Tigers rookie Fu-Te Ni proud to wear pink Tom Gage The Detroit News / The Detroit News It's not always a pink bag. But this time, and for this rookie, it's an extremely pink bag. Have you ever seen Tigers pitcher Fu-Te Ni walk to the bullpen at Comerica Park? If you have, then you probably know what this story is going to be about. We're not talking about his walk in from the bullpen when he's called on to pitch. There's nothing pink, or particularly noteworthy, about that. We're also not talking about the way he walks to the bullpen -- despite the fact it looks rather schoolboyish. It's about what he's wearing as he walks to the bullpen -- what he wears which makes him seem schoolboyish. It's a backpack. A backpack that's anything but empty. Ni looks like he's headed out to the bullpen to cram for a math exam. But it's is not filled with books. It's filled with, well, stuff like candy, gum, Advil and aspirin. And anything else a relief pitcher, or anybody else in the bullpen, might need during the course of the game. "Special requests included," reliever Brandon Lyon said. It's the pink "Rookie Bag" that Ni carries -- and few, if anyone, have ever toted it more proudly. 'It's all in fun' To him, it's not pink. It's "fen hong" -- which is pink in his language. But he doesn't seem to mind it's fen hong because it's a symbol that Ni, 26, a happy Taiwanese left-hander (who does a great impersonation of Bobby Seay, by the way), is in the majors. The rookie bag, of course, is an unsung big league rite of passage. The newest pitcher on a staff is always the one assigned to carry it -- and although it's not always pink, it's often quirky. "It's all in fun," Lyon said. "Most relievers have to do it at some point because it usually falls to the pitcher with the least experience. Before the backpack Ni carries, the bag used by the Tigers was a "High School Musical" model. Lyon says that when he was the newest pitcher in the Red Sox bullpen, the bag wasn't a bag at all. It was a tackle box. "With camouflage coloring," he said. "Not a big deal. But I'm glad it wasn't pink." So the shape changes -- as does the color. As well as the commitment of the rookie who carries the bag. "Some are good at it, some aren't," said Lyon. "Ni's good. We're going to have him teach the next guy. It takes pride to keep it clean. I won't say who around here was bad at it. But it's probably not hard to find out." Lyon was right. It wasn't hard. 'He's done a good job' "I wasn't good at it," rookie Ryan Perry said. "Ni's a lot better than I was." Meaning? "He keeps things nice and neat," Perry said. "Some guys like candy bars brought out to the bullpen in the bag. I think the candy bars, when I carried the bag, got crushed at the bottom of it. They were smashed in there for a while. "Plus they might have melted a little bit." There's no such thing as a little-bit-melted candy bar. Admit it, Ryan, you didn't get the job done. "I didn't," he admitted. "I was pretty bad at it." There are those -- probably the same pitchers who'd "pie" a teammate when he gets his first victory -- who wouldn't hesitate to use the rookie bag as a way to play a prank. Like putting a frog in it? "Nothing like that," said Lyon, "but it's a good idea." But only an idea. The Tigers like Ni too much to torment him with pranks. Plus, a pink bag is prank enough. "I like Ni a lot," manager Jim Leyland said. "He's a fast learner. I don't know what he's saying, but that's not important. What's important is that he understands me when I tell him to throw strikes. He's done a good job." Not just out of the bullpen. But on his way to it. http://tinyurl.com/mnfcfs --

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