This has nothing to do with tonight's game, but CNBC's website today posted this article about Sammy Sosa supposedly altering his jerseys so he'd look bigger:
It turns out Sosa had his jerseys tapered around his arms for a period of years. A study of photo archives suggests Sosa’s jerseys were tailored with elastic inside the arms from 2002-2004, while he was playing with the Chicago Cubs.
Sosa’s custom ordering came to light thanks to pictures of an authentic Sosa jersey that is currently being auctioned off by Hunt Auctions. The jersey, advertised as being used by Sosa for the game he hit home run No. 470, was from the 2002 season.
CNBC confirmed through a source that Sosa did indeed ask for the elastic arm tapering for at least the 2002 season. The source said that he could not remember another player that asked for this specification.
"I don’t know why it would be tapered like that other than it being a purely cosmetic change so that people could see his muscles," said David Hunt, president of Hunt Auctions. "There doesn’t seem to be any other reason why he’d do it."
The mind boggles. FWIW, Sosa hit career HR #470 in a 7-6 loss to the Brewers at Miller Park on June 3, 2002.
Now, back to reality. The Cubs last faced the Tigers at Wrigley Field in 2006, when the Cubs were awful and the Tigers were on their way to the World Series. The Tigers swept the series, outscored the Cubs 26-9, and hit nine homers. That won't happen this week -- the two teams are much more evenly matched in 2009. Expect Lou to mix-and-match his DH's this week, giving guys like Derrek Lee and Milton Bradley and perhaps Alfonso Soriano all turns in the DH slot, to keep their bats in the lineup while "resting" them from the field. While the Cubs are in Detroit, former Tigers star and now Cubs bench coach Alan Trammell plans to drive by the remains of Tiger Stadium.
More below the fold.
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Edwin Jackson, despite starting his career in the NL with the Dodgers, has never faced the Cubs. He has faced three current Cubs while they were with other teams: Alfonso Soriano (0-for-1), Reed Johnson (0-for-2), and Aaron Miles (3-for-7, go figure).
Carlos Zambrano has never faced the Tigers. However, he's got a pretty long history against a couple of current Tigers: Adam Everett, from his time in Houston (3-for-29), and Miguel Cabrera, who spent a long time with the Marlins (4-for-18, a double, 2 HR).
Today's Extra Innings telecast will be the Tigers feed, since the Cubs will be on WGN. For other games today see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SBN Tigers site Bless You Boys. The name supposedly derives from a phrase former Tigers manager Sparky Anderson used to use.
Overflow comment threads will post today at 7 pm, 8 pm and 8:45 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.