Quick Bits + Mood Music

Time for your day-after-the-off-day Quick Bits:

• Jason Beck has a piece over on the official site on Joel Zumaya and his “boy-to-man” transition. Apparently I was not paying attention, because I did not realize he got married last year. Not only that, but the couple is expecting their first child this summer. This information is kind of mind-blowing to me, partly because it kinda goes against the character that Zumaya has created for himself over the years, and partly because I am a year older than Zoom and as single and kid-less as they come.
• Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle has some details on the upcoming Moneyball movie (which, by the way, I have not read, just so you know). Apparently, the producers estimate that 26 players, managers, coaches, and front-office personnel will be playing themselves. How cool would it be if Bonderman were one of them? Hey, they gotta put the chair-throwing incident in the movie. It’d be no fun otherwise.
• BigJP of Always a Tiger discusses the impending roster move that has to be made in order to activate Dontrelle Willis tomorrow.
• Over at Mack Avenue Tigers, Kurt shares the secrets to winning at the Metrodome.
• The Brewers have signed former Tiger Frank Catalanotto.
• Meanwhile, in their search for bullpen help, the Indians have signed Blaine Neal to a minor league contract. Neal was the closer for the Mud Hens last year and played on the Olympic team.
• Just a reminder: Tonight’s game will be broadcast on FSD+, not regular FSD. That’s always a dicey proposition for me. My local cable company (Buckeye) puts FSD+ on a channel that is normally called BCSN, which showcases local sports games and tournaments (usually high school, along with University of Toledo and Bowling Green). In years past, this channel has had really crappy reception. They seem to have gotten it cleared up this year, but another thing that BCSN shows is Mud Hens games (being in Toledo, it comes with the territory). Last time the Tigers had a game on FSD+, Buckeye opted to show the Mud Hens game instead. I ended up having to watch the game on MLB.tv, which luckily thinks I live somewhere in Indiana so I don’t get blacked out from Tigers games. Still, with MLB.tv, I can either watch it on a laptop with an unstable wireless Internet connection, or on a desktop PC that gets slowed down mightily by the media player (but has a stable Internet connection). Anyways, that’s my rant for today.
• Your Mood Music for tonight: Despite being a bit nervous about having the Tigers play at the Metrodome, they are on a bit of a mini-roll pitching-wise (It'd be nice if the offense was a bit more consistent, though). Given the fact that no one on a national level gave the pitching a chance, how 'bout some Ozzy Osbourne to get everyone pumped up and hopefully keep the good Tiger pitching going?