attempted a grand total of just two passes for the program in

Max Scherzer will pitch the most important game of his career Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park in Boston. Its Game 6 of the ALCS, and if the Tigers lose, their season is over, and the Red Sox go to the World Series for the third time in 10 seasons searching for their third title over that span. If Scherzer and the Tigers win, it will force a Game 7 on Sunday night, with Justin Verlander on the hill against John Lackey. The interesting story is how Scherzer got to Detroit in the first place. In 2009, Scherzer was with the Arizona Diamondbacks, battling for the number five starter job with Yusmeiro Petit. Yes thats the same Petit, who came within one out of a perfect game, for the Giants back on September 6th against the Diamondbacks. Heading into that season, the D-Backs were a highly touted outfit. In fact, I found an old article from the Bleacher Report, that praised their starting rotation of Brandon Webb, Daren Haren, Doug Davis , Jon Garland and either Scherzer or Petit as the best in the National League West and arguably the tops in all the Majors. That year, Arizona was 70-92 and was needless to say a huge disappointment. Clearly a shake-up was in order. So on December 8, 2009, Arizona, Detroit and the New York Yankees concocted a monster three team deal involving seven players. Initially, it seemed the Yanks got the best of the swap, in acquiring up and coming slugging centre fielder Curtis Granderson, from the Tigers. Arizona landed two veteran arms in Edwin Jackson from Detroit and Ian Kennedy from the Yankees. Kennedy gave the D-backs one incredible season, but ultimately got traded to San Diego this season. Detroit picked up four young players a couple of which were highly rated prospects. They got centre fielder Austin Jackson and lefty reliever Phil Coke from the Yankees, and a couple of pitchers from Arizona, Daniel Schlereth and yes Max Scherzer. The deal didnt seem to help Arizona at all. The next season (2010) they tumbled to 65-97, and in-season replaced manager A.J Hinch with current skipper Kirk Gibson. The Yankees got two solid seasons out of Granderson and an injury plagued 2013. Now Granderson is set to enter free agency and is by no means a lock to return to the "Pinstripes". What do the Tigers have? Well they beat the Yankees a year ago to make it to the World Series where they ultimately lost to the Giants. Theyve got a right hander in Scherzer, whos poised to win his first Cy Young Award, a starting centre fielder in Jackson and serviceable reliever in Coke. Now with Scherzer pitching Saturday, theyve at least still got a chance to go to the World Seriesfor the third time in eight seasons. Sometimes, it takes a few years to analyze a trade, but clearly GM Dave Dombrowski and the Tigers won this one. As a bit of a footnote, to this story, I saw one rumour, this week, that after the season, Detroit might actually consider trading Scherzer in the off-season. That knocked me back a few steps, but Scherzer is eligible for arbitration after this season, and can become a free agent in 2015. Maybe the Tigers just dont think they can afford to have Scherzer and Justin Verlander on the same staff, or perhaps, they just want to keep growing and replenishing their system, the way they did with that epic three team deal in December of 2009. Stay tuned. A couple of former Blue Jays of World Series vintage were in the news this week. Darnell Colesa valuable bench player on the 93 team, was promoted by Milwaukee to manage their Triple-Afarm club at Nashville. Turner Ward a versatile outfield back-up with the club in 92 and 93 is the assistant hitting coach with Arizona. There is a chance he could be in for a promotion, since Don Baylor left the D-backs to become the hitting coach with the Angels. Ward was a huge fan favourite in Toronto. Under Armour Outlet Store . The agreement comes a little more than one week after the video game manufacturer agreed to a $40 million settlement in a similar but separate case, bringing the total payout planned for athletes to $60 million, said Steve Berman, an attorney for the plaintiffs, and the NCAA. Under Armour Clearance Sale .com) - Longtime Senators star Daniel Alfredsson returned to Ottawa on Thursday to officially announce his retirement. http://www.cheapuashoes.com/ . - Wesley Matthews got a chance to practice his bow-and-arrow 3-point celebration on Sunday night. Cheap Under Armour Shoes .com) - The Hatch Attack is back in the Southern Conference. Under Armour China Wholesale . MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez also will attend the session, which was announced Monday. The league has discussed placing its next two expansion teams in Miami and Atlanta.Regina, SK - The first week of the 2014 CFL regular