“This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games”

-Burroughs, William S.

Some where, maybe on a bus. Maybe in a taxi. Possibly a rental car. Maybe at the arena. Possibly still in his hotel room. Where ever it is, Darren McCarty is about to relive a dream. A dream he, himself, destroyed. A dream that looked to be dead.

Had it not been for a former teammate this dream probably wouldn’t have been a dream again. Maybe more of an afterthought, a what-if, if you will.

And it would have been easy to turn the other way from this heart breaking truth. I mean, he did it to himself. He had it all. Three world championships in four years. A cult following in Detroit. Best friends, grind line brothers. So what went wrong?

Would he really allow demons off the ice do what thugs on the ice failed to do so many times before? Debt, alcoholism, drug use …. trading in friendships for coke. Selling rings for debts owed. Is that what fate McCarty had afforded himself? Not thousands, but MILLIONS of dollars thrown away, and for what?

On Friday, McCarty returned to the place where he’s celebrated his greatest glories, reached his highest pinnacles. Is he ready for what takes place after this?

That’s how we’ll know, if Darren really is an April Fools day baby.

In life, we all have our ups and downs. We all find ways of coping. I like to emerse myself in sports and beer. Some would say I have an addiction to both. And, I probably do. But in sports, you can always find something to cheer you up. On Yahoo Sports, this story found it’s way to the front page:

Red Wings’ Jiri Fischer returns to ice after 2005 collapse. Fischer, not a superstar, but a very solid roleplayer for the Wings played in a charity game three-years after collapsing in a game against the Nashville Predators. His heart stopped.

Read that last bit again.

His heart stopped.

My little brother, Brandon played little league football in Midland, Michigan when he was 7 or 8 years old. Brandon was born very sick, very small. He never really grew much. But that didn’t stop him from wanting to be a typical boy. He wanted to be outside with his friends, and throw a misshapen nerf football around. Time came for the league sign ups, and with much concern, Mom and Dad decided it’d be ok for him to join.

In his first game, he got knocked out in an attempt to score a late, meaningless touchdown. His coach rushed onto the field, to make sure he was ok. He asked Brandon “Are you ok, how many fingers am I holding up?”.

Brandon said four. He was clearly dazed. The coach only had three fingers! They carried him off the field, but the next week, he played again. He didn’t let his size (or lack of talent … shhh) stop him from being one of the guys.

You see, sometimes … our heart stops, we run into walls, we aren’t Bo Jackson, or we lose our jobs.

Brandon Inge could learn a few things from Jiri Fischer and my little brother.

Will Porcello pitch in the majors this year?

Why the Tigers COULD fail, this year.

Got your tickets? You may be out of luck, slacker.

Sheff think’s this lineup is better than the 06 Yanks.  How would he know, has been in camp long enough?

So, tomorrow the Tigers play its first spring training game. Technically, an “exhibition”, against the Mighty Moccasins of Florida Southern College. Should be a tight game. This game should serve as nothing more then a tease to the upcoming slate of games for the spring training season.

I’ve been hearing good things about Dontrelle Willis‘ bullpen session yesterday. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports/XM radio said he looked very solid. That’s encouraging. I don’t believe in the aspect of one player making a difference, but a lot of this season’s success rests on Dontrelle’s shoulders. If he can lower that ERA, just by 1.00 (lowering it to 4.17), I think we’re looking at 17-18 wins for the season, based solely on speculation and theory that we’ll be scoring a TON of runs this season.

With that said, I’ve finalized my player projections, again, using the theorum of drunken speculation:

Hitting:

Ivan Rodriguez 53/8/51/0/.251
Carlos Guillen 104/22/98/8/.316
Placido Polanco 103/7/69/4/.302
Edgar Renteria 91/9/72/4/.289
Miguel Cabrera 111/33/136/4/.344
Magglio Ordonez 107/23/114/0/.319
Curtis Granderson 108/26/88/29/.284
Jaque Jones 79/18/74/13/.271
Gary Sheffield 71/23/72/8/.277
Brandon Inge 55/13/48/3/.244
Marcus Thames 68/20/65/1/.254

I’ve scoured the web for you kids. What have you done for me, huh? Yeah, that’s right. NUTTIN!

MLIVE Tiger Columns
Sheffield on Boara: “Bad Person”

Double D’s Take: We need Sheff focused this year. I don’t see him playing another two years, let alone four. Sheff needs to do what’s right for his team, and focus on playing one last great season. I have to question Gary’s comments about “it taking more then a long suspension” to quiet him down. That’s not the focus we need from him. This matter should have been taken care of during the offseason; and if MLB is in anyway involved in this, they should have facilitated a faster conclusion.

