T-shirt #210: Detroit Tigers 1901 Long-Sleeved White

T-shirt #210: Detroit Tigers 1901 Long-Sleeved White

I must admit that I feel some relief.

I am no longer slicing my toast into two or four pieces. I am eating whole pieces at a go.

No, really, I am feeling relief about last night's Tigers game. Though just writing that comment reminds me that I need to buy more Tums. I like wintergreen.

I was trying not to be nervous. But with the Tigers having lost two games against the Red Sox that they should have won (Game Two in which they led 5-0 and somehow lost 6-5, and Game Three in which Verlander almost no hit the Red Sox except for the one homer he gave up to Napoli and the Tigers lose 1-0), my confidence was shaken. Okay, that's not right. I am not confident because Baseball is a crazy game. Anything can happen. Let's say my optimism was shaken.

And then last night, Game Four...

It was not all Tigers. Some of it was mistakes by Jake Peavy. But even the walks (walking in a run) can be in part attributed to the Tigers who were patient and more relaxed (unlike in Game Three) at the plate. Without the pressure to hit a home run to give the Tigers the lead, Miguel Cabrera could relax and just put the ball in play and drive in runs.

I like that Jim Leyland deflected any credit for the lineup change, which dropped Austin Jackson to eighth, and moved everyone else up one slot: Hunter in leadoff, Cabrera second, Fielder third etc. He said the win was not his doing; it was the players. Hard to want a guy with such humility fired.

JACKSON LEADS REVAMPED DETROIT LINEUP

I am not a die hard Jim Leyland fan. When everyone wanted to give him credit for the 2006 run to the World Series, I did not. I gave credit to the players. After all, when he was brought in to manage, he replaced Alan Trammell, my all-time favorite Baseball player. In the last few years, I am a little more enamoured of Jim Leyland. I think he paces the players through the season better than he did in 2006 and 2007. He seems to be paying more attention to stats. Though he is still a bit too old school, especially with pitching matchups and relievers, he manages the team as well as most any other manager (possible exceptions being Joe Maddon or Kirk Gibson) and better than most.

Here's a few more Game Four factoids.

"• Doug Fister threw six innings of one-run ball, striking out seven while walking one. Detroit's rotation now has a combined 1.00 ERA this series, having allowed three runs in 27 innings.
• The Tigers' five-run second inning was the first time Detroit posted a five spot in a postseason frame since the third inning in Game 3 of the 1987 ALCS vs. the Twins.
ALDS • Miguel Cabrera went 2-for-4 while batting out of the two-spot for the third time and first since 2004. He's 4-for-12 batting second in his career. Cabrera's two RBIs ran his postseason total to 24, a Tigers record.
• Torii Hunter was 1-for-5 while batting leadoff for the first time since 2000. He's 12-for-72 (.167) out of the top spot throughout his career.
• Austin Jackson went 2-for-2 with two walks, reaching base four times for the first time since Aug. 31. He was batting eighth for the first time this postseason after previously hitting leadoff" (FACTS & FIGURES, 2013).

But it's not all cheery rosey land in blogville when it comes to the Tigers. There's a blowhard here in Michigan who writes a blog and hosts a radio show called "The Huge Show." It strikes me as a "huge mistake" by local media outlets to give this numbskull an outlet for his voice. I had not heard of this guy until last night when a friend and fellow Tigers fan told me that he had quit reading this guy's blog to save his blood pressure. This is why I did not know this guy's work. Why would I read ridiculous invective that seems ill informed and rather poorly written? (Not that today's blog features my best grammar and most mellifluous writing to date.)

Here's a sample: THE HUGE SHOW: JIM LEYLAND'S LEGACY.

Obviously, my friend and I are not the only ones who find this guy jejune and banal. (Yes, I am busting out as many college words as I can because I am a snobbish prick and a show-off. I went to college. This guy probably got his college-degree through a mail order catalog.)