season draws to a close tonight when the defending Grey Cup Champion Saskatchewan Roughriders take the field against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Mosaic Stadium. Watch the action live on TSN and TSN GO at 7pm et/4pm pt. This is a replay of the 101st Grey Cup from November, when the Roughriders delivered a convincing 45-23 thrashing of Hamilton in front of nearly 45,000 fans. The Riders, led by head coach Corey Chamblin, would like nothing more than to get off to the same type of start that they had a year ago when they rattled off five straight victories and captured eight of the first nine outings overall. The team did stumble slightly down the stretch with back-to-back defeats to close out the regular season and suffered a four-game slide during the month of September, but the club proved to be resilient, finishing 11-7 overall, but taking home the Grey Cup when all was said and done. The third-leading passer in terms of yards last season with 4,154, Darian Durant is back under center for Saskatchewan as it begins the quest for back- to-back titles, something that has happened only once in the last 15 years. Durant, who has been with the Riders for his entire nine-year CFL career, tossed a personal best 31 touchdowns and finished with an efficiency rating of 95.7. In 2013, Durant had a trio of top-notch receivers who he relied heavily on, but one of those, Weston Dressler has since signed with the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL, leaving Chris Getzlaf and Taj Smith to carry more of the load this time around. All three posted at least 1,000 yards through the air, with Dressler leading the way with nine touchdowns. However, Getzlaf and Smith both landed in the end zone seven times and the former averaged a hefty 16.6 yards per catch. Another major change for the Riders is the departure of running back Kory Sheets, the most valuable player of the Grey Cup, as he signed with the NFLs Oakland Raiders. Sheets was second in the league with 1,598 yards and tied for the lead with 12 rushing scores, which means theres a huge void to be filled in the backfield for the club. A couple of newcomers, Keith Toston and Anthony Allen will be tasked with producing on the ground moving forward. Saskatchewan has to be pleased with the fact that they owned the toughest scoring defense in the CFL a year ago, allowing only 22.1 ppg, but that wont be easy to duplicaate after losing Alex Hall.dddddddddddd. The defensive lineman placed second in the league with 16 sacks, but like many successful CFL performers, he too has latched on with an NFL squad (the Carolina Panthers) for the time being. On other side, the Tiger-Cats were the opposite of Saskatchewan through the first month of last season, winning just a single game in five tries. But the group did finish strong with four wins in five opportunities before, putting up a 10-8 mark, before defeating Montreal and Toronto in the playoffs. Kent Austin, the head coach, general manager and vice president of football operations for Hamilton, does have a major issue to clear up this time around with respect to his quarterback. Last year he watched Henry Burris tear up defenses for a league-best 4,927 yards, but this time around he will have to find a leader in either Zach Collaros, Dan LeFevour or Jeremiah Masoli. Collaros has the most experience of the three after spending a couple of years with Toronto, but he is still a major work in progress. LeFevour finished with almost as many rushing yards (317) as passing (394) with the Cats last year while Masoli attempted a grand total of just two passes for the program in 2013. At least for this week, it doesnt help that receiver Andy Fantuz is on the injured list, because he was one of the top pass catchers in the game with 65 grabs for 896 yards. That leaves Bakari Grant as the primary focus down the field after he posted 69 receptions for 947 yards, but a mere two touchdowns a year ago. Running back C.J. Gable is capable of adding another dimension to the offense, having gained 782 yards and scored seven times on 130 carries in his first CFL campaign, but the squad will have to be careful not to run him into the ground too early. From a defensive perspective, there is plenty of work to be done for the Tiger-Cats after they finished with a minus-13 in the turnover department. The squad logged just 14 interceptions, second-fewest behind only a hapless Winnipeg group, which they turned into a league-low 142 return yards. Hamilton was also last in the CFL in sacks with just 35. Stretching back to 1961 and focusing only on games that took place during the regular season, Saskatchewan holds a slight advantage in the series with the Cats at 42-38-4. The Riders have taken four of the last five and a startling 17 of the last 20 matchups with Hamilton. ' ' '