Young Lady Gets the Chance to Interview Curtis Granderson for Baseball Youth Magazine

When this email came across our inbox, we couldn't help but smile.

In an attempt to avoid dating myself, I'll just say that when I was Haley Smilow's age, I fell deeply in love with baseball and never looked back. Sadly, I never got the opportunity to interview my favorite player, Scott Leius. Anyway, we decided to share her interview with Curtis Granderson for Youth Baseball Magazine with all of you. It's awesome.

The 10-year-old New York City native and her family took a fun baseball trip around the Midwest this summer to seven stadiums in five states, including Miller Park, U.S. Cellular Field, Wrigley Field, Busch Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, Target Field, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, to enjoy 26 ballgames in 31 days. Now that's a vacation.

Along with several other players, Haley had the chance to meet the New York Yankees center fielder for an interview, which was published in Baseball Youth. While we are re-printing the interview in full, we encourage you to check out the magazine, which would make an excellent holiday gift for the little baseball lover in your life.

Yankees Force ALDS Game 5 with 10-1 Punishment of Tigers

The Detroit Tigers put Rick Porcello on the hill for Game 4 in the hopes that he would get the job done and send the New York Yankees packing for the offseason.

Instead, the Yanks took advantage of a couple of the 22-year-old pitcher's mistakes before busting the game wide open off the relief corps for a 10-1 victory to force Game 5 of their American League Division Series.

Derek Jeter drilled a 1-0 slider for a two-run double in the third inning before Curtis Granderson, who made a spectacular catch with the bags juiced in the first, crushed one for an RBI double in the fifth to give New York an early lead. Then they kicked the door in with a six-run eighth inning off relievers Al Albuquerque and Daniel Schlereth.

While Yankees starter A.J. Burnett sucked pretty much all season, he did what he had to do against the Tigers, who wasted opportunities with runners in scoring position the entire game. They failed to get a hit with men on four separate times, in fact.

The two teams will meet again Thursday in the Bronx for the deciding contest at 8:07pm ET on TBS. This marks the first postseason series for Detroit that will go the maximum number of games since 1972 when the Tigers lost at home to the Oakland Athletics in Game 5 of the ALCS.

[The Detroit News]

Detroit Tigers Fend off New York Yankees to Even up ALDS

The Detroit Tigers held off the New York Yankees to tie up their American League Division Series on Sunday with a 5-3 win at Yankee Stadium, and are very much looking forward to heading back home to Detroit Monday night.

AL Batting Champion Miguel Cabrera smoked a two-run homer off Yankees starter Freddy Garcia in the first to give Max Scherzer an early lead before adding another RBI in the sixth along with Victor Martinez to make it 4-0. Scherzer actually pitched no-hit ball into the sixth before the Cano blooped one the opposite way into left field, but we totally forgave him for that.

About the time it started to rain again, Curtis Granderson hit a solo shot in the eighth off Joaquin Benoit, but Don Kelly answered with a home run of his own in the top of the ninth to bring the score to 5-1.

Things got a little crazy in the bottom of the ninth when Nick Swisher went yard and Andruw Jones added a sacrifice fly to bring the Yankees within two.  Tigers closer Jose Valverde then walked Granderson to put runners on first and second, but quickly recovered to retire the hot-hitting Cano and cap Detroit's victory to bring the series to Motor City for Game 3 Monday at 8:30pm ET on TBS.

The Crazy Mixed-Up AL East

Things are getting pretty complicated in the American League East.

Thanks to two homers and five RBI by way of Curtis Granderson's bat, the New York Yankees came away with an 8-6 home victory over the Tampa Bay Rays Monday, along with a 1.5-game division lead. Meanwhile, the Rays' season series lead over the Yankees was shaved to 8-7.

Don't look now, here come the Bronx Bombers. Let's break it down.

• The only possible way for the Yankees to take the season series is to sweep the three remaining games, starting with this evening's game two matchup between James Shields and Phil Hughes.



