Tigers beat writers

I realize that this is a problem in many cities but in Detroit, the Detroit Tigers beat writers are true "homers" who have a great deal of difficulty writing objectively about the team and writing anything other than the most glowing articles about the Tigers regardless of how well or poorly they are playing. Lynn Henning and Tom Gage are the two biggest culprits and of course, Mr. Gage was one of only two sportswriters who voted for someone else other than ARod for MVP a few years ago when he had his monster season and was the obvious MVP. Mr. Gage voted for Tiger, Magglio Ordonez who had a great season but it paled in comparison to ARod's season. Hey Tom, you can vote for guys other than Tigers! It should be noted that the other writer who also voted for Magglio was a beat writer from Michigan so Mr. Gage does not have to hang his head in shame alone though it was a shameful vote.

Anyway, Dontrelle Willis had a horrific season last year due to the fact that he was completely unable to throw a strike at any level of baseball be that the Major Leagues or the low minors where he eventually ended up. I had the misfortune of attending Willis's last game in the majors before he was sent down. I could look up the stats but he only lasted into the second inning with numerous walks, hits and home runs given up. He was nowhere near the plate and the catcher that day, Brandon Inge unfortunately had to receive many of the balls while standing up because if he stayed in the crouch, many would have sailed over his head. I am sure that the umpire was quite nervous and breathed a sigh of relief when Willis was taken out of there. Unfortunately, this problem of his got no better in the minors as he completely lost the ability to throw strikes with a batter at the plate.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when the beat writers at spring training were all going ga ga over Willis telling everyone that Dontrelle is back and looks great and is throwing great and his problems appear to be behind him and we can expect a bounce back year from him. I thought to myself, how would they know? He has not thrown one pitch in a spring training game and all they have seen of him is him throwing to a catcher on the sidelines; essentially playing catch. Knowing these writers, I think I knew what was really going on.

Well, Dontrelle pitched in a spring training game the other day. To nobody's surprise, except the beat writers, he lasted one inning and gave up 4 runs, 2 earned runs, 3 hits and 2 walks. He threw 43 pitches and has a 18.00 ERA.

I read Mr. Gage's article on the game and he did his best to defend the indefensible stating "Nobody hit a home run off him."

Hey, Detroit News! Is there a sports editor in the house?