The Detroit Tigers maddening win one then lose one pattern continues
There are almost no words. Last week the complaint about this team was they get good pitching, but the bats cannot score any runs. This week the opposite seems to be true. The Tigers offense is awake and scoring run, but the pitching cannot hold a lead or keep games close. Some of that is due to defects within the starting rotation itself, and some of it due to highly questionable decisions made by Manger Jim Leyland. However, each and every day is feels more like 2008 than 2006 or 2011.
It feels pretty fitting that this is the 96th anniversary of Ty Cobb going into the stands to assault a fan. Listening to sports talk radio today I was tempted to reach through the radio waves and choke out more than a few callers. Their main argument is the Tigers are in a weak division. How does that make any sense? Great, the Tigers can suck and still win the division and still get their butts kicked in the post season and our winter misery gets delayed by a few weeks. That is just dumb. The division crown can’t be the only goal, and if this is the worst division in baseball why would you want to win in the first place?
Honestly ask yourself if this Tigers team can beat the two time reigning American League Champion Texas Rangers. The answer is no, and that means no ultimate goal of a World Series title. The sad fact remains that this team has not won a world series since 1984, I am old enough to remember that feeling by at least two generations of Tigers fans has no clue what that feels like. That is just sad, and it’s even sadder when we think about how much money Mike Illitch has spent on the payroll. If could be even sadder had Juan Gonzales said yes and signed a ridiculous contract (yes my distaste for large, ridiculous contracts goes back that far).
Again, I want to see a dominant team go out there and kick every other team right in the butt. I saw that in 1984 and had that team not put it in cruise control who knows how many games they could have won. Every generation of Tiger fan should get to witness a season like that. The current generation, of which my son belongs, has already seen this kind of sad song season play out. 2008 was and year Tigers fans, not as bad as teh 1990’s but still very disappointing.
Beyond that playing down to the competition is just ridiculous. I don’t want my team to be the Champions of the worst division in baseball; I want them to win 120 games in that worst division and play well into October and bring another World Series to Detroit. My son was too young in 2006, but is the prefect age now. Beyond that I would like to see the 2012 Tigers fire on all cylinders, even for just one game. At this point it seems like the best thing to hope for, and hopefully that game will be the one that sparks a little something in this team.