I had not even read Bill Simonson's work before. The first thing I read verified that I never want to read anything he writes ever again. I know from experience that it can be difficult to generate unique content of interest to readers every day (though this guy seems to post like once a week, which is a much easier thing). But his criticisms of Jim Leyland (and granted I am rarely defending the guy though I no longer want to see him fired) are inane. THIS series is Leyland's legacy? So the World Series losses of 2006 and 2012, one a sweep and the other all but a sweep (they won one in 2006) and the ALCS failure of 2011 do not define his legacy? Are we arguing that Leyland had NOTHING to do with getting the Tigers to the post season this year? I am no more of a fan of frequent pitching changes than most other Baseball fans, but I have strong doubts that Leyland will not fired or will choose to step down if the Tigers lose this series. Three ALCS' in a row? That's pretty damn good. When's the last time the Tigers had a run like that?

Apparently, I am not the only one who thinks this "writer" is an idiot. From TigerSnark:

Sigh.

You know people say about opinions and assholes, right?

And then if the agony of two straight losses and fears of losing this series were not enough, my wife decided to torment me. Here's her Facebook status from last night:

It's not enough that I suffer as the Tigers lose. It's not enough that I think of Comerica Park as a holy shrine. It's not enough that she knows I listen to and watch nearly every Tigers game all season long. And to add more insult to this injury, she knows I have a strong distaste (one could call it an actual prejudice, real bigotry here) against facial hair. I have told her on many occasions that I love her, and I am willing to do almost anything for her, but one of those things is not growing facial hair. I can't do it. I won't do it. And yet, she torments me with this status. Yeah, not having much of sense of humor about this one, honey.

So, now the Tigers have to win.

Trim those beards.

I hate facial hair, on men that is.

GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- chris tower - 1310.17 - 17:35

T-shirt #209: KUDL 2008 Orange Long-Sleeved

T-shirt #209: KUDL 2008 Orange Long-Sleeved

Brrr.

Hey, it's cold outside.

Temps today will not break 59 I am told. Though it's not raining now, it may rain later.

Today marks the return of KUDL Wednesday on the blog. I did not share a KUDL shirt last Wednesday, though I did return to the field after my hiatus.

I busted out the long-sleeved shirt Monday when I took the puppy for a walk. If I had someone with me, or a more fancy phone, I could have shared a picture of me on a walk with the puppy.

I did a week's worth of work yesterday. I am finding it difficult to muster the motivation to do another week's worth of work between now and Friday morning. But Grading Robot may have hit on a shortcut to save oodles of time. Grading Robot is smart. Grading Robot is a robot.

Compounding the lack of work motivation is my wife's doldrums because she had two rough days at work and is dragged down by the entropy of the universe, and to cap that off, a water main break left us without water for a couple of crucial hours this morning when we both wanted showers.

The good news? Well, not the Detroit Tigers winning. I am leaving that subject alone. Let's see..

• I am enjoying re-reading Dune via audio book. The first few chapters are a wonderful way to start such an epic novel and series. The intensity of the early chapters is not well sustained through the whole, but so far, I am enjoying the re-read and remember these chapters well, especially the first one.
• One of my friends finally took me up on my recommendation to read (also via audio edition) to Ready Player One, one of my favorite books of the year and one of my favorite books of all time. He also questioned that people who did not live through the 1980s would not enjoy the references contained therein quite as much but I am told by a 1990s child and a 2000s child that this is not true.
• My wife discovered a new band, though as another friend on Facebook was quick to point out he discovered them months ago and posted a video to FB. Oops. One would think I would miss very little as I work at the computer all day, but then, I am WORKING. I have trained myself to limit or even eliminate Facebook breaks.
• So as an added treat, I conclude today with two videos from Lucius (one is short and one is long).

Turn It Around (live)

Lucius: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

- chris tower - 1310.16 - 13:14

T-shirt #208: Gaia Ultimate Gear Black Sleeveless

T-shirt #208: Gaia Ultimate Gear Black Sleeveless

Final grades due in a few hours for Park University.

