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shannyfan14 · 07-07-2006, 12:15 PM

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SEATTLE -- It's a fair concern, of course, as the Tigers get ready for an All-Star break and for the season's tense second half. A team riding the high clouds of pennant contention almost certainly will experience bumpier air in coming weeks and months.

Playoff pressure is no breeze.

A team reliant on a fair share of rookies figures to encounter even tougher moments as nerves and fatigue (every player agrees the 162-game big league schedule requires a couple of years of adjustment) become issues.

Another valid question has to do with the Tigers' history. Can a team that has known nothing except negative win-loss numbers the past 12 seasons shake off its old mind-set and behave with the bravura of more seasoned playoff teams?

"The only thing I can say is, number one, we have a veteran manager and a veteran staff," said Al Avila, the Tigers assistant general manager who has accompanied the club on this week's West Coast trip that precedes Tuesday's All-Star Game in Pittsburgh.

"And our club, although it has a lot of young players, there is a mix of veterans."

Avila also said that his boss, president and general manager Dave Dombrowski, has, like manager Jim Leyland, been through enough pennant chases and World Series moments to present nothing new in terms of challenges as the Tigers prepare for an unexpected playoff bid.

Leyland personally experienced the second-half grinder during his days managing Pittsburgh, when the Pirates finished first in their division three consecutive times (1990-92), although none of the teams reached the World Series.

Getting to the Series occurred only after Leyland had departed for Florida, where Dombrowski was at work as GM. Both men partied hearty with their Marlins players after a victory over the Indians in the 1997 World Series.

Leyland understands what his club will be dealing with between now and October, particularly when its toughest battleground has nothing to do with nerves and fatigue and everything to do with those two high-flying Central Division sparring partners, the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins.

"I read the paper every day and I look at the standings," Leyland said this week, responding to a question about how he dealt with the White Sox-Twins threat. "I'm not going to do anything different now from when spring training started."

Nor is he going to be babying his rookies: Curtis Granderson, Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya, each of whom have helped transform the Tigers into a dangerous, difficult team for any opponent.

Leyland realizes young players are presumed to deal with all sorts of anxiety once September's pennant stretch begins. He also has watched Granderson, Verlander and Zumaya perform well beyond their years this season.

Speaking of Verlander and his 10-4 record and awesome repertoire of pitches, Leyland said Wednesday: "This kid's only played one year of pro ball. That's what boggles my mind."

Leyland discounts his own influence on these Tigers, insisting whatever has happened this season has been due exclusively to the better health of Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez, the arrival of veteran pitchers such as Kenny Rogers and Todd Jones and the new blood that came with Granderson, Verlander and Zumaya.

"I've managed some bad teams and I've managed some good teams," Leyland said, "and I happened to inherit a good team. I caught lightning in a bottle with a couple of young guys. I've been the beneficiary of the players' performance."

Yes and no.

Leyland made an unhappy Pudge Rodriguez one of his personal projects and helped turn a somber, dispirited future Hall of Famer into a rejuvenated pillar of this season's team. Leyland has kept his bullpen fresh and his starting pitchers grounded. He has instilled in the Tigers a "nine hard innings" mantra that the team not only speaks about with enthusiasm, but acts out in its knuckled-down approach to everything that happens during a game.

He also believes, like Avila, that the Tigers have enough veteran players to keep their blood warm and their minds clear when collars begin to tighten in the stretch drive.

He sees Guillen as being fundamental there -- "a hell of a baseball player," Leyland said, paying the Tigers shortstop an ultimate manager's tribute.

He sees in Brandon Inge athleticism and fire that can -- and will, Leyland believes -- make big differences in big games ahead. He appreciates Ordonez's professionalism as a hitter, just as he celebrates to the hilt Rodriguez's superstardom behind the plate and his primary gift to the Tigers as an up-the-middle baseball institution.

The Tigers also believe that they have sufficient pitching to prevent the kinds of meltdowns other clubs -- separate from the White Sox and Twins -- might endure when August and September and the mental fatigue associated with those months becomes a factor.

Is it enough to turn baseball's biggest surprise this season into an even bigger surprise this October?

Everyone is interested in how the story line unfolds. Either way, expect some superb theater in the days ahead.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...607070338/1129

they have had a great season. I hope to see them go for a pennant run.. i mean is that wrong of me after so many years of losing?

sheesh.. if we could get these guys to win.. then all that would be left is the lions to work on, but those guys are a lost cause

i never see any improvement there.

hmm so can the tigers make it ? only time will tell

Bravesfan4LIFE33 · 07-07-2006, 02:00 PM

hey manda best of luck in the second part of the season but they arent going to win their division....white soxs will....IMO

TIGER STADIUM 1912 · 07-07-2006, 02:10 PM

I say that this team is playing over there heads. chicago will win the division and either boston or new york will get the wild card.

Bravesfan4LIFE33 · 07-07-2006, 02:16 PM

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Originally Posted by TIGER STADIUM 1912

I say that this team is playing over there heads. chicago will win the division and either boston or new york will get the wild card.

but i do prefer the tigers to win the wildcard and send the yankees home early...

TIGER STADIUM 1912 · 07-07-2006, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bravesfan4LIFE33

but i do prefer the tigers to win the wildcard and send the yankees home early...

I cant stand detroit, i would rather see boston or new york make the wild card.

shannyfan14 · 07-07-2006, 10:43 PM

id like to see detroit advance far.. and, wait a minute donald, I thought you were an all detroiter, what happened?

oh buddy.. umm ok.. well, im just hoping they go far.is that such a bad thing

TIGER STADIUM 1912 · 07-08-2006, 12:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shannyfan14

id like to see detroit advance far.. and, wait a minute donald, I thought you were an all detroiter, what happened?

oh buddy.. umm ok.. well, im just hoping they go far.is that such a bad thing

I stopped being a tigers fan after they left tigers stadium.

shannyfan14 · 07-08-2006, 10:19 AM

hmm thats just wonderfull all because of a stadium.. thats really too bad.

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