i still think them cats are crazy ...

Today's post is an ode to the Detroit Tigers and spring training ... I love some of the things these boys have to say. All of them are funny, and a few of them are quite well spoken, which is always impressive to me. I'm in their age bracket, and I'm trying to follow a lot of my dreams, too, and it isn't always easy. It's nice to hear what they have to say about life and about overcoming challenges.


I personally went through some tough stuff last summer, and corny though it may sound, watching the Tigers play every night and watching some of these guys -- many of whom are in their twenties, like me, and trying to reach their goals -- really inspired me. I'm sucker for well-spoken boys who use big words and can also be hilarious and sarcastic or who can master the art of dry-humor.  It seems like on the whole, they are some really great people, and their passion for Detroit and the fans is really honorable.

Guess who just got back today

Them wild-eyed boys that have been away

Haven't changed, haven't much to say

But man, I still think them cats are crazy ...

And if the boys want to fight, you'd better let them

That jukebox in the corner blasting out my favorite song
The nights are getting warmer, it won't be long
Won't be long till summer comes
Now that the boys are here again

-"The Boys are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy

The following quotes are from the TigerFest fan press conferences ... And let me just tell you these boys are funny! ...

Austin Jackson: "Hopefully, we'll bring a world series back to Detroit."

Phil Coke: "Hey Jack ... hopefully?"

Austin Jackson: "Okay, we will bring a World Series back."

Phil Coke: “Sorry I’m late. I was actually downstairs, asking the manager of the team store how come I didn’t have any shirts yet … (imitating her) ‘Well, we have to be guaranteed that there’s gonna be 250 sold.’ I was like ‘Yea, well that’s great. I’d take 150 myself.”

Mario Impemba: “You do know they can hear this in the team store.”

Phil Coke: “I knooooooow! I was just there. Hi guys! But I mean, seriously, Sizemore’s got a shirt down there!

Scott Sizemore (sitting a few seats away from him): Thanks Coke.

Phil Coke: “No, no, no. I didn’t mean it in a bad way. He’s on TV more than I am. And then Jackson … he’s got his own little figurine already, and a bunch of shirts.”

Rod Allen: “What in the world are you gonna do with yourself in between starts this year? You’ve been in the bullpen for a couple of years now. Now, I know you started in the minor leagues, but you’re gonna be a starting pitcher this year. What are you gonna do the four days you’re not pitching?”

Mario Impemba: “Drive people nuts.”

Phil Coke: “Y’all better make sure I’m locked up or something. ‘Cause I’m gonna be running around … I might come to the field with some pom-poms or something. ‘Let’s go guys!’”

Mario Impemba: “It looks like you’ve lost a little weight. Have you lost a little weight?”

Phil Coke: “Are you calling me fat before?”

Rod Allen (on Phil Coke): “Is this about over with?”

Mario Impemba: “Dude, we got like five more minutes with him up here.”

Fan (to Austin Jackson): “It’s famous for rookies to have practical jokes played upon. Is anything you’d like to share?”

Austin Jackson: “Umm … (looks over to Phil Coke) Don’t show nobody those pictures, man. Who was I? I was Tina Turner this year. Yea, the dressing up at the end of the year was pretty interesting for us rookies. Yea, I was Tina Turner.”

Mario Impemba: “Scott, what were you?”

Scott Sizemore: “I was like a female bomber. Like a jet fighter or something.”

Mario Impemba: “Phil, what were you?”

Phil Coke: “I didn’t do it man. With the Yankees, I was like a maid from the hotel. No, literally from the hotel. We were at the Ritz in Boston and they had to take one of their uniforms and mutilate it.”

Phil Coke: "Did you just say my name was Kook? It's just like the soda, man."

Jim Leyland: "Will the real Brennan Boesch please stand up? You know, first half, second half?"

 

Mario Impemba: "Phil’s a different bird. We learned that about an hour ago."

Victor Martinez: "I knew that this was a place that was going to give me a great chance to win a World Series. And uh, I didn't much time talking with my wife and the rest of my family. We made a pretty quick decision. This is a great team, you know, it has a great young talented players, you know some veteran players, I just can't wait. I'm like a little kid with a new toy."

Justin Verlander: "This is a constant game of adjustments, and I feel like there's definitely some areas I can improve, first and foremost would be the month of April for me. (Crowd laughs.) I feel like the last couple of years -- (Crowd is still laughing.) That wasn't supposed to be funny."

Phil Coke: "Nobody thought I was going to be very effective as a bullpen guy. They were like 'Oh, he's starter he's not going to be able to do this. You know, we don't need to worry about this guy.' Well, I think I kinda proved that maybe you should think about, that you should worry about me. Well now, they're putting me in the rotation -- so, heads up. I'm very, very excited about this coming year. I mean talking about it, I'm getting the chills right now."
Obsevation: Phil Coke could have a career in stand-up if he wanted it ...  

Brandon Inge: "I've been here my whole career. I really don't know any other organization. I never really had a want to know another organization. I love the fans, I love the area. Another big thing was my kids are starting school here, and no matter what team I was going to be on, if I was possibly going to go to another one, I would still be living here in Michigan no matter what."