I have been slamming through it since 5 a.m.

Why do I always get in this position?

I meant to start them on FRIDAY (the 11th).

Is it because my dog rolled in poop, and I had to give her two baths Sunday?

Did I spend too much time on the blog?

I have no idea.

I am working as hard as I can.

As such, because I am truly Grading Robot today, I think reprising previous content about Grading Robot is a good idea.

This is from T-shirt #36.


GRADING ROBOT.

So, this Kraftwerk shirt really calls to mind the idea of my work as Grading Robot; this is one of Kraftwerk's robot shirts. (I have another; stay tuned.) The shirt's image is just the kind of thing I love. It would be even better if Kraftwerk's name was not on the shirt. The image speaks volumes.

Damn, I love this shirt:  T-shirt #36.



I have reams of material to assault your senses about Kraftwerk, but today's post is dedicated to how I think of myself as Grading Robot when I wear this shirt (and often when I am not wearing this shirt). In perspective, I am operating on--at best--six hours of sleep. I got up at 5 a.m. this morning to finish grades due at 9 a.m., which sounds easy enough, and it is when I am not so exhausted. But the work is repetitive and only takes a small portion of my brain capacity.

Grading robot.

Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot.

Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot.
Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot.
Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot.
Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot.
Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot.
Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot.
Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot. Robot.
Robot. Robot. Robot.

Robot. Robot.
Robot.

At least, I have a TIGERS GAME!!

GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- chris tower - 1310.15 - 16:20

T-shirt #207 - Fantastic Four Grey

T-shirt #207 - Fantastic Four Grey

I love the Fantastic Four. I love the family dynamic, the strong sense of history despite Marvel's revisions and rebooting, and the top talent that often takes on the comic that came to be known as "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" when Lee and Kirby helmed the flagship title.

The Fantastic Four is a family, and the book is at its best when it remembers that the core concept is family.


It's a bit of a non-traditional family with a man in an "uncle" role living with his best friend and that man's wife and the wife's brother. And though the addition of the first child, Franklin, was traditional (as a product of Sue and Reed's conjugal union), the introduction, later, of Valeria, who would have died if not for the intervention of Doctor Doom: See Valeria Richards Wiki. Again, more subject matter for another day as I plan to devote myself to short assorted nuggets of content since I am here at the beginning of the work week.

The image on the shirt was drawn by John Buscema, who replaced Jack Kirby on the Fantastic Four title, producing issues 107-141 with Sinnott on inks, starting in 1970. Writers Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway.

There is a controversy over who actually invented the Fantastic Four (I side with Kirby), but this is a subject for another time. I have other Fantastic Four shirts.

I have written about the Fantastic Four off and on throughout the blog, such as when I shared a cover gallery and one of my favorite FF covers in T-shirt #168, when I wrote about how Jack Kirby was screwed in T-shirt #83, and when I wrote about the Silver Surfer and shared another of my earliest FF covers in T-shirt #104. Though interestingly, I have not shared my earliest FF cover (#69) as an image yet on this blog. Guess what? Yes, that is also a subject for the next FF shirt. :-)

Today is a collection of random thoughts and pictures. Enjoy.

One of the final Images
of John Buscema's FF run
from FF#141

TIGERS: When I fell asleep, the Tigers were winning Game Two of the ALCS driven by Scherzer's dominant pitching and homers by Cabrera and Avila with a score of 5-1. This morning I discovered that they lost 6-5 when the bullpen loaded the bases and then gave up a grand slam to Big Papi. The ninth was a team failure all around to allow the winning run (because the Grand Slam simply tied the score). Much like Game Two of the ALDS, the Tigers lose a heart breaker after seeing a dominant pitching performance by the starter.