• Suppose New York wins two of three. That would end the season series at 9-9, with the tie being broken by the teams' intradivisional records. As of right now, the Rays have the edge at 39-27, but if the Yankees do win at least two of those games, the Rays would still have a 40-29 advantage to the Yankees' 36-26 record.



• New York will finish their season out within the AL East: six against the Boston Red Sox and three against the Toronto Blue Jays. Tampa Bay has only one series within their division, against the Baltimore Orioles, who are notorious spoilers.

The Minnesota Twins, who are about to clinch the AL Central, lost their season series to both the Rays and Yankees, which is the tiebreaker for playoff seeding. However, the Twins have a pretty decent schedule to end the regular season: two more games at home against the Cleveland Indians before heading to Detroit and Kansas City, then coming back for a four-game set against the Toronto Blue Jays at Target Field, where they own a best-in-baseball mark at 50-25.

Speaking of the Twins, check out the badass Denard Span t-shirt courtesy of Seventh Ink. Yay playoffs!

[Associated Press]

Smokin' Hot Stove: Big Names Tossed Around

Some big names have been thrown out in the early winter meeting talks, but little has been seen to back up the smack.

Coveted 2003 Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay is probably the biggest fish out there, while other names strung out on the trade market like Dan Uggla and Detroit Tigers teammates Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson provided little more than mullings.

A few minor deals were struck in Indianapolis Monday, with Brian Bruney heading to the Washington Nationals for a player to be named later along with Pudge Rodriguez, and Tigers lefty Clay Rapada being shipped off to Texas for a bag of cash and some guy they'll decide on in the future. The busy Motor City Kitties did agree to a $1.55 million, one-year deal with shortstop Adam Everett, though.

Free agent righty Brad Penny somehow reached a tentative agreement on a $7.5 million, one-year contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, pending a passed physical. Hopefully he'll remember to zip his fly this time.

Of the 23 free agents offered arbitration by their former club last week, only three accepted by the midnight deadline: Minnesota Twins right-hander Carl Pavano, Atlanta Braves reliever Rafael Soriano, and Colorado Rockies reliever Rafael Betancourt. Lots of work to be done there.

Stay tuned for more Hot Stove Goodness over the next four days!

[MLB.com] | [Hot Stove Blog] | [The Diamond Cutter]

American League Keeps On Rolling

The American League's MVP hero of Tuesday night's All-Star game was Carl Crawford. The Tampa Bay Rays outfielder robbed a home run from Brad Hawpe in the seventh inning, a shot off Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon that would've broken the 3-3 tie.

During the very next inning, Detroit Tigers centerfielder Curtis Granderson tripled and scored the go-ahead run to give the AL a 4-3 victory. Make that seven straight games since 2002’s 7-7, 11-inning tie at Miller Park and a 12-0-1 mark since the National League's last win in 1996.

So which AL team will have home field advantage in this year's World Series?

[AP] | [Best Seat in my House] | [No, You're a Towel]

The Real Top Ten Hottest Players In Baseball

I'm a woman who has been accused of being more passionate about baseball than I am about boyfriends.

That may be true, but it doesn't mean I'm unable to spot a smokin' hot baseball player when I see one.

An unidentified Fox Sports analyst has recently come up with a list of the Top 10 Hottest Baseball Players, in slideshow format. What the requirements were to land on this list, I have no idea. It's so incredibly wrong in so many ways, I felt the need to speak out about it.

Jimmy Rollins, Barry Zito and Ichiro Suzuki as your top three? Umm, no.

Continue reading this story at Fantasy Pros 911.

Granderson to Miss Opener

Curtis Granderson has been placed on the 15-day disabled list, and will now miss Opening Day.

The Detroit Tigers center fielder broke a finger after getting nailed on his right hand by a Travis Blackley pitch during the fourth inning of Saturday's contest against the Philadelphia Phillies, which was called due to rain.

Granderson was hitting .306 with 8 RBIs over 15 games this preseason, which begs the question: is Spring Training too long?

[Detroit Free Press]