Strangest sight of the first few days of Tigers training camp -- Taiwanese reliever Fu-Te Ni standing on the mound, his trusty interpreter  “Fox” in street clothes at his side, listening to instructions from Jim Leyland or pitching coach Rick Knapp.
        You can’t help but wonder how much either of them understands.
        During one of Sunday’s drills, Ni tried to flip a ball to Joel Zumaya. Ni missed on his toss and the ball rolled across the infield dirt. Fox, in shorts and T-shirt, came dutifully running from the sidelines to retrieve the ball, but slipped on the grass and fell to the ground.
        However, there was nothing funny about the spectacular pickoff move Ni made to first base during another of Sunday’s drills.
        And there was no misinterpreting Leyland’s obvious appreciation of the play -- in any language.
        Second strangest sight -- Fernando Rodney’s necklace. “An alligator tooth,” Rodney explained, when asked about the pointed three-inch long gray molar hanging conspicuously around his neck, outside his jersey.
        Where did you get that, the reliever, who has always danced to a slightly different drummer, was asked?
        “I jumped in the river, wrestled him to the ground, and pulled it out,” Rodney said with a straight face, mimicking a man applying a headlock to a make-believe gator.
        “I don’t think Major League Baseball is going to let him wear that in a game, teeth will be flying when he goes to throw,” said Leyland, who briefly spoke to Rodney about the necklace on Sunday.
        “I think he’s just having fun. He’s sly like a fox. I’m not worried about some tooth hanging outside somebody’s shirt.”
        It is Rodney’s control and his famed change-up that Leyland is looking at.