But that's okay. The Tigers split a set of games in Boston against the team with the best offensive stats of the season and the best record in the American League. The Tigers can still close out this thing in Detroit with three wins in a row, and even if they fail to do that, they have proven their mettle on the road in "win-or-go-home" games. GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE WALKING DEAD PREMIERE: I watched this show from 9-10 pm last night while keeping the Tigers radio broadcast alive in my ear and keeping track of plays on my tablet. I love technology.

I was underwhelmed by the season four premiere. Though there were intense sequences and good characterization, the season seems to lack drive and purpose so far.

It is good to have some down time to the story after super intensity, such as we saw at the end of season three. And several of the new challenges to face the survivors were introduced in this episode. Still, it was the least interesting of the last three season openers. Though, granted, it would be difficult to trump the very first episode of the show's first season and the discovery of the prison in the season three premiere.

DUNE: I have decided to re-read Dune, the science fiction classic. I am loving it already and looking forward to the refresher via the audio book edition. At the same time as I am rediscovering Dune, I happend to load a post from John Scalzi's blog, FIND IT HERE, in which he describes the ten books in SF that have meant the most to him. Dune is one of the ten. The first chapter of Dune startling and memorable. The audio edition does it justice.

COLUMBUS DAY

I decided to blow the doors off my students' reality and belief in Christopher Columbus as some great hero and the discoverer of America, neither of which are true. As I recommending books every day to my reading class, obviously, because it's a reading class, I read from Howard Zinn's The People's History of the United States 1492-Present. I told them of the genocide of the Arawak and the pillaging of the Bahamas and Haiti by Columbus and his ilk.

Happy Lies about History Day.

TIDE POOLS

Thinking ahead, I took the Fantastic Four shirt with me to Hawaii and got a picture of myself on some lava at the Kalapana shore in the Puna District. See the spray from the pounding surf behind me?

Cool.

FANTASTIC FOUR RESOURCES

FANTASTIC FOUR WIKIPEDIA

FANTASTIC FOUR COMIC VINE

FANTASTIC FOUR MARVEL WIKI

FANTASTIC FOUR IMAGE GALLERY

- chris tower - 1310.14 - 19:14

T-shirt #206: Mage: What Color is Magic?

 T-shirt #206: Mage: What Color is Magic?

Today's shirt is one of the oldest in my closet. I believe that Matt Wagner released this shirt far in advance of Mage: The Hero Defined, for which we Mage fans waited A VERY LONG TIME.

I submit for consideration that Kevin Matchstick is one of the coolest names for a hero and main character ever created.

As for the shirt's subject matter, I first wrote about the Mage series in T-shirt #140, and intrigued some comic fans that a Joe Phat shirt existed. As I warned then, I own two Joe Phat shirts plus two of the Mage lightning bolt shirts (unless I purged the old one), and so I have plenty more chances to write about Mage, which is an important disclaimer as today I am restricting myself to four short topics, none of which are directly Mage-related.

Though the second Mage series was finally released in 1997, I suspect that this shirt was released sometime between 1988 and 1992, hence my claim of its elderly status among the shirts in my closet. In fact, given its age and how worn it has been, I have all but retired it, allowing it languish in the depths of the extended closet.

Moving on and basking in the glow of another Tigers win (yay!! though I will save the next Tigers love letter for sometime this coming week), I have four quickie reviews to share (one of which I wrote and was published in today's Battle Creek Enquirer).

Earth Afire

Orson Scott Card (OSC) has taken a lot of heat in the last year or more for his opposition to same-sex marriage and support of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). As a writer and practicing Mormon, he has written somewhat extensively on the subject., hence my reference to his "politics." I have been working on a blog post that addresses this subject for a few months now (no lie, months) and plan to post it around the time of the release of the Ender's Game movie, which debuts November First.


Despite beliefs that I do not share and have difficulty even respecting, these views do not find their way into his fiction. And since he is one of my favorite authors and I am deeply invested in the Ender saga, I keep reading.

