The Lions have made a killing in the free agent market -- the has-been market, that is. They have a thing for signing players just a tad past their prime -- a tad enough to be considered over-priced busts. It doesn't take much of a tad to veer into that area in the NFL, when the calendar decides to catch up with you instantaneously almost, and with little warning.

The latest addition to that bourgeoning category just might be LB Takeo Spikes, who fits the Lions' history perfectly: 31 years old. Recently injured. Best years behind him. A winner, somewhere else, in a galaxy far, far away.

Spikes has been hovering around Allen Park -- if not physically then certainly spiritually -- circling, debating whether to land and join the Lions. The team says they are close to signing him and having him ready for the start of training camp tomorrow. Spikes's people says he has other options to consider.

The Lions seem to do this more often with defensive players than anything. Once-great DBs like LeRoy Irvin, Todd Lyght, Eric Davis, and Tim McKyer were all Lions too late in their careers to be much more than off-the-field mentors. LBs like Mike Johnson, Pat Swilling. DL guys like John Mendenhall, Curley Culp, Joe Ehrmann. All flourished with other teams before coming to Detroit. In most instances, the Lions were their last employers. Even the younger fans should be able to remember Lyght, who went to high school in Flint, gamely but unsuccessfully trying to cover receivers when he played for the Lions in 2001 and 2002.

Now the Lions are hoping that Spikes, who coach Rod Marinelli says has "plenty of rubber still left on the tires", can come in and make an impact. It's the hope of losers -- those who weren't smart enough or cunning enough to have such players on their roster when their best years were ahead of them instead of in the rearview mirror. There's a reason that Spikes is still unsigned as training camp begins. The Lions will probably uncover that reason once they sign him and he begins playing.

This isn't to say that Spikes is done completely. It's just that it pains me to see the Lions constantly adding these types of players after the fact of their prime. The phrase "a day late and a dollar short" comes to mind, only with the Lions it's more like "a day late and a dollar more." You see, the Lions are pretty good at out-bidding teams for the thirty-somethings of the league. Remember tight end? That was a position the Lions annually reserved for The Flavor of Last Month: Rodney Holman; Ron Hall; Jimmie Giles; Pete Metzelaars.

The Lions' all-time roster is dotted with some of the finest players the NFL has had to offer -- if the clock was set back 3 or 4 years. In radio, a seven-second delay is employed to give the censor a chance to bleep out any naughty words before they hit the air. The Lions, for decades, have been operating on a three-year delay: the average amount of years a player is past his prime by the time the Lions get a hold of him.

I do hope I'm wrong about Takeo Spikes. Once, he was an impact player, a linebacker who could wreak havoc. I hope Marinelli is right about the rubber on the tires. History tells me otherwise, however.

Last Week: 2-2

This Week: (7/21-23: at KC; 7/25-27: CWS)

The Tigers have cooled off, and it's not all that surprising. After all, the team went on an 18-4 tear to go from 24-36 to 42-40, and is now on a more modest 7-9 pace. Still, the overall record since dropping a season-low 12 games below .500 is 25-13, and that's the kind of ball that the Tigers will have to play to keep themselves relevant in the AL Central race.

First, forget all thoughts of a Wild Card berth. The division's the thing for the Tigers. Why? No. 1, the Tigers are a full 7 games behind the Red Sox -- a half game worse than they are behind the White Sox for first place in the Central. But more important, whenever you start talking Wild Card, you open up the party for so many more teams in the league. Don't get fooled by the "Wild Card standings" that you'll see on ESPN -- which the network has already begun flashing on the screen. It's one thing to be seven games behind one team; quite another to be seven games behind the leader when there are several teams between you and first place. The more teams you have to leap frog, the more of them have to lose on a consistent basis, last year's Colorado Rockies be damned.

The Tigers already have to pass two teams just to win their own division. In a Wild Card race, you must add the Yankees and the A's and the Rangers to the mix. Now you're talking four teams to pass -- the Twins (or White Sox) plus those three. Not to mention teams just behind the Tigers, like the Blue Jays and the Orioles and even the Royals, who are just one hot streak away from getting involved.

Safer to keep your eyes on the Central prize. Less crowded.

It's also time to start looking at differential in the loss column -- even before you look at overall games behind. Losses are games you can't make up -- at least not on your own. The further you fall behind in the loss column, the more you need to rely on teams ahead of you losing. So, basically, it's better to be seven games behind with six of those games in the loss column and eight in the win column, than vice versa (games behind are calculated by adding the gaps between wins and losses and dividing by two).

Here's an illustration:

Chicago 55-42

Minnesota 55-43

DETROIT 49-49

These are the standings today. The Tigers are 6-1/2 games behind the White Sox. Note the loss column. The Tigers are seven behind the White Sox. But look at this hypothetical situation:

Chicago 56-43

DETROIT 49-49

This is also a 6-1/2 game differential, overall. But the loss column difference in this scenario is only six. It may not look like a big deal, but it is. In this scenario, the White Sox don't have to lose as much; the Tigers have to win a little more. You'd always rather have your fate tied to how many games YOU win as opposed to how many games your opponent has to lose.

Confused? Suffice it to say that wins are easier to make up than losses. It's kind of like "games in hand", which they talk about in hockey a lot. In my hypothetical scenario, the Tigers would have played one fewer game than Chicago -- a game they can use to add to their win total. In the real standings this morning, the White Sox have that important "game in hand." And they'd have to lose it to help the Tigers. Capeche?