Tigers confident, but staying quiet

Double D’s Take: Class. That’s my take on Jim Leyland. He’s nothing more, nothing less, then class personified. It’s my opinion that his hiring was the key to taking this team to the next level. Any other coach, and I’m not sure where the Tigers would be right now. There are a lot of egos in that locker room right now, and Leylands done a terrific job of keeping everyone in line.

Rodney plays catch, says he’ll be fine

Double D’s Take: Still to early for me to get worried about arm troubles. I get that it’s never too early to be safe with a pitcher, but .. I don’t know. If we get into week three of spring training, and Fernando is still hurting, then I’ll start worrying about this.

DETROIT FREE PRESS Tiger Columns:

Why Magglio Ordonez can and can’t hit .360 again

Magglio Ordonez responds to Canseco’s book questions; ‘I don’t have anything to do with Jose’

Tiger Miguel Cabrera to enter Detroit sports as Lidstrom and Barryesque

Rodney’s shoulder pain isn’t bothering Leyland

Tigers closer Todd Jones: ‘There are some questions in the bullpen’

Ex-Tigers manager Sparky Anderson on the mend after 12-day hospital stay

DETROIT NEWS Tiger Columns:

Zumaya just keeps right on truckin’

Ordonez hopes for a repeat of his blistering 2007 season

30 seconds with Tim Byrdak

Other Tiger Columns:

Renteria: Tigers are ‘like a dream team’

Don’t count on an Ordonez crewcut

My Dad is a connoisseur of pork rinds, when imbibing in the Devils broth. Recently, however, the city in which we live in, has gone on an “unofficial” blackout of pork rinds. We couldn’t find them anywhere.

So Dad experimented with various other snacks … beer nuts, pretzels, pistachio’s, cashews, you name it, he tried it. Nothing caught his fancy.

I, on the other hand, have found a new best friend for my tasty froth. Pizza flavored combos.

I have a slight obsession with pizza though. I wrote down my dinners from last week, and this is what the menu looked like:

Monday: Pizza Pasta (Spaghetti with pizza sauce instead of spaghetti sauce) with pepperoni and cheese.
Tuesday: Godfathers double pepperoni, double cheese pizza.
Wednesday: Pizza Sub from Subway.
Thursday: Pizza Sandwich (Using my sandwich maker)
Friday: Personal pizza from Del Carmens (local pizza joint)

And this is not made up. Is this too much pizza? Should I seek help? It’ll slow down during the summer, when I have the grill fired up 7 days a week with burgers, brats and hot dogs.

But isn’t pizza the perfect food?

***

Scary moment in last nights Red Wing/Avalanche game. Nicklas Lidstrom, the heart and soul of the Wings, left the game after six minutes of play when he was slammed into the wall by a member of the Avalanche. He was visibly shaken up. They say he suffered a sprained knee, and will be out for a week or so.

The Wings have been in a funk as of late, snapping a 6-game losing streak last night. It’s the longest losing streak in 17 years. They seem to be playing flat, unemotional hockey. Losing #5 would certainly hurt this team a great deal.

I’m perplexed as to why the Wings constantly struggle in the playoffs. That’s why i’m not too worried about the struggles right now. Hopefully, they get this out of their systems now and then ease through the playoffs.

***

Darren McCarty is slowly making his way back up the chain of hockey. I’m curious if he has enough left in him for a late season call-up? That would boost the morale of the Wings, for sure, and most definetley sell some tickets for the orginization.

And he got one. Good fight. I knew deep down, that Tank was being setup as the fallguy, you know? I think he knew it too. But the dude doesnt’ care. I mean, he spent time in World Championship Wrestling as a member of a 4 piece boy band for Gods sake.

I was never really a big MMA fan, up until the past year. I find my interest in leaving the house faltering, and need something to occupy my time. Of course, that means drinking more. And the Doc says “NO”. So, I try to occupy as much time as I can with sports. So, I’ve focused more on the niche sports, I.E. MMA, OK?

It’s an interesting sport. If you watch it from afar, it looks like nothing more then a more hardcore version of boxing, sans rules. But, it’s really not. I’m quite impressed with the respect that each fighter has for the other. You can see that respect in the ring, just by body language.

Although, that wasn’t the case in the Abbott/Slice fight tonight.

There was a vibe in and out of the ring. Neither man wanted to be there, but both needed the fight to survive outside of the ring.

And I respect that.