MY REVIEW FROM GOOD READS: Despite his politics, which do not jibe with mine, I enjoy Orson Scott Card's (OSC's) books immensely, especially his series set in the "Ender" universe. After the four books of the original series, and then the follow up set of four that followed a different child from Battle School, Bean, through his eventual fate, and then the volumes of Ender's time in space and other "first meetings," OSC has returned to the Ender-verse, surely as the Ender's Game movie ramps up, to fill in the back story of the first encounter with the formics and the First Formic War that prompted all the events of the Ender's Game  book. I liked this book as much if not more than the first volume and look forward to the third volume, Earth Awakens, which is due next June. The characters and situations are compelling. The closer examination of the "buggers," who were far out in space and not a direct threat in Ender's Game  is a fascinating subject.

MACMILLAN LINK

Descriptive text from Macmillan about series: "ENDER’S GAME opens in the last desperate days of Earth’s war against the implacable insectoid aliens.  We are told early on that the Battle School is training generals for the Third Formic War – the war that will end the war, will save the Earth, will finally defeat the Buggers.

"EARTH UNAWARE tells us how the First Formic War began.  Working with Aaron Johnston, Orson Scott Card fills in the history of the Ender Universe with a pulse-pounding tale of first contact gone horribly wrong.   Out in the Kuiper Belt, beyond the orbit of Pluto, a family-operated asteroid mining ship is working a claim.  The ship is old, the family is big, and the minerals they are after are hard to find.  They need to fill their holds so they can buy supplies and desperately needed parts.  Seventeen year old Victor Delgado is a mechanical genius, and is eager to bring his skills to bear to support the ship and his family.  But something has appeared on the long-range scanners, out beyond the Belt. Something that’s either as big as a planet, or is moving incredibly fast, at a significant fraction of the speed of light. Whatever it is, it’s heading straight for Earth.

"In the second of the series, EARTH AFIRE, we see young Mazer Rackham on the ground in China, where the Formic aliens have landed and begun “terraforming” our planet.  It is the Scouring of China, and nothing alive can stand in the path of the invaders. All that humans can do is try to penetrate the alien ships, try to understand their technology, try to blow them up and drive the invaders away."

I wrote about The Walking Dead originally in T-shirt #10 on the night of the season finale of the TV show for The Walking Dead and the season three premiere of Game of Thrones. I believe we watched the finale of The Walking Dead that night, which happened to be Easter Sunday, way back on march 31st.

Tonight, The Walking Dead season four premieres on AMC, after becoming the most popular and highest rated cable TV show of all time. (I am not fact checking the previous claim because I am reasonably certain that it's true, and if it is not, let me hear about it.)

The Walking Dead #115 - Those of us accustomed to faster turnover in comic book stories may feel that the Negan storyline is dragging on too long, but given that Kirkman has declared that he is in it for the long haul with this comic and wants to depict what would happen to a world five or even ten years after a zombie apocalypse, it makes sense that stories will endure much longer with slower pacing and covering much more of our time to tell them sufficiently. Issue 115 marks the ten year anniversary of the original publication of The Walking Dead, which at the time was not an immediate smash success.

I do not want to engage in too many spoilers, but this issue does an excellent job transitioning to the next phase of the story and delivering a very intriguing cliff hanger as Rick and his forces attempt to take on Negan's army.

If you like the TV show, you should be reading the comic, at least on the collected volumes, if not issue by issue. Comixology just ran a sale of the digital comics at 99 cents a pop, meaning that for a mere $114 dollars one could have the entire series in digital form. It's worth it.

Afterlife with Archie #1 -  Okay, I know. It sounds like a gimmick. Archie? Zombies?

And sure, it's an attempt to cash in on the zombie craze. And sure, it's released right before Halloween and right when The Walking Dead tenth anniversary and TV's season four premiere are due. But neither of those timely scheduling choices diminish its excellence.