This is a big week for the Tigers, bigger than most. The pesky Royals, who have beaten the Tigers like a drum, host Detroit for three, then the Tigers play host to the White Sox. Pretty obvious why this is potentially a crossroads week for Detroit. A bad week here, and you might be looking at being a seller at the July 31 trade deadline.

The Tigers swept the White Sox in Detroit last month, at the start of their 18-4 run. Perhaps the Chisox didn't take the Tigers as seriously back then. That will certainly change this weekend.

It is presumed, at least for the sake of this posting, that once he was hailed as a genius, Albert Einstein never had to re-prove himself as such. Nor did Stephen Hawking, or any of the panel from "Stump the Professor" (warning: obscure Detroit pop culture reference, so don't sweat it if you went, "Huh?"). No, I don't think Einstein or Hawking, or anyone else to whom the word "genius" has been properly applied, ever had to go back and remind us why they were being hailed.

In sports we like to use the word "genius" haphazardly -- sometimes even, dare I say it, sarcastically (gasp!). This morning, with NFL training camps just about to get underway, I'm not sure where the meaning of "genius" lies when it comes to offensive mind Mike Martz. But I'm thinking it's edging toward sarcastic, because I'm almost certain that it was probably initially used haphazardly.

Martz, the erstwhile Lions offensive coordinator in 2006 and 2007, has taken his voluminious playbook and "genius" mind (there's that word again) and headed west, to infiltrate the mind of poor Alex Smith and the rest of his San Francisco 49ers offensive teammates. 49ers head coach Mike Nolan is the latest to gamble that Martz can do for him what he once did for the St. Louis Rams, some nine years ago. The Lions took that gamble in early 2006, courting Martz with everything but chocolates and roses with Super Bowl week in Detroit as the backdrop. He turned the Lions down, Martz did, but that didn't stop new head coach Rod Marinelli from pursuing the genius relentlessly, confident that Martz was the man to inject life into an offense teeming with wide receivers but with a brand new quarterback at the helm, Jon Kitna.

So Martz breezed into town, clearly regaling in his reputation as a genius -- and with a playbook the size of the New York City yellow pages in tow, as if to prove his brilliance in terms of quantity, if not quality.

After two seasons in Detroit, about the only thing we could conclude definitively about Martz was that, if he was good at anything, it was at being in control and being less-than-amenable to suggestions from the rank-and-file, or from his boss. His playbook clogged the Lions' players minds and mystified some of the brutuses in the trenches. Yet, for all of its content, Martz's playbook seemed to somehow ignore something intricate to a football offense -- namely, the running game.

By the end of last season, about the only player who publicly endorsed Martz was Kitna -- and with back-to-back 4,000 yard passing seasons, that was no wonder, really. It was less than surprising when Martz was given the ziggy by Marinelli, and maybe even less so when Martz was snapped up by the 49ers -- if only because once you get labeled in the NFL, good or bad, it takes some time to shed it. Nolan, we presume, did his due diligence on Martz and knows what he's getting himself into. Whether the Lions did is always open to conjecture.

The Lions have a new offensive coordinator, Jim Colletto. I'm tempted to call him a simpleton, and in doing so, I mean no offense. But Colletto, he says, is all about paring down the playbook and relying more on the running game. The Lions drafted a huge offensive tackle with their no. 1 pick, Gosder Cherilus, as if to emphasize this new way of thinking. Substance instead of flash.

I saw a photograph the other day of Martz, in the 49ers colors and wearing the gratuitous team baseball cap, instructing Smith, the fine young San Francisco quarterback. I couldn't tell through his helmet and face mask whether Smith had a faraway look on his face.

I guess we'll find out whether he did once they start playing the games for real.

Last Week: 3-3

This Week: (7/17-20: at Bal)

Only eight of the 30 MLB teams are slated to play on Thursday -- and the Tigers are one of just two in the American League. It's an inequity that isn't setting well with manager Jim Leyland, nor is it, I would imagine, with the managers of the other seven teams.

Why the Tigers and Orioles are playing on Thursday, when all the other 12 AL teams are off, is beyond me.

A traditional All-Star break used to mean Monday thru Wednesday off, with games resuming on Thursday -- starting four-game weekend series, basically. I can see not having every single team play on Thursday, but just eight of 30? And just two of 14 in the AL? That seems like a scheduling quirk that could have been avoided.

Leyland has gone on record as being less than thrilled with that imbalance -- not that there's anything he can do about it, of course. Schedule making isn't easy, even with the use of computers and fancy software. But there still needs to be a human element, you'd think. If the Tigers needed to play four games in Baltimore, why couldn't they be Friday thru Monday instead? If closer to half of the teams in each league played on Thursday, then that's a split you can understand and live with. But when 73% of MLB teams can somehow get Thursday off, then that doesn't make any sense to me.

OK, so what's the big deal? Who cares? Well, what team couldn't use an extra day off right about now? Frankly, it's just a matter of equity. If it's not a big deal, then why do nearly three-quarters of the teams have Thursday off? The grass is always greener, I know, but the whole imbalance seems avoidable.

I say have most of the teams play on Thursday. A three-day break is ample. A better split would have been 22 on, 8 off -- not vice-versa.

