Tigers Put Baseball in Detroit’s Background

Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press commenting on the woeful Tigers, who fired Manager Phil Garner and General Manager Randy Smith when the team was 0-6 and were winless through the first 10 games:

“Under Smith, they became the losingest team in baseball. Under Garner, they went backward. The fans departed. They lost interest. Detroit is now a hockey town, a football town. It is even becoming slowly, once again, a basketball town.

“But it’s a baseball town in memory only. Fourteen seasons without the playoffs will do that.”

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More Tigers: “We need to play harder and better,” team President Dave Dombrowski said, “but a lot of people think this team is a sleeping giant.”

Albom: “More sleeping than giant, Dave.”

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Trivia time: Tiger Woods won the Masters by a record 12 strokes in 1997. Who was runner-up?

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Franchise savior: Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel, commenting Friday on Jason Kidd’s contribution to the New Jersey Nets:

“He is the odds-on favorite to win MVP, and it’s this statistic that separates him from the pack: 25 wins and counting.

“That’s the number of wins New Jersey has improved this season since his arrival in a stunning off-season trade [with Phoenix].”

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Grim appraisal: Dave D’Allesandro of the Newark (N.J.) Star- Ledger:

“Bad analogy of the year from [the Knicks’] Allen Houston, as playoff elimination approached: ‘It’s like when you have a relative that’s really sick and you know they’re going to die.’”

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Masters hackers: Tsuneyuki Nakajima of Japan used 13 strokes on the par-five 13th hole in 1978. Tom Weiskopf matched the 13 on the par-three 12th hole in 1980.

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Oddity: Craig Wood shot an 88 in the first round of the 1936 Masters, then scored 67 in the second--a difference of 21 strokes.

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Like what? Jason Williams of Memphis, on the possibility that the Grizzlies might draft Jason Williams of Duke:

“If they’re going to pick him, they need to let me know. And then they’re going to have to do something with me when they do that.”

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Comparable: Jim Caple of ESPN.com on the late Queen Mum: “Her reign extended nearly as far back as Mike Morgan’s rookie season.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1967, Boston left-hander Bill Rohr, making his major league debut, lost his bid for a no-hitter when Elston Howard singled for the Yankees with two out in the ninth inning of a 3-0 Red Sox victory.

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Trivia answer: Tom Kite.

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And finally: Frank Fitzpatrick of the Philadelphia Inquirer commenting irreverently on the Masters:

“Wouldn’t it be great to see John Daly win and then, during the solemn presentation ceremony, pop open a Budweiser and burn a hole in his green jacket with ashes from his Marlboro?

“Wouldn’t you give anything to hear a caddie say, ‘Can someone tell me why we have to dress like Good Humor men in these silly white coveralls?’”

Mal Florence