Primarily, it features gorgeous art by Francesco Francavilla, whose work can be found here: Francavillarts and Pulp Sunday. The writing by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is also excellent, which is no surprise given his work on the Fantastic Four for Marvel (Marvel Knights: 4). Aguire-Sacasa has written for Glee and Big Love, also.

Though it sounds gimmicky and contrived, the comic was fantastic! Jughead's dog is killed in an accident (we later learn that the deed is done by Reggie), and Sabrina goes against coven law to bring the dog back from the dead. When Hot Dog gets all zombified and bites Juggy, the clown prince of Riverdale goes all zombie himself.  Soon, Jughead enters the Riverdale Halloween Dance appearing as if he is in costume but about to infect the entire cast of Archie-ville. Will Archie become a zombie? Will both Veronica and Betty get all zombied-out? Given Reggie's secret crime, he seems to be fittingly in line for the zombie train. This is not a one-shot. It's an ongoing series! Check out the promo from You Tube.

Afterlife With Archie - On Sale Now!

MY LITTLE WOMEN REVIEW

I review shows for the Battle Creek Enquirer. Here is my review for the new What A Do Theatre production. I enjoyed it immensely.

My LITTLE WOMEN REVIEW

On to the day of work, even though it's SUNDAY.

GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- chris tower - 1310.13 - 11:12

T-shirt #205 - Detroit Tigers in blue script

T-shirt #205 - Detroit Tigers in blue script

In 2003, the Tigers lost 119 games. I watched or listened to nearly every game. The Tigers set a new mark for futility and almost tied the hapless 1962 Mets for worst record in the modern history of Baseball.

Do not expect order here. I am reminiscing and attempting to make a point but somewhat out of order.

In 1987, after trading John Smoltz for Doyle Alexander, the Tigers lost the ALCS to the Minnesota Twins four games to one lone win. Alexander pitched brilliantly and helped the Tigers win the East but not the AL or the World Series. Worse, it would be nineteen years before they would back to the World Series. And the team is still striving for its first win in, now, twenty-nine years.

Back in 1968 the Tigers won the World Series, beating the Cardinals, but I was only six, so I was not fully aware and on board. By 1972, I was a die-hard, full-fledged Tigers fan, but though the team won the division it fell to the dread Oakland Athletics (the team it just beat to reach this year's ALCS) in a decisive game five. Years of futility followed. As the Tigers lost 90 games in 1974 and 102 games in 1975, I moved on to other interests and for a short time forgot how much I loved Baseball as I was pre-occupied with comic books, magic, theatre, role playing games, and girls (not necessarily in that order). When I again joined the Tigers band wagon, it was 1984 and the team proved to be one of the best ever in the history of Baseball.

And then years of futility.

Things were looking up in 1997. I liked Bobby Higginson. He seemed to play the game the right way. After dismal season of 109 losses in 1996, the Tigers seemed hot enough to finish the season with a winning record. Though they limped to a 79-83 finish and 3rd in the AL Central, the team showed promise and potential, which was quickly dashed in 1998 with a disappointing last place finish and a record of 65-97.

In 2006, a friend of mine predicted, on the first day of the season, that the Tigers would go all the way to the World Series. I considered this to be clear evidence of her lunacy because the year before, 2005, the Tigers were 71-91 and fourth in the AL Central. But somehow, despite her clear insanity, she pegged it. Inexplicably (I think she just got lucky because a crazy optimistic fan will always predict a World Series run), the Tigers beat down the Yankees and the Athletics in devastating fashion before losing (as I expected) to the Cardinals in a re-match of the 1968 classic that did not go the Tigers' way.

And then years of futility and narrow misses (and one dismal catastrophe) before 2011 when the Tigers reached but lost the ALCS to the Rangers. Then last year's domination of (once again) the Athletics and the Yankees (whom they swept 4-0) only to be swept themselves by the subpar but lucky San Francisco Giants (who finished this year 76-86 and 16 games behind the NL West leading Dodgers).