As for the Tigers, I doubt many folks would have been happy with 47-47 at the break, if presented with that scenario back in March. But considering what happened in April and May, that record isn't so rotten. Seven games back (the size of the Tigers' deficit against the first-place White Sox) isn't an insurmountable hurdle to clear. The Tigers basically need to make up one game for every ten they play, on an average, from here on out to catch the White Sox. That's on average. You can, of course, make up three or four games in a week, then slip back another couple in two days. It's what makes a pennant race so pulsating.

Brett Favre can't be trusted. But then again, if you've watched him play the Lions for the past 16 years, especially in Wisconsin, you already knew that. You knew that he couldn't be trusted to do anything but beat them consistently. You couldn't trust him if he had a poor first half, or a poor 3/4 of a game. Chances would be, at the end, he'd walk off victorious.

So no wonder that Favre can now not be trusted with his words, either.

As you know, the maybe-erstwhile QB of the Green Bay Packers is trying to "unretire", some four months after telling the Pack and the football world that he was hanging them up after 16 wonderful seasons, a stretch during which he never missed a start. And the Packers aren't making it easy for him, figuring that there's the small matter of having already told Favre's heir, Aaron Rodgers, that he's the guy, starting in 2008.

"We're prepared to move on," has been the paraphrased sentiment of the Packers' hierarchy.

Not without me, Favre says. Or else, release me and I'll play for someone who wants me.

Nuh-uh, the Pack said to Favre's requested release.

At first blush, I was seeing Favre's side of the story. How much different is it now, really, than it was four months ago, in Green Bay? How far along could the team have possibly moved with Rodgers in such a short time? What was the big deal if Favre came back for another run? The Packers fielded a surprisingly strong team in 2007; who says Favre couldn't nudge them further in 2008?

Of course, it might be bad form to mention at this juncture that it was Favre's gaffe that probably cost the Packers their playoff game -- at home -- last January.

But after further review, as they say in the NFL, I see where the Packers front office is coming from.

How can they trust Favre anymore? How do they know when he's really retiring? How many "comebacks" does he have in him? Is this the only one?

The question of whether Favre will return for the next NFL season has been asked for several springs now -- and recently, during the ongoing campaign. It can't possibly NOT have been a distraction. And Favre has been taking longer and longer to make his decision. This time, he decided -- or so we thought -- in early March.

So is this how it works? Favre can string the Packers along yearly, and they'll acquiesce to him?

Retire? Sure! Oh, come back, you say? Sure! We'll just tell Mr. Rodgers to sit tight and that he'll get his chance...someday.

Not the way to run a business.

But Favre has placed the Packers in a tough spot. Internet polls (and probably sports talk radio sentiment) have Favre in a big lead over Rodgers as far as who folks would like to see as the Green Bay QB in 2008. He's making team management out as the villain here. The media seems willing to go along with that portrayal.

Favre wants to play so badly, apparently, that he's willing to be released so he can play with another NFL team. I wonder if just ANY NFL team will do. I wonder if he'd play for a sad sack team? Or does he want to win? And which contending teams are able to fit a Brett Favre under their salary cap at the expense of their probably already-expensive signal caller? How much contract would have to be devoured and digested to bring Favre in?

Ahh, but what if, you might ask, Barry Sanders had pulled the same switcheroo back in 1999?

A fair question.

First, running back isn't the same as QB, in terms of importance to the team. In other words, it's a lot easier to bring in a new starting RB than to have invested all that time and teaching into a new quarterback, only to shove him aside. Second, Sanders didn't have an heir apparent, mainly because no one truly thought he was on the brink of retirement. His announcement on the eve of training camp -- that was different, too -- caught a lot of folks off guard, even though in retrospect it shouldn't have, necessarily. There was no one waiting in the wings -- not that you can replace someone like Sanders, anyway.

So what should the Packers do? They've offered to let Favre return -- but as the backup. That's quite a gesture, I think -- for even though Favre himself has been durable, that's not really the norm. Rodgers could go down -- it's quite feasible.

But think about Rodgers for a second. How terrible would it be for him as a rookie QB to play with Brett Favre over his shoulder, and with public sentiment wanting Favre to start? As if being a first-year QB in the NFL isn't hard enough...

It's hard to imagine this saga ending any way other than badly. But the "bad guys" aren't the ones who created this mess. Brett Favre did, public sentiment be damned.

As far as I'm concerned, Lomas Brown only blew one major assignment in his 11 years with the Lions.

That assignment was to keep his mouth shut and act humble prior to a certain playoff game. He failed, and miserably.

Brown, arguably the best offensive lineman in team history, was full of vim and vigor heading into a 1995 NFC Wild Card showdown with the Eagles in Philadelphia. The Lions were on a roll, having won their last seven games to finish 10-6, thus saving coach Wayne Fontes's job. Owner Bill Ford Sr. had said, after a loss in Atlanta dropped the Lions to 3-6, that the only way for Fontes to come back in 1996 was if his team made the playoffs. It was a rare public ultimatum coming from hizzowner.

So the Lions went out and won their last seven, and Brown had, himself, a rare moment of bluster.

"I guarantee we'll win down there (in Philly)," Brown crowed to the newspapers. "I guarantee it."

