Prince Fielder hit a monster, game-winning, three-run home run against the Twins' Mike Pelfrey on Monday night.  The ball landed near the flag pole in the visitor's bullpen, which is, like, far out, man.

Fielder, whose bat flip has been off to a hot start in 2013, decided to hang on to the bat for a little while this time: 

FAP.

The Detroit Red Wings will begin their 22nd consecutive playoff appearance on Tuesday night (10:30 p.m. ET vs. the Mighty Mighty Ducks). It's the longest playoff streak in all of sports. It's a wonderful coincidence the Red Wings have a guy on their team named Tootoo and his number is 22. The streak is something I want to jot some notes about.

When I was growing up, idolizing Steve Yzerman and listening to my Dad tell me stories of Gordie Howe, the Red Wings were starting to make the playoffs with regularity, but weren't getting very far. It's no coincidence the Red Wings officially turned the corner when they brought in a 6-time Stanley Cup champion coach, Scotty Bowman. Stanley Cup and 5-time All-Star goalie, Mike Vernon, didn't hurt either.

Entering the 1997 playoffs, the Red Wings hadn't won a Stanley Cup in 42 years. My Dad agonized over it. In his lifetime he was too young to appreciate the Cup in 1955, but remembered all too well the pain in the not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but SIX Stanley Cup Finals defeats -- and all the other failures -- through 1995. I was only 10 when the Devils swept in '95, but it's still a scar in the memory bank, witnessing the surreality of another team skating around the ice with the Holy Grail that was supposed to be our team's. Poor me.

I was 12 when the Red Wings won the Cup in 1997. I've since experienced THREE MORE Stanley Cup wins, FOUR in all in my 27-plus years. That's really not fair to my father who went four decades before experiencing just one. I'm spoiled. I also dated one of those Red Wings' daughters. Mannnn, I'm a lucky brat. 

I don't know why I chose to write about No. 22 and didn't feel the urge to write about, say, No. 20. Maybe it was the incredible run to end this season to salvage the streak, winning five out of their last seven games and gaining at least a point in nine out of their last 11 games, a unique position for our favorite team usually rocking the Joe in the first round. That's probably it. 

Now I have no idea what to expect against the Ducks. Maybe Babcock will coach a Bombay miracle. I tweeted at the end of the lockout and after the rough start that I almost expected the Wings, sans Lidstrom, to crap the bed and miss the playoffs. I was wrong.

The Red Wings are in the playoffs and thus, I'm going to soak it up, freeze it, zamboni it and appreciate its inherent beauty. Rinse and repeat for each game. As that cheesy saying goes, you don't know what you've got until it's gone, but as a Red Wings fan, I realized it when it was almost gone. The Red Wings are back in the playoffs, just barely, and damnit, I'm going to enjoy it, early mornings and all. 
 

Let's. Go. Red Wings. 

Denard Robinson (WR) was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars  in the 5th round with the 135th overall pick. When NFL Network went to his draft party, Robinson got photobombed by his brother: 

Another take, via NFL Memes: 

The best Robinson-related photobomb since David's, which still takes the Robinson photobomb belt: 

GIFs via SB Nation

This video from Nik Stauskas, in which he makes 70 of 76 three pointers in the rain, has drawn the attention of the NBA's greatest shooter, Stephen Curry: 

3pt contest sometime @nstauskas11 ????? this is Impressive youtube.com/watch?v=yuH5mq…

— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) April 25, 2013

@stephencurry30Thanks for the s/o bro! Im always down fot a 3pt contest, wouldn't mind going up against the best shooter in the world!!

— Nik Stauskas (@NStauskas11) April 25, 2013

I love waking up to a challenge by the best 3 point shooter in the world!!! Today might be a good day HA!

— Nik Stauskas (@NStauskas11) April 25, 2013

Anibal Sanchez is probably the third or fourth Tigers pitcher you'd name if you were told a member of this year's staff broke the Detroit Tigers franchise record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game. But Sanchez is the dude who did it, fanning 17 Braves batters faced during Friday night's 10-0 Tigers win.

Strikeout No. 17, and the ensuing celebration (x4), is embedded below.

#Dominance twitter.com/DanHasty34/sta…

— Dan Hasty (@DanHasty34) April 27, 2013

Interesting tidbits about Sanchez's record night: 

* It was the Tigers' 17,520th regular-season game
• 17 strikeouts is three shy of overall record of 20 shared by Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood. 
• Only Sanchez and Randy Johnson have struck out 17 in just eight innings since 1921.
• Mickey Lolich was previous record holder for Tigers with 16 - he did that twice in 1969.
• Only other pitcher to strikeout 17 in last 5 years is Brandon Morrow on 8/8/10
• 17 Ks is an interleague game record
• 14 of Sanchez's 17 strikeouts were whiffs.
• Sanchez had 11 strikeouts in his previous two starts combined; 24 in 25 innings going into Friday night
• In his last four starts vs. the Braves, Sanchez was 0-4 with a 9.33 ERA and 19 Ks. 
• Sanchez is now the 2nd Tigers pitcher to have more strikeouts in one game than the Tigers' ace, former MVP and Cy Young winner, Justin Verlander

.@nflcommish and @barrysanders welcome @ziggyansah to NFL. #Lions twitter.com/freepsports/st…

— Freep Sports (@freepsports) April 26, 2013

After offensive linemen Eric Fisher and Luke Joeckel went 1-2 and the Eagles took Lane Johnson at No. 4, the Lions were a lock to either go with a defensive lineman and address arguably their biggest need or trade down.

