Baseball

Tigers fans frustrated by the team's lack of headlines since the moment Shane Victorino bounced out to Robinson Cano to end the 2009 baseball season need no longer worry.

On second part, scratch that last part. After all, the news isn't exactly pleasant.

According to Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of foxsports.com, the Tigers are listening to offers for starter Edwin Jackson. Depending on how you interpret the report, it's possible the team could be actively seeking to trade him.

None of us are fans of harping on the past, but when the past collides with the present, well, then we have an issue.

It’s been four years now since Mark McGwire plopped down in a congressional hearing and stated that he was not there to “talk about the past,” but more specifically, his alleged steroid use and connection to the Steroid Era.

Gee, Mark, what do you think we’ve all gathered around here for?

From the headline alone, Yankee haters will crow about buying more all-stars and the rich getting richer. After an explanation of needs, contract status' and an enticing offer to the Tampa Bay Rays, maybe New York acquiring B.J. Upton will seem a little more reasonable.

Pitching wasn't exactly an issue last season for the Boston Red Sox, but as shown in years past, there's no such thing as having too much of it.

I want to ask each and every one of you a question. What becomes of the never-was? Not the has-beens, the drop-outs, or the draft-day busts. I speak of the men who were never given their chance to compete at the major league level. They were robbed of the chance to play the game they loved. I present to you, on this Veteran's Day, the story of one such man.

Although the offseason has barely begun, the Milwaukee Brewers are already making their plans for this time next year. Rebuilding, retooling, or reloading; call it whatever you like but that's what the Brewers are using the 2010 season to do.

While this may be hard for fans to swallow only a year after making the playoffs for the first time in 26 years, it's a harsh reality of being a small or mid-market team in the current baseball economy. The Brewers simply cannot hope to compete for the playoffs year in and year out.

Some weeks back I had a spare hour on my hands, and wanting to not get swallowed up by fond nostalgia for the 1995 Mariners, I put together a starting lineup and roster of the best ex-Mariners. These are guys who played however briefly at the Kingdome or Safeco, were traded, signed with other teams, or were simply released, and went on to star elsewhere.

In 1961, the American League added the Los Angeles Angels and the Washington Senators to become a 10-team league. Finishing in eighth place no longer meant finishing last.

Ninth to First

Five years later, in 1966, the Boston Red Sox finished a dismal ninth, but they weren't as bad as they looked. The following season, they proved it by winning the pennant.

The Boston Red Sox became the first American League team to go from ninth to first.