It didn't look like a bad prediction, albeit fodder for the Eagles' bulletin board. The Lions were the hottest team in the NFL. They had won some road games down the stretch, when every game mattered. And the Eagles weren't exactly Super Bowl contenders themselves. They were quarterbacked by Rodney Peete, first of all.

I remember saying to one of my co-workers a few days before the game, "The only way I see Fontes not coming back in '96 is if the Lions go down to Philly and lay an egg." But even I didn't believe that would really happen.

But the Lions did just that; they laid a big ole ostrich egg on the Veterans Stadium turf.

What else can you call it, when the score becomes 51-7, as it did at one point? It was 34-7 at halftime. Only a late flurry of scoring by the Lions made the final score a semi-respectable 58-37. It was Brown's last game as a Lion; he would end up in Arizona in 1996.

But something tells me that Lomas Brown will make a much finer tutor than he was a prognosticator.

There's good news out of Allen Park, and that is that the Lions are letting Brown, 45, openly work with first round draft choice and offensive tackle Gosder Cherilus in a sort of tutorial/mentor/coach relationship. They figured, rightly so, that there are many worse choices to pair up with Cherilus other than Brown, who for so many quality seasons anchored the Lions' offensive line from the left tackle position. Brown, no. 75 (which should be retired, by the way, because it was also worn by another top drawer lineman -- guard John Gordy of the 1950s and '60s), was the best pass-blocking lineman I've ever seen play for the Lions. His run-blocking skills weren't bad, either, even if he fell into some unconventional habits by way of blocking for the unconventional Barry Sanders for seven years.

The move to bring Brown back into the Lions family to work with their prized no. 1 draft pick is a pleasantly surprising display of common sense and forward thinking on the team's part. Brown has told folks that he's been chomping at the bit to work with the Lions' offensive linemen for several years now. The wait might be worth it; for Brown now gets to work with the most-hyped OL the Lions have had in years.

Cherilus is penned in to be the Lions' right tackle, since Jeff Backus maintains hold on the LT position. But Cherilus played LT at Boston College, and Brown feels the rookie can be a great tackle, no matter which side he plays.

No doubt footwork will be on Brown's agenda with the hulking Cherilus, who will come into training camp far huger than Brown ever was during his playing days. Brown, every week, gave up size and weight, but his footwork was so good that he rarely was beaten by those monster DEs and OLBs gunning for a sack. So it will be up to Brown to school Cherilus on the subtle but extremely important mechanics of footwork, to make his 6-foot-7, 320+ pound frame that much more mobile and effective from a finesse standpoint. Brown played mainly at 6-foot-4, 280 throughout his career.

Brown finally won a Super Bowl, with the Tampa Bay Bucs during the 2002 season, at age 39. It was there that he met and joined the Mutual Admiration Society with Lions coach Rod Marinelli, a Bucs assistant at the time. Perhaps it was just a matter of time, once Marinelli got the Lions job, that he'd call on Brown to impart his knowledge onto a high-profile project like Cherilus.

Can't hurt.

Sparky Anderson once said it, in his inimitable way.

"Just once I'd like to see one of them free agents say at one of them news conferences that he's switching teams because they backed a Brink's truck up to his door. They always say they're glad to go where they're wanted. They're glad to go where the money is," the white-haired baseball skipper once opined about his sport's free agents. But I'm sure his sentiments would have applied for other sports, as well. It's just that, at the time, baseball was far and away the leader when it came to player movement.

Well, you'd think that Sparky would have dearly loved what Marian Hossa did last week , even if others around the NHL apparently have a problem with it.

Hossa, a superstar forward, joined the Red Wings for the 2008-09 season, signing a one-year deal worth around $7.4 million. Whatever the deal's true worth, we know that it's at least one dollar less than what Nick Lidstrom makes, since there's an unspoken rule -- actually, sometimes it IS spoken -- that Lidstrom, for the moment, must be the highest-paid Red Wing. It was widely reported that Hossa could have received more money -- much more money, in fact, plus long-term security -- had he signed elsewhere. Edmonton was a reported suitor, among others. The Oilers, folks say, were prepared to offer Hossa, 29, a nine-year pact worth about $81 million.

But Hossa stuck with the Red Wings, and for the purest of reasons -- at least what you'd think would be considered pure -- that is, he wanted to win the Stanley Cup, and sooner rather than later. And we know that Hossa is no dumb-dumb, for when he looked around the league, he saw no team as loaded and as primed for another successful run at the Cup than the Red Wings. Smart man -- or at least one brimming with common sense.

Yet Hossa took some hits in the wake of signing the deal, from those who complained that while on the surface it looked like a selfless move, what Hossa was really doing was just going for his brass ring, while at the same time putting himself back on the free market next summer. In other words, Marian Hossa was trying to have his cake and eat it, too. In the process, the complainers said, Hossa was turning free agency on its ear and making the strong stronger, etc.

File this under the "some people are never happy" category.

One of the critics, a writer from Toronto, had his words dripping with jealousy and bitterness, going so far as to take a potshot at Joe Louis Arena, describing it as old and smelly and some other unpleasant adjectives. Kind of like what Maple Leaf Gardens was, right -- before it was belatedly replaced?

No matter how you try to slice and dice it, I don't know how you can ever diss a guy for taking less money in the name of winning.