And with yet another repeat of events, the St. Louis Cardinals could very well make it to the World Series  (playing the Dodgers to win the bid) this year.

Remember what I wrote about expectations on Thursday? I urged putting expectations into perspective. Instead of reaching for Alpha Centauri, how about Mars? Well, Verlander gave us fans the Andromeda Galaxy.

I still caution tempering craziness. Of course, I want the Tigers to win. The Baseball lover in me would love it to go seven games, if only to see the maximum number of games possible. I surely do not want to see the Tigers get swept, especially since a friend of mine is working on tickets for Game Four. If the Tigers lose the series with Game Four, with me in the house, I will be so convinced that I am a jinx that I may never attend another game in my life. (I say this for melodrama but rest assured that next year I am there for opening day).

The Red Sox are a tough team. They have the best record in the AL, and they did play a tough division. The Tigers bested the Red Sox this year 4-3 but that's hardly domination. In the last game between the two clubs, at Fenway, the Tigers lost 20-4. Let's not forget that one. Scherzer took his second loss in the game the day before. And Doug Fister beat them in the first game of the series 3-0. At home, The Tigers won three of the four games. Fister took a 10-6 loss on June 21st. Scherzer won a 10-3 gem the next day and Verlander pitched in the next winner, won in the end by Benoit. The other game, 4-3 win on June 20th, was started by Alvarez and won by Smyly.

They can win this series. I hope they do. But I am wary enough not to expect it, and I certainly will not jinx the team by bragging about it before it happens. But then, please, Baseball Gods, could we end the years of futility and disappointment?

GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- chris tower - 1310.12 - 16:32

T-shirt #204 - Gotham City Police Department - SWAT

T-shirt #204 - Gotham City Police Department - SWAT

Those of you who regularly read my blog (hello) may be wondering why today's T-shirt does not feature a Detroit Tigers logo given last night's masterful performance by Justin Verlander and a decisive two-run homer by the Big Man, Miguel Cabrera, to take Game Five of the ALDS from the Oakland Athletics (for the second year in a row) and advance to the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox.

But, hey, come on. Yesterday's shirt featured the Tigers and tomorrow's shirt will also feature the Tigers as they prepare for Game One at Fenway Park on Saturday night. This time of year, as long as the Tigers keep winning and advancing, I could feature a Tigers shirt every day, if I actually owned that many Detroit Tigers shirts that I have not already featured. As of yesterday, I have featured eleven Detroit Tigers T-shirts so far on this blog, and amazingly, I still own more.

Because I am still trying to catch up after returning from my trip, today's entry will not be lengthy. I managed to go buy comic books yesterday, where I talked Tigers with a young man, Andrew, who loves the Tigers as much as I do but was so nervous about last night's game that he could not talk about it. Fortunately, they won, which surely allowed him to sleep easily.

So, today, I will just share two weeks worth of the weekly comics lists as I was out of town and missed a week.

Today's shirt features another of those faux logos of what police officers, namely S.W.A.T. in Gotham City in this case, would wear as an under shirt or as just a shirt period, a casual uniform. I love this kind of thing. Obviously, Batman related. Do I really need to explain the connection? I suspect that this shirt will be more popular with the debut of the upcoming TV show called Gotham City, which I wrote about in T-shirt #190.

Also, I need to confess a change of geek practice. Usually I read a few (and sometimes many) comic books every evening before bed. Since returning from my trip, I have not read a single comic book, and I did not take any with me. Given that I left on the trip just two days after buying weekly comic books, I did not even manage to read all the comics in my main stack before I left.

