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I called in for a quickie chat with SNY.tv's "NY Baseball Today" this afternoon to preview the Tigers before this weekend's series with the Yankees.  Host Ted Berg and I discussed Detroit's starting rotation, especially the one guy baseball fans outside Detroit and Toledo probably don't know much about.

So who has the sexier phone voice, me or Talking Chop's Martin Gandy?

Thanks to Ted and Jeff Goldman for inviting me onto the broadcast.  It was fun to talk with them.

I caught this trailer before The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 a couple of weeks ago, and I think it's the best one I've seen this year. It was certainly the biggest surprise. To me, nothing makes a better trailer than one that makes you think you're to going to see one movie, then flips you over by the end.

For the first few minutes I was thinking, "Why is a trailer for a documentary showing before a big summer action movie? Did I go into the wrong theater?"

But a new trailer for District 9 has come out since then, the movie is about a month away from and maybe you've seen more of the viral advertising than I have and weren't as surprised. I just enjoyed being genuinely fooled for a few minutes (and am always excited by potentially good sci-fi flicks).

(The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 was pretty good, by the way. Even if John Travolta can't help but overact whenever he plays the bad guy. The dialogue was especially good, which it had to be, since that's kind of the entire movie. But I want to watch the original, which is now available on Hulu.)

Okay, we've been lazy and cross-posting Detroit Tigers stuff here a bit too often recently. But since I have this other forum, in addition to Bless You Boys, I'd like to take advantage of it. Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge is one of five candidates for the last spot on the American League All-Star team, which is determined by online voting.

Inge has experienced a resurgent season, with a .269/.361/.513 average, and his 19 home runs are tied for the fourth-highest total in the AL. Combine those numbers with his usual stellar defense at third base, and you have arguably the Tigers' most valuable player this season and the second-best third baseman in the league.

Plus, he was nice to my mom back in February. How could you not vote for a guy like that?

Get Brandon Inge to the All-Star Game! Here's your ballot.

Vote often! Vote Inge!

And hopefully, we'll figure out just what we're going to do with this blog within the next couple of weeks. I've been piddling around too much over the past month.

West coast start times for sporting events are kind of a killer for anyone on a regular daytime schedule, so if you're craving some Detroit Tigers talk around the time they'd be playing in the eastern time zone, a few Tigers bloggers might be able to help you out with that. Motor City Bengals will host a live roundtable discussion beginning at 7 p.m. EST tonight.

Panelists scheduled to join host Joe Dexter include J. Ellet from Eye of the Tigers, John from Tiger Geist, Greg from Where Have You Gone, Johnny Grubb and... me.

The show, called This Week in Tigers Baseball, can be heard through USTREAM. And if you can't listen to the live stream, a podcast will be available shortly thereafter. We'll be done in plenty of time before tonight's Tigers-A's game.

You can find the show here, and I believe you can submit questions and comments via Twitter through the podcast's main page. We hope you can tune in.

Yesterday, I appeared on WSGW (790 AM) in Saginaw to chat with our old friend Pat Johnston about the suddenly resurgent Detroit Tigers.  (You might remember Pat had me on his old sports talk show a couple of times during the winter.)

Of course, the Tigers' recent play is a timely story, but I'm betting Pat also wanted a break from the news of the day (yesterday morning, that was Gov. Mark Sanford's indiscretions). A winning local baseball team is like opening the window to bring in a breeze.

So just how are these Tigers winning these ballgames?  Who's been a surprise?  Who's been disappointing?  That's mostly what Pat and I talked about, along with discussing what improvements they could make in the weeks to come as they make what appears to be a solid playoff run.

Thanks again to Pat for inviting me onto the radio again.  I always enjoy talking to him.  (And I apologize for knocking him off balance with one of my comments during our conversation.

You can listen to an embedded audio clip below or download the file from the accompanying link.

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