What if, God forbid, Hossa suffers a serious injury next season? That would significantly impact his worth. Or, frankly, what if he just has a bad season, production-wise? Again, that would make it tougher for him to command the kind of dollars he could have gotten last week. So don't tell me about being selfish or upsetting the apple cart.

I was as surprised as anyone when Hossa became a Wing, because I hadn't heard that he was on Detroit's radar screen. Even Red Wings management, GM Ken Holland confessed, figured Hossa would be too expensive to sign to a long-term deal, because of its impact on locking up Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen next summer. But a one-year deal made Hossa infinitely more attractive -- and affordable. And it was Hossa, Holland said, who angled for the one-year contract, not the Red Wings.

Now, even if Hossa had the intention of winning a Cup AND being a free agent next summer, so what? He's playing within the rules. And he's still taking a risk by doing so, even if the complainers want to conveniently leave that part out of their discussion.

Last Week: 3-4

This Week: (7/8-9: CLE; 10-13: MIN)

The Tigers will only have one All-Star on the American League roster next week -- Carlos Guillen -- and if that brings back ghoulish memories of 100-loss seasons, don't go there. The Tigers are a .500 team -- at the moment -- who are simply lacking players with eye-popping numbers. No Tigers made the starting lineup, so to have more than one at-large selection in what has, so far, been a disappointing season, would have been considered a bit of an upset.

Too bad for Marcus Thames, though -- and too bad for AL manager Terry Francona, who would have made a bold and daring move by adding Thames to the roster despite his not being a quote-unquote everyday player. Thames's tendency to hit a home run every 10 at-bats or so is not only All-Star-like, it's Hall of Fame-like. But we'll just cut Francona some slack and assume he had too many outfielders from which to choose.

Plus, this year's All-Star is Guillen, not Robert Fick or Tony Clark or Justin Thompson or any of the other non-deserving Tigers who made teams back in the day, just for the sake of having a Tiger tag along. Guillen, though having a less-than-spectacular year, numbers-wise (surprised Placido Polanco didn't get the nod instead), is a worthy All-Star, if only for his resume. He's not going to win a Gold Glove, but Guillen is still one of the Tigers you don't mind seeing at the plate when a base hit is in order, or even a home run. He tends to go deep when it matters.

As for Guillen's team, this is an important week for the Tigers. Of course, you can pretty much say that for every week going forward; that's what happens when you spend the first quarter of the season sniffing the dirt.

But this is particularly important, because you have the Indians -- the wretched Indians (and I love writing that) -- coming to town for two games, then the red-hot Twins invading for four. The Tigers are an unsightly 11-21 in games within their own division. It is literally impossible to win a division or qualify for a wild card with such a horrible divisional record; there are just too many of those kinds of games on your schedule. The Tigers are seven games out of first place -- not an insurmountable deficit, but also perilously close to double digits, and those holes are very hard to climb out of after the All-Star break.

What's more, the Twins are going to have to be leapfrogged, sooner or later, if the Tigers want to catch the first place White Sox. Doing well against Minnesota this week in Detroit -- where the Tigers have performed very well lately -- will be very well-timed right about now.

Still never thought I'd be as enamored with a 44-44 record as I am this morning.

Last Week: 5-1

This Week: (6/30-7/2: at Min; 7/3-6: at Sea)

It's crazy where these baseball sabermatricians (sp?) come up with some of their fodder.

The Tigers, it was revealed, became the only team in modern history to edge over .500 for the first time in a season at the exact halfway point of the season. They are 41-40 now, thanks to a five-game winning streak.

Chew on that for a moment -- not that it has any flavor. But there it is.

What's far more important than any statistical oddity is that the Tigers are -- FINALLY -- playing the type of baseball that everyone expected they would when the curtain was raised on March 31. So much has happened since then; it almost seems like another season, doesn't it -- the sleepwalking of April and May?

Certainly the roster has changed. And the positions of the players. And the look of the starting rotation. And the complexion of the bullpen.

You could fill a decent sized book with the lives and times of the Tigers in the first half of the 2008 season -- a first half that may go down in franchise history as being one of the most bizarre and turbulent of any, at anytime.

Yet here the Tigers are -- five games out of first place and about to play a quote-unquote big series against the Twins in Minnesota, in that damn Metrodome (frequent Grubber readers know of my undying affection for that piece of garbage stadium). All those twists and turns, and managerial moves that were mostly made out of desperation, and still the Tigers have landed at the halfway point in (no pun intended) halfway decent shape.

Half of the Toledo Mudhens' position players and several of their pitchers have spent some time in Detroit, at one point or another. Even now, many of them wear Tigers uniforms, mainly due to injuries. Here's how well things are going for the Tigers, who are 17-4 in their last 21 games: a weak-hitting catcher named Dane Sardinha smacked a triple to drive in the winning run yesterday. It was his first career MLB hit. And the night before that, the Tigers shrugged off a four-run Colorado Rockies rally in the ninth -- a rally that put them down a run -- and simply went out and needed just three batters to score two runs to win the game in the bottom half of the ninth. Both of those games -- Saturday and Sunday -- the Tigers probably would have lost had they been played in the season's first two months.

