Who's Your Tiger?
The Tigers won the ALCS tonight on a walk-off homer by Magglio Ordonez with 2 men on. It was amazing. The most amazing part about it was seeing the reaction of the guy who caught the ball in the stands. I bet this is the best moment of his life.
I like Detroit. It's a scummy, crappy city that no one gives a thought about, but it scrapes by just under the radar. I've been there, it's not a big place, nor a place you want to be after 10pm. But sometimes you find things that remind you that you're still in the midwest. The people are middle class workers who, for the most part, are okay people. There are the statistical outlyers of course, the richer people and the projects people. But as far as states go, Detroit lines up with the rest of Michigan pretty well: they all work for a living and they're all pretty okay, willing to ask if you're lost, where you're going, etc. My family and Michigan go way back, my two sisters went to college there, it was a standard vacation spot, and it still has the nicest beaches I have ever been to north of the Mason Dixon. So, I like Detroit.
Right now, the Lions are winless. It makes sense to me that if one of your sports teams is doing horrible, you should at least have another one that is winning. Otherwise, you get spoiled and begin to expect championships to just roll in :cough Boston cough:. The Tigers came out of nowhere this season, about 3 years ago they lost over 100 games and it hadn't been getting much better. They had the best record in baseball during the summer, and as of July I knew they were going to win it all. Then they started choking, couldn't pull out wins, it must have been a nightmare for Detroit fans.
But tonight they pulled it out, and I found myself screaming to my empty apartment and being happier for the Tigers than I was for the White Sox last year (mostly because the WSox fans are smug assholes, "Hey, how's YOUR team doing? What's that? Under .500? Aw, better luck next year.") Everyone on the team really wanted this, and they really showed up to play. Oakland is a great team, young, but good anyways, and I think they just weren't as good as the Tigers. You can say that Detroit wanted it more, that inexperience didn't help the A's, anything. But I would definitely say that Detroit is just better than Oakland. But, Oakland does get the hott vote (although that Tigers relief pitcher, Ledezma? Oh yes. Where has he been all my life).
The standout players of the series for the Tigers would have to be Polanco, Guillen (another hottie, he had some amazing double plays), Kenny Rogers (I CANNOT believe I just typed that), and of course Ordonez (he struggled through most of the game, but that hit was just clutch).
Strangely enough, I have no care about what happens in the NLCS. I think I want the Mets, because I'm supposed to detest the Cards. Does anybody care about the NLCS out there? I'd like to hear if we had any readers who are emotionally invested in this, maybe we'll actually post about it.
In other news, this has got to be the most boring post-season I've seen in a long time. 2 sweeps, and one 4 game series. If the World Series is dull, I'm going to be angry. Also, they had Dusty on ESPN the other day as a commentator and I really hope that's what he goes into. I would hate for the Cubs to ruin his career, but he's just so eloquent.
I like Detroit. It's a scummy, crappy city that no one gives a thought about, but it scrapes by just under the radar. I've been there, it's not a big place, nor a place you want to be after 10pm. But sometimes you find things that remind you that you're still in the midwest. The people are middle class workers who, for the most part, are okay people. There are the statistical outlyers of course, the richer people and the projects people. But as far as states go, Detroit lines up with the rest of Michigan pretty well: they all work for a living and they're all pretty okay, willing to ask if you're lost, where you're going, etc. My family and Michigan go way back, my two sisters went to college there, it was a standard vacation spot, and it still has the nicest beaches I have ever been to north of the Mason Dixon. So, I like Detroit.
Right now, the Lions are winless. It makes sense to me that if one of your sports teams is doing horrible, you should at least have another one that is winning. Otherwise, you get spoiled and begin to expect championships to just roll in :cough Boston cough:. The Tigers came out of nowhere this season, about 3 years ago they lost over 100 games and it hadn't been getting much better. They had the best record in baseball during the summer, and as of July I knew they were going to win it all. Then they started choking, couldn't pull out wins, it must have been a nightmare for Detroit fans.
But tonight they pulled it out, and I found myself screaming to my empty apartment and being happier for the Tigers than I was for the White Sox last year (mostly because the WSox fans are smug assholes, "Hey, how's YOUR team doing? What's that? Under .500? Aw, better luck next year.") Everyone on the team really wanted this, and they really showed up to play. Oakland is a great team, young, but good anyways, and I think they just weren't as good as the Tigers. You can say that Detroit wanted it more, that inexperience didn't help the A's, anything. But I would definitely say that Detroit is just better than Oakland. But, Oakland does get the hott vote (although that Tigers relief pitcher, Ledezma? Oh yes. Where has he been all my life).
The standout players of the series for the Tigers would have to be Polanco, Guillen (another hottie, he had some amazing double plays), Kenny Rogers (I CANNOT believe I just typed that), and of course Ordonez (he struggled through most of the game, but that hit was just clutch).
Strangely enough, I have no care about what happens in the NLCS. I think I want the Mets, because I'm supposed to detest the Cards. Does anybody care about the NLCS out there? I'd like to hear if we had any readers who are emotionally invested in this, maybe we'll actually post about it.
In other news, this has got to be the most boring post-season I've seen in a long time. 2 sweeps, and one 4 game series. If the World Series is dull, I'm going to be angry. Also, they had Dusty on ESPN the other day as a commentator and I really hope that's what he goes into. I would hate for the Cubs to ruin his career, but he's just so eloquent.
posted by Emily at 8:16 PM
1 Comments:
You said "statistical outlier"! YES.
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