Not able to trade down, or not wanting to, the Lions opted to go with BYU's Ezekiel "Ziggy" Ansah with the fifth overall pick. If you're asking, who? you probably don't mind me pointing you to Wikipedia: 

Ansah was not found on any of the 2012 preseason mock drafts for the 2013 NFL draft. By mid-season, he had moved up from unlisted to the late-first round or early second round with many analysts calling him the sleeper pick of the draft. Ansah further improved his draft stock with his "outstanding defensive player" outing in the 2013 Senior bowl, where he recorded seven tackles (six solo), 1.5 sacks (for 13 yards), 3.5 tackles for loss (for 24 yards), a pass breakup, and a forced fumble. In the NFL scouting combine Ansah recorded a 4.63 40 meter time, 21 reps on the bench press, a 34.5 inch vertical jump, a 118 inch broad jump, 7.11 seconds in the three cone drill, and 4.26 seconds in the 20 yard shuffle.  

The biggest knocks on Ansah - and they're big ones - are that he's 24 years old and didn't start until his senior year of college (read: he's very inexperienced). In fact, as recent as four years ago, he was getting cut from BYU's basketball team. 

But Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz insist that Ansah will make an immediate impact and they didn't draft him to be a project. They don't have that luxury anyway. 

I was torn on how I felt about the pick at first, but I'm drinking up all the koolaid that's being provided in the ESPN feature below: 

There's also a lot of fun off-the-field reasons to love him: His name (Ezekiel "Ziggy" Ansah) is amazing; he wore 3D glasses to the draft; immediately after being picked, he confidently said "I think we'll be back here next year for the Super Bowl"; and he's one hellll of a model American, er, I mean Ghanaian. 

Ziggy will wear No. 94 and you can already purchase his jersey: 

PHOTO: First look at Ziggy Ansah's No. 94 Detroit #Lions jersey. twitter.com/BradGalli/stat…

— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) April 26, 2013

GO LIONS.

Justin Verlander had to leave Thursday afternoon's game after only 96 pitches. Tigers media relations guy has the reason:

Verlander left today's game after seven innings with cracked skin on his right thumb. He is day to day. #tigers

— Rick Thompson (@Thompson_Tigers) April 25, 2013

Oh my dear Laird! A horrible injury to have in the blistering cold. Let's hope he is okay.

Of course, a lot of people seem to be obsessed about JV's velocity being down so far this year, like he hasn't been throwing in mid 30s temperatures and doesn't have a 1.95 ERA after five starts. WHO CARES. Contact me if he's still throwing 89-92 in the midst of a pennant chase or in October and, oh yeah, not getting outs. Kthxbai. 

With their 21-year playoffs streak starting to look more and more like Jason Hanson's career, the Red Wings needed a win at home on Wednesday night against the reigning Stanley Cup champs to keep the dream alive. And what did they do there? WIN, and retake the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference playoff picture.

Game highlights below:

The Red Wings are now a point ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets 52-51. Both teams have two games left against the same opponents. The Wings play Nashville on Thursday while the Blue Jackets play Dallas, and then they trade opponents on Sunday. Detroit, a point behind the Minnesota Wild (53), control their own destiny. 

(Good news for the Wings if they have to play the Blackhawks in Round 1: both of their goalies are banged up.)

It was pretty clear that Jose Valverde was on the fast track to the Tigers' bullpen once he was signed to a minor league deal earlier this month. When Octavio Dotel got officially shelved on the DL yesterday with a bum elbow, Valverde's ticket back to the bigs came even sooner. 

Back as the team's closer, Valverde got a chance to redeem himself from a horrid playoffs on Day 1. Enter Papa Grande [GIF and pic via @WorldofIsaac]: 

Valverde threw all fastballs, 18 of them, to earn a 1-2-3 save. Alex Gordon and Billy Butler flew out to or around the warning track, but that's not important. Valverde's splitter was reportedly looking good in Single-A, so once he starts mixing that in, he'll hopefully rack up some strikeouts in those two-strike counts. His fastball was consistently 93-94 and Valverde, with his two-colored goatee, appeared to be having fun out there again, and that's encouraging. 

Gene Lamont probably got a bad rep over the years and I tried to defend him a few times over the last couple seasons. Well, Tom Brookens has been third base coach for the Tigers all of 18.5 games and he has already screwed up royally at least twice.

Unfortunately, both times has involved ill-advisedly sending Victor Martinez. V-Mart is 34 and is coming off missing a season due to knee surgery. He's no spring chicken, so let's try not to push the envelope with him, okay?

On Wednesday night, Mr. Brookens did that and to boot, it was against Jeff Francoeur's arm, which would require a license in some states. It resulted in the easiest 9-2 assist I've seen in a long time: 

Brookens isn't the only person to screw up here, though. As the video shows, Fielder should've grabbed the bat that was resting dangerously on the baseline and then should've given more than a half-ass signal for V-Mart to get down. V-Mart wasn't getting down and definitely wasn't going to slide straight into the catcher. V-Mart ultimately took the best route, which was veering right and straight to the dugout, safe and sound.