But now, more injuries. Magglio Ordonez, shelved for two-plus weeks with another of those oblique injuries, the kind the Tigers are now becoming famous for. Brandon Inge still smarting from the same type of malady. Jeremy Bonderman, of course, out for the year with a circulation problem in his arm. Dontrelle Willis a riddle wrapped inside of an enigma. Or vice-versa. Either way, he's of no use to the team right now.

The Tigers have begun winning games because they are playing the game right and exhibiting the ability to come from behind and answer their opponents' body shots. Toss in a settling-down rotation (featuring Toledo grads Eddie Bonine and Armando Galarraga) and a tighter defense and a healthy Gary Sheffield, and this is the result. A genuine pennant race looms in the season's second half. How about that?

The Tigers, as their nickname implies, are like the proverbial cat that somehow lands on his feet.

Todd Bertuzzi wasn't much to shout about when he spent some time in Detroit late last season and in the playoffs. I heard one of those ill-informed sports talk radio callers say that he "dogged it" when he was in a Red Wings uniform. But that is, as I said, an ill-informed opinion -- or, worse yet, just plain foolish.

The Red Wings, perhaps rolling the dice a bit, nabbed Bertuzzi from Florida at the trading deadline in 2007. It was a risk, for sure, as he had missed most of the season with a bad back. A back injury is one of the few maladies that professional athletes suffer that common folk can relate to. Most of this country, I'm convinced, has a tricky back in some way, shape, or form. And those who do -- imagine lacing on a pair of skates. No -- I mean, just lacing up the skates. Forget about playing hockey, right?

Bertuzzi wasn't anything near his old self with Detroit, though he gave it a shot. There were brief moments of the Bertuzzi who terrorized the NHL six, seven years ago while playing for Vancouver. But mainly he was a laboring, one step-too-slow forward who was no more than a fourth liner at best. Yet the Red Wings didn't give up too much to get him, so there really was no harm, and thus, maybe not that big of a risk to begin with.

But Todd Bertuzzi didn't "dog it" while he was in Detroit. He just wasn't physically capable. So let's get that straight, from the get go.

Bertuzzi left for Anaheim last summer, before the Red Wings really had a chance to seriously discuss bringing him back -- which they were willing to do, if the price was right. His back got better, and he scored 14 goals with the Ducks in '07-'08.

Now Bertuzzi has been waived by the Ducks, making him an unrestricted free agent beginning tomorrow, when the NHL's free agency extravaganza opens its doors first thing in the morning (actually, at 12:01 a.m.). The Red Wings, it's suspected, might be an interested suitor.

This is a polarizing issue, I can tell already. The early retorts are either brimming with optimism about a second Bertuzzi term in Detroit, or run along the lines of, "Ugh -- do you REALLY want to go down that path again?"

I guess I fall under the first category.

There's no such thing as having too much depth, or of being too hard to play against in the playoffs. Or of having too many guys who can put the puck in the net on occasion. Or of having a veteran or two on the roster who's never won a Stanley Cup and is famished.

Bertuzzi fits all of the above.

Let me also insert here some words about super Swede Mats Sundin -- also a free agent, and who's being courted openly by Montreal. The Red Wings are rumored to have interest in Sundin, too. The whole Swedish connection and all. Once, the Red Wings were a haven to Russian-born players. Now they've shifted that to the west a little bit, to Sweden.

But forget about Sundin signing with the Wings. I just don't see it happening. He may not even leave Toronto, if you really want to know. Some say he might consider Montreal because it's a Canadian city. The lure of all the Red Wing's countrymen appears to not be enough. The riches one can earn from playing hockey in Detroit may not, for a change, be persuasive enough for a star to leave his former team. How dare he!

So back to Bertuzzi.

For what it's worth, Bertuzzi enjoyed his brief time in Detroit; he has family in the Windsor area. He was treated well by the fans. And the team was a fluke goal away, perhaps, from appearing in the Cup Finals. Maybe from winning the whole thing.

It didn't work out last year -- Bertuzzi and the Red Wings. But it was no one's fault, really. And it certainly wasn't because the player "dogged it."

Good thing we don't place our teams' personnel decisions in the hands of those with cell phones cruising down the freeway.

I don't know that he'd do it. I don't know that he'd want to move from the relatively cushy life as a television talking head, but I'd sure like to see him give it a shot, if the Red Wings are interested.

Assistant coach Todd McLellan latched on to the San Jose Sharks as their new coach; good for him. And everyone in the Red Wings family wishes him well. His promotion leaves a void on the Wings' coaching staff.

Wings head coach Mike Babcock said the other day that he's been flooded with phone calls, as you can imagine, from men seeking to join the Detroit staff. It's not a bad resume booster, you know. Babcock wasn't committal to any certain individual, but he did say this: "Do we hire a former (veteran) defenseman? We have a lot of young defensemen."

I'd be tickled if Larry Murphy was one of those who placed a call to Babcock.

I pump for Murphy against my selfish reasons for wanting him to stay in television -- because I think the Red Wings' old no. 55 is simply terrific when it comes to analyzing games and breaking down videotape. He makes those nights when Mickey Redmond doesn't work for FSN very bearable, indeed.

But this isn't about me; it's about Murph being a great fit for the Red Wings behind the bench, handling Babcock's blue liners.

I don't have to list Murphy's qualifications, but I will anyway. He's never coached, but he's a four-time Stanley Cup champion, a nearly 20-year NHL defenseman, and has been close to the team ever since he retired -- even more so during the past several years as he's been doing more and more FSN work for Detroit. So he travels with the guys a lot, and talks to them often as he prepares for broadcasts.