 Why no comics? I am reading a book called Night Film by Marisha Pessl. In a sense, reading this book is an anniversary gift to me wife. But the book is so good that really the gift is mine, to me. On our anniversary, relaxing in a hot tub at the Kilauea Lodge in Volcano where our hosts, her aunt and uncle, gave us a night's stay as a gift, Liesel asked me to read the book Night Film as a gift to her. I agreed and because of the wonders of technology, I logged onto the lodge's Internet with my Kindle once we were back in the room, bought the book, downloaded it, and started reading it that evening. The gift was really hers to me as the book is so fantastic that I can barely tear myself a way from it. Surely, I will write more about it on this blog once I finish it. But as of now, it joins Ready Player One and Red Shirts as among my favorite books of the year and may make a top ten favorite all time as it is that good.

So, my point being that I have not knocked down the stack of comic books that remained in my drawer when I left for Hawaii, and last night, bringing home a huge stack, as this week's stack of comics was twice the size of the week before, I did not read a single comic. I did not even unpack and order the comics until this morning, electing instead to crawl into bed with Night Film and the Tigers game (TV on mute and radio broadcast in one ear via ear bud). I read, watched, and listened until I could keep my eyes open no more (a little after 10 p.m.). I woke around 11:30 and checked the score to make sure the Tigers won, so I could sleep soundly and peacefully.

Back tomorrow for more Tigers content but for now my comic book lists and a touch of commentary. Thanks for reading!!

WEEKLY COMIC LIST

These lists are only accurate in so far as they represent the order I would have read the comics had I bought them each week after completing most of my stack from the week I left for Hawaii. So, obviously, I had to integrate three stacks of comics. Top listings remained near the top, but overall Walking Dead sits atop the stack, as it usually does. More of the comics from 1310.09 sit near the top of the stack, though the top four comics from 1310.02 are prominently placed. Lazarus still holds a high place as does Green Arrow. Since I am very much looking forward to Afterlife with Archie it remained second after The Walking Dead. Though I featured the cover for Mind the Gap, it holds court lower in the stack where I place comics that I do not consider quick reads. I have not written about Mind the Gap much at all on this blog. I tried it solely based on solicitations and the look of the art and have enjoyed its story immensely.  I like the current story in Batgirl very much, so this comic ranks highly. But Infinity, which is good but a bit convoluted, takes a back seat to other comics as do the, now, three issues of the Battle of the Atom story.

Of course, I bought the new Paul Pope comic book. I had not intended to buy the Mind MGMT volume, but when I saw it on the shelf, given how much I enjoyed the first volume, at the recommendation of astute comic book reader and smart guy, Joshua Upson, I snagged it.


COMICS FOR THE WEEK OF 1310.02

Forever Evil #2

The Mighty Avengers #002

Green Arrow #24

Lazarus #4

All New X-Men #017 (Battle of the Atom Chapter Six)
Iron Man #016

Thunderbolts #016

Green Lantern #24

Hunger #002

Uber #6

Mind the Gap #15

Batman: Detective Comics #24

Earth 2 #16

Mara #6

BACKLOG
Action Comics #24

Fairest #20

Daredevil: Dark Knights #005

COMICS FOR THE WEEK OF 1310.09

Walking Dead #115
Afterlife with Archie #1
Batgirl #24
Batman #24
Captain America #012
Infinity part four of six
Thor: God of Thunder #014
X-Men #006 (Battle of the Atom Chapter Seven)
Avengers AI #004
Avengers Arena #016
The Shaolin Cowboy #1
The Fearless Defenders #010
Nightwing #24
Superman and Wonder Woman #1
Worlds' Finest: Huntress & Power Girl #16
Suicide Squad #24
Red Sonja #4
America's Got Powers #7 of 7
Rocket Girl #1
Sidekick #3

BACKLOG
Astro City #5
Ultimate X-Men #32
Wolverine #010
Uncanny X-Force #012

SPECIAL PURCHASES

Mind MGMT: Volume Two: The Futurist
Battling Boy #1 by Paul Pope from first second books
Locus October 2013 Vol. 71 no.3 Issue 633

- chris tower - 1310.11 - 11:21