I find it hard to believe that Suter ends up in Detroit. They were earlier talking about Weber going to Detroit and now suddenly it's Suter who is going to Detroit. I have to believe that there are other teams that are willing to give Nashville more for either one, and their draft picks are worth more, because Detroit are far removed from having high draft picks to trade away being a perennial playoff team. If it was up to the players themselves I could see them wanting to go to Detroit, but if we are talking about a trade - the FO of Nashville are certainly going to look for the best possible deal, and it's hard to see that scenario ending up with Detroit being the other party in the deal.

Oh and Howard - a good goalie, but not great and that is reflected in the deal he got last time around.

Yeah, it was nice to see Howard get into the All-Star game after being left off the ballot ... but even he admits he shouldn't have been on it. He's been standing on his head this season though and I gotta' admit, I wasn't convinced that he was the goalie of the future for the Wings.

This is kind of the first I've heard anything about Suter, not that I've been following it all that close. I don't think he winds up in Detroit either. Maybe as a F/A, but not in a trade, I think Nashville would want too much and Detroit is an NHL 'destination' for players and has done well with short term free agents in the past. I tell you, having Mike Illitch as an owner is a sportfan's dream ... the guy wants winners and is willing to bring in the right people to get the job done, ie Kenny Holland. Keep an eye on the Detroit Tigers too (also owned by Illitch), ie Dave Dombrowski ... we just signed Prince Fielder ... the whole town hasn't stopped talking about it for a week!

I've never understood what interests people in baseball, I mean we have our own variation of it in Finland, and that is also sooooooo boring - even though it doesn't put so much emphasis on the pitching aspect of the game.

Oh no! Does this mean if I start a baseball group you're not joining? LoL! No, I know, as much as I like going to the ballpark for a game, I've been known to take a nap for an inning or two. With this Fielder kid though, the Tigers are making a move for the World Series. You don't play cricket in Finland, do you?

No cricket because we were never under the British rule... but we have our own modified version of baseball.

Finnish baseball was created in the 1920s by a guy who was contracted by the Finnish army to come up with game that would simultaneously improve many of the physical aspects that a soldier needs - i.e. throwing a grenade or diving forward from a run - and also to strengthen teamwork. Therefore, most of the vocabulary refers to the origins of the game, as in a runner can get either "wounded" or he "dies."

The main difference with the American baseball is that the pitches are vertical and you have to hit the inside of the playing field with the ball when you hit it. So, there are no homeruns in the same fashion as there are in the American version. A Finnish homerun is when a hitter is able to hit the field of play with ball and consequently able to run from first base to the second and all the way to the third where he will have to stay in order to complete the homerun - he gets one run by reaching the 3rd base and staying there, but he can get another by being able to get home on the following opportunities.

Also the bases are lined up in a "zig-zag" way, so the runners will have to cross the center of the playing field twice along their way to the third - if they are hit by the ball they get wounded and have to return to the homebase or if a hit is caught directly without hitting the playing surface - all the infield players who advanced out of the bases are wounded and also have to return to the homebase. A runner will only "die" if he tries to reach a base and the ball is passed to the base before he reaches it. Three deaths ends an inning or if you have no more hitters.

It's fairly complicated and I don't know all the rules or remember them wrong, but if you're interested here's the wiki page for the sport with some photos also.

Pesäpallo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That is interesting, I am definitely going to read up on that ... I really do like baseball ...

BTW, don't believe all that they say on that wiki page - the sport is definitely not considered to be the national sport of Finland. It's pretty much only played in a certain rural region of Finland, and no "big" cities have a team playing in the national league.

As far as I know, ice hockey is the national sport of Finland (with Floorball or Bandy following as a close second).

Thanks for the insite ... seeing as how Finland is a cold weather country like Canada, I always assume hockey is the national sport, but I do remember watching Wide World of Sports as a kid and seeing Finland well represented in sports such as skiing, ski jumping, sledding? The more we talk, I even think I had to do a major school report on Finland while I was in school back in the '70s.