Hey, if Barry Melrose can chuck the good life at ESPN after 13 years for a return to the grind, then why not Larry Murphy?

One thing Murphy hasn't done much of is play hockey, or even put on some skates. He told me as much, when I cornered him the night they retired Steve Yzerman's jersey, back in January 2007. A few pickup games here and there, but that's about it, he told me. No burning desire to lace them up.

But that doesn't mean he wouldn't be amenable to a coaching try. It hasn't been an issue since Babcock arrived in 2005, because there's been stability on his staff. Heck, there's stability throughout the Red Wings organization; it's a big reason why they win Stanley Cups in Detroit more often than in any other NHL city. So maybe Murphy has entertained the thought, but felt it useless to pursue, as long as McLellan and Paul MacLean were in place.

But McLellan's gone now, and Babcock has the Help Wanted sign outside Joe Louis Arena.

Only qualified applicants reply, though -- and you can get plenty less so than Larry Murphy.

Last Week: 4-2

This Week: (6/24-26: STL; 6/27-29: COL)

Oh, how easy we are to please nowadays.

A 36-39 record isn't typically one that elicits high fives and hip bumps, but when you were once 24-36 and 11 games out of first place, buried at the bottom of the division...well, 36-39 looks pretty good. What looks even better is being just 5 games out of first place with almost 90 games to play.

That's the Tigers' situation this morning, and with the first-place Chicago White Sox about to start a west coast trip, the Tigers have just completed one -- and a successful one at that. They took four of six from the Giants and the Padres, losing the first game each time and rallying to capture the last two.

The tide is turning, ever so slowly.

"We're not sprinting yet, we're crawling," manager Jim Leyland said of his group, which is 12-3 since falling to 24-36. They've won four straight series.

A good week at home -- where the Tigers have won six straight -- and .500 will be theirs.

Sparky Anderson used to say that a team "couldn't do nothin'" until they reached and surpassed the .500 mark. Hard to argue; even the weakest divisional winners have had records of at least a few games over the break even point. It won't matter, in the end, if it took the Tigers some 80-90 games to climb over .500, if the divisional race remains tight after the All-Star break. Don't forget about the 2005 Houston Astros, who stunk up the joint for much of the first half before making a charge that led them all the way to the World Series. Those Astros were 21-35 as late as June 7, yet finished with 89 wins and the Wild Card (thank you, retrosheet.org).

The Tigers ought to be thrilled with their situation right now. It's as if they've been given a second chance at life in the '08 season. Not often can you start as horrendously as the Tigers did (0-7, 2-10, 24-36) yet still have a chance to play meaningful games after the All-Star break. You need others in your division to stumble, and the Tigers have gotten that. The White Sox just got swept in Wrigley Field. The Twins are hot, but that's OK. The Indians continue to teeter and totter. The Royals are, once again, irrelevant.

The leader in the AL Central is just seven games above .500, and that's why the below-.500 Tigers have a shot. Five games out at this point is practically nothing. That is, if you continue to play well -- which the Tigers have done now for over two weeks. It's their best stretch since going 12-5 to climb within one game of .500 after they swept the Yankees in New York.

The offense has come alive, and timely hits are now part of the team's makeup. There's a feeling now that the Tigers will come back, or will get that key hit in the late innings. There's not as much of that feeling of "here we go again" when something goes wrong.

The only trouble is that the Tigers dug themselves such a hole that you almost HAVE to go on one of those 21-6 kind of rolls to get yourself back in it. Check it out: if the Tigers make it to .500 this week, they will have gone 15-3, or something similar, just to do it. Then if they lose a few, as will inevitably happen, you have to claw your way back up again. It leaves little margin for error. Nothing says the White Sox won't heat up and before you know it, you could be 8 or 9 games out again.

But that's speculating. All you can do is keep winning as many ballgames as you can and hope that it gets you somewhere.

If nothing else, this current hot streak is serving notice that the Tigers aren't dead yet, despite attempts to bury them -- by know-it-alls like bloggers and such.

How appropriate that one of the symbols of that magical 2006 season -- the St. Louis Cardinals -- come calling this week. They're handing out replicas of the 1968 road jerseys, too. Maybe another good omen.

1. Public now finally to be introduced to rest of the PGA Tour

2. Las Vegas golf odds makers who had been laid off, soon to be called back to work due to sudden increase in workload

3. Young golfers previously discouraged about wanting to join the tour now re-charged, knowing Woods might have a bum knee on occasion

4. Some lucky knee surgeon about to have his watershed moment

5. Young daughter to get a break from being a "golf brat"

6. Phil Mikkelson just hired marketing firm to promote him as "The Left-handed Tiger"

7. Absence finally opens a door for Hillary

8. Buick Open in Grand Blanc, MI now has openings for graduation parties and large group outings; call for details

9. Takes us back to the simpler times of 1996, when the economy was great, the housing market thrived, and we loved making Bob Dole jokes

10. General public about to be educated enough about knees to qualify for online medical degrees

11. An already sagging job market won't be flooded by ex-pro golfers seeking work elsewhere!

Willie Randolph has been fired, and he has the Internet to thank. And sports talk radio. And the newspapers. And the TV people. New York Mets GM Oscar Minaya? He's the least culpable, ironically -- though he's the guy who pulled the trigger, or to be more accurate, the plug.

