10.22.2006

Have a Win Detroit...Yoink!

In what looked like a "gimme" win for the Tigers, game one goes to the Cardinals! Anthony Reyes pitched a totally unexpected 8+ innings, allowing two runs. These guys have shocked everyone all postseason, might as well do it three more times.

First I'd like to say: Scott Rolen, welcome back. He had a huge game and is temporarily out of the doghouse. If there was any time for him to step up, game one was the time to do it. Unfortunately, reports say that Verlander is considering throwing lefthanded for game five, in order to guarantee victory for his club.

As for Jim Leyland: did you forget that you scouted for us the past six years? Walk Pujols next time. My scouting report said "he's good." Trust that guy.

So now that game one is in the books, you want to read a game two preview, right? What is the headline on the Yahoo! Sports homepage?

"Former Yankees to square off in Game 2"
Title of the article: Yankee rejects face off in Game 2

Last time I checked, the Yankee's weren't involved in this series, but let's mention them anyway. I'm glad Duffman posted his rebuttal to the Keith Law article Saturday morning. It's sad that Law gets paid a lot of money to analyze this stuff all year, then ends up looking like--and physically being--a dumbass. I don't blame him for picking the Mets or Tigers to beat the Cardinals. If you look at the season records, it's obvious that both of those teams should have smoked the Cardinals.

But what Law and the rest of these clowns don't realize is that the team they are watching in the playoffs, is not the team that won only 83 games this year.

When you take a really bad team with really bad pitching...then remove Jason Marquis, Mark Mulder, and Jason Isringhausen...hey, we're a hell of a lot better! Besides that, when you put the Cardinals against teams that do not play in the NL Central, they play quality baseball. What's so hard to figure out? Sure no one expected them to go this far, but give me a healthy Edmonds, no Marquis, and no Cubs; this team was capable of making a run in the playoffs.

I also love how the media is always concerned about the markets that are involved in the World Series. They'll complain about St. Louis and Detroit not being one of the top markets in the country. The reason I love this is because market size is played up so much by everyone...except FOX! Why should ESPN care about Detroit's market size? They are set to gain or lose ZERO dollars because the games are played in the Midwest.

Here's a chart to show how awesome the New York and Chicago markets are. Notice how the subway series in 2000 is the third lowest rated World Series since the '94 strike. But obviously it's our fault here in the midwest, because we don't realize the importance of New York baseball, and that people should take the day off work to watch the Yankees play.

And so it continues, Sunday night at Comerica. Former Yankees square off, in a park that Derek Jeter has played in and George Steinbrenner flew over once.

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