plate.

And Fielder is a very angry young man, see article in MLB Teams section:
Brewers Fielder confident power will return

yeah, I remember that from last season! Heck, I don't like my dad either, but I don't HATE and am not public about it! Why he has to be this way is beyond me.

It is a very sad situation. Prince would not be in the Majors if it had not been for everything his dad did for him growing up!

so much of life's baggage can be found in baseball too...

the human condition!