Randolph, the now deposed Mets manager, was taken off life support at the rather symbolic time of 3 a.m. on Tuesday, for that's not an unusual hour for the moribund to bid farewell -- in the dead of night, pun intended.

Minaya yanked the plug, mercifully, thus putting an end to not only Randolph's tenure in New York but to all the speculation and chatter that was threatening to become a season-long distraction.

They engaged in another of those manager/coach "watches" in New York, and those never end well for the one being watched.

Randolph, who presided over last season's September collapse, was said to be on thin ice ever since they threw the last pitch of the World Series -- maybe even earlier than that. Everyone said so. There was the "Randolph Watch" even as the teams practiced under the palm trees in Florida.

But it wasn't Mets management who said there was such a watch. It was everyone else. Those aforementioned media and blogging folks, each with shovel in hand, ready to throw dirt over Randolph's figurative grave. Granted, some weak statements from the front office didn't really do much to quell the rumors, but once a watch begins, there's really no stopping it, short of saying, "Willie Randolph is safe! Safe, I say! Now, get on with your lives! Sheesh!"

Nothing close to those words were uttered by Minaya and company.

So the watch continued, unabated.

The Mets have piddled around the .500 mark for much of the season, which wasn't going to cut it in a city that expected its team to pick itself off the mat after last season's disappointment and contend for a playoff spot yet again. The watch gained steam; Mets management was feeble in its resistance to it.

Randolph would be fired any day now, the shovel holders said. Maybe today, perhaps tomorrow. The team left for a west coast trip, and the smart money was on it returning to New York with a different manager. Randolph's condition deteriorated.

He must have slipped into a coma overnight, after the Mets' win over the Angels, because Minaya stepped in and, seeing no hope and declaring his manager a vegetable, provided his mercy killing. He did a Jack Kevorkian, at the behest of the shovel holders.

It's not always the front office who fires a coach or a manager.

Willie Randolph is fired -- dead, if you will. Driven out by a mad mob of speculators and shovel holders. Pummeled into a comatose state.

Minaya pulled the plug. What else was there to do, really?

Last Week: 6-1

This Week: (6/16-18: at SF; 6/20-22: at SD)

Five games in a week.

That's how much ground the Tigers gained on the first-place White Sox over the past seven days. At this rate, they'll be in first place before July begins.

OK, OK -- I'm getting a little ahead of myself. But it's fun to dream when the dream doesn't seem as much like the pipe variety -- which is how it could be classified one week ago today. Last Monday, the Tigers lost a yawner to the Indians to fall to 11 games below .500 -- with the White Sox coming to town and on a seven-game winning streak. The Tigers were 11 games out of first place.

This morning, the Tigers are riding a six-game winning streak, the White Sox have cooled off -- largely due to a sweep at the hands of the Tigers -- and suddenly the Bengals are but six games out of first place. Not terrific, but plenty of teams have been six out in mid-June and come back to win.

Of course, there's that tiny matter of there being two teams between the Tigers and the White Sox, but neither the Twins nor the Indians seem to be exhibiting any sort of propensity toward winning these days. It may be only a matter of a couple weeks before the Tigers leapfrog them in their pursuit of the White Sox.

For whatever reason, the Tigers feast on interleague play -- and have been for several seasons now. It may just be a sports oddity, but there it is.

There are six more of those IL matchups this week -- three each in San Francisco and San Diego. Neither of those ballclubs are among the National League's best. Then again, neither are the Tigers among the AL's best -- but that's just overall. They're trending toward the upper echelon right now.

Just one week ago, I wrote that the impending return of relievers Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney was coming too late; that it was likely to not have much of an impact on a mediocre team. I said so, back in the days of double-digit deficits in the standings.

I'd like to take my mulligan on that.

Since the Tigers' offense appears to be gaining steam, the bullpen suddenly becomes more relevant, since there are now leads to protect in the late going. So maybe Zoom Zoom and Rodney can still help, after all.

By the way -- and this I've mentioned before but will repeat -- there's no one in the big leagues more powerful or stronger than Marcus Thames. Period.

Thames continues to rank among the likes of Willie Horton and Cecil Fielder as the most physically strong hitters ever to grace a batter's box in Detroit.

Thames doesn't just hit home runs when the pitcher obliges by throwing a fastball in his wheelhouse. No sir. He reaches out, lowers himself, extends himself -- whatever it takes -- and still somehow has enough power to thwack the ball some 390, 400 feet to the alley and over the fence. He did it again yesterday -- and he's done it all week, smacking five HRs during the just-completed 10-game home stand. If Gary Sheffield is famous for launching his lasers that get out of the park as if they were heat-seeking missiles, then Thames' home runs could be classified as hand grenades, launched in high, arcing parabolas that explode on impact. A Sheffield home run zips out of the park in seconds; it's quite possible that you'll miss it if you're not looking. A Thames home run gives everyone a chance to marvel at it -- even the folks who weren't paying attention until tapped on the shoulder -- because they are lazy, high fly balls that seem to enjoy being airborne and the center of attention.

Oh, and Sheff should be back in a week or so from his oblique muscle injury. He says he feels great.

Not too late for his help, either.