Brennan Boesch: “Yea, I think a lot of people would probably look at pitching as something that might’ve slowed me down. But I have to tell you that in the first half, you know, they wanted to get me out just as bad as they did in the second half, I can assure you. The difference really, is in the first half, we were a first place team. We were a great team, we had a lineup that was really formidable, and I was just a guy trying to fill in and do my best to stay in the major leagues.”

Brennan Boesch: “The biggest adjustment for me was really a mental adjustment, of not putting too much pressure on myself. I love the city of Detroit, I really do. It’s welcomed me. It’s really made me feel a part of the community from day one, and so when we started to lose, that was really hard on me as a rookie. You know, I want to do my best, and I felt that when I didn’t produce that I was letting the team down, letting the city down. I mean it really was something that took some growing to figure out that you know, it’s not all on my shoulders; it’s not on one player’s shoulders, it’s a whole team collectively. So, it’s a learning process, and I’m just excited this year to just try to do my job and not try to do too much.”

Brennan Boesch (on his first homeruns): “The first one happened so quick, I ran around the bases, it was over before I knew it. So, you know the second one though, I trotted around, I think Rod said I was ‘cruisin,’’ you know, and uh, the coaching staff told me ‘Hey, I know you’re in the big leagues, you do what you want, but I don’t know if you want to have that reputation of somebody who just jogs around nice and slow, this quick.’ … But I had to take that second one in, especially since it was at Target Field again the hated Twins.”

Fan: “What does Dave Dombrowski think of Phil Coke playing with chainsaws?”

Brennan Boesch: “I grew up by the water, I love everything about the ocean. I like lakes, too. I’ve been surfing, kayaking, doing all that stuff my whole life. Hopefully Dombrowski’s not around; no surfing’s allowed, but it’s not as bad as chainsaws, so I guess I’ll be all right.”

Brennan Boesch: “I don’t want to pick some obscure song, that you guys are like, ‘What is this?’”

Max Scherzer: “Nothing from Titanic?”

Brennan Boesch: “No.”

Fan: “I’m reading a book right now that gets into rookie hazing and all of that going on. And people being made to wear dresses and carry on pink back packs and all this stuff. You came up and within like three days, you’re out there fist-bumping with Miguel Cabrera after getting back-to-back homeruns; you’re like knocking down the 420’-wall and stuff. Does that preclude you from a lot of the rookie hazing that like, Rhymes or somebody may have gotten?”

Max Scherzer (interrupting): “No.”

Brennan Boesch: “I mean—”

Max Scherzer: “No.”

Brennan Boesch: “The funny thing is, you’ve got guys like Scherzer who think they’ve been in the big leagues for fifteen years. You know what I’m saying? This guy’s got what, I don’t even know, three years of service time, and he acts like he’s in the hall of fame already.”

Max Scherzer: “He’s got jokes, he’s got jokes.”

Brennan Boesch: “They’re laughing, they’re laughing. You know, it is what it is. I will say that you know, having success actually probably brings it more, honestly. I think it’s a veteran’s job to make sure that new guys don’t feel like this game’s gonna be too easy or to take anything for granted. So it’s part of baseball, it’s part of everything. It’s all in good fun and it’s never meant to be something that’s degrading or to put you down. It’s a team thing, and we’re all here pulling on the same rope.”

Brennan Boesch: “You don’t have to get better. You just have to get back to you. Get back to what you did, and what makes you, you. And so for me it wasn’t about changing or reinventing anything, it was really about doing what got me there.”

Brennan Boesch: “It seemed like five minutes later I was in the batter’s box for my first at bat.”

Mario Impemba: “Doubling off Rich Harden, by the way.”

Brennan Boesch (jokingly): “My bad.”

Rod Allen: “First swing.”

Mario Impemba (reading a fan’s Twitter question): “Brennan, are the rumors true that you do not own a TV?”

Brennan Boesch: “Oh yea, that’s funny. You know what? Maybe I’ll go back to that. The first half of the season, I didn’t have a TV in my place and did pretty good.”

Max Scherzer: “How did you live without a TV? How?”

Brennan Boesch: “I mean, I went to Berkley, man. I’m kind of a hippie. You know what I’m saying? I like music more than TV.”

(A few seconds after his further explanation …)

Max Scherzer: “Were you playing Solitaire? Or Free Cell? Which one?”

Mario Impemba: “Brennan’s still using a typewriter, too.”

 

"I can't remember anybody breaking in with more of a bang than that for a short period of time -- I mean anybody, over my years of baseball."

-Jim Leyland on Brennan Boesch

"It's been a great off-season. But off-season is exactly that. You can build and make little changes in your game, or whatever you want to call it. But the preparation for the season really starts now, getting in baseball shape. ... This is where you really prepare. This is fun."

-Brennan Boesch

I've posted this one before, but I'm posting it again ...

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

-Roger Hornsby

And, because I'm starting to get excited for Stanley Cup hockey, here's some hockey love:

Oh, take me where the hockey players
Face-off down the rink;
And the Stanley Cup is all filled up,
For the champs who win the drink.
Now the final flick of the hockey stick,
And it's one gigantic scream:
"THE PUCK IS IN!"
The home team wins the good old hockey game!
Oh, the good old hockey game,
Is the best game you can name;
And the best game you can name,
Is the good old hockey game!

39 days 'til the first regular season game, Tigers v. Yankees ... I can't wait! :) Here's to the boys of summer ...