After a week of using “World Series” as an all purpose greeting, I have returned to the blogosphere. Things got a lot busier than I expected last week, but I have returned. Since I never really had a chance to celebrate the ALCS win on DSU, we’ll do this wrapup in reverse order, with game one of the World Series at the bottom.
- So, I heard a guy named Magglio hit a home run in game four of the ALCS in the ninth inning. If you’re interested in re-living the shot heard round the D in all of its playoff glory, you can download the entire game free of charge from MLB.com.
- Justin Timberlake is not my favorite musical artist. But I do like music, and I like Tigers baseball. If you like both of those things, you’ll love this remix. [Tigers Back]
- Bud Selig says a best-of-seven series in the first round is unlikely, and then says that he would like to give the division winners four home games in the ALDS. Don’t ruin the Wildcard! You can’t give a team a free pass because they were stellar in the regular season. If you want to argue that division winners should have more weight, what about the Tigers, who led the AL Central for well over 100 days? If it ain’t broke, you sure as hell better not try and fix it. [ESPN]
- The Oakland A’s fired manager Ken Macha even though he got the Athletics out of the first round for the first time since 1990. This one surprised me, but apparently he had trouble communicating with his players. [FSN]
- Who doesn’t want to be buried in an officially licensed Detroit Tigers casket? Or better yet, how about an urn to go on your fireplace? I guess the revenue from actual baseball just didn’t cut it for MLB. [SI]
- Game one of the World Series was last night, and the Cardinals came roaring out of the gates. The Tigers were on top 1-0 before the Cards put seven unanswered runs on the board to win the game 7-2. Anthony Reyes won the battle of rookie starters over Justin Verlander, and the Cardinals looked sharp at the plate. The Tigers just didn’t look ready for this game, but you have to give most of the credit to St. Louis. Their pitching was stellar, and they took advantage of mistakes from Tigers pitching. [SI]
- Seriously, why would Dick DeVos come to the World Series? He’s already jinxed the Tigers before this season, and later even jinxed Michigan State. So he decided to make an appearance in Detroit before game one. The Tigers lost. As a sports fan, I despise Dick DeVos and his Amway Guy Curse.
- When you look at it this way, there was no way the Tigers could win so many straight games in the playoffs. The bubble has burst, and it is now time to refocus. Remember the loss to KC on the last day of the season? The Tigers responded by making a statement, knocking off the Yankees. It remains to be seen how they’ll respond to this. For more aftermath, head over to the Detroit Tiger Weblog.
- Brandon Inge, there was a sweet shout-out to you in the aforementioned “Tigers Back,” but you disappointed me with that throwing error to the plate, which allowed one runner to score. Then, Scott Rolen barreled over Inge, who was no longer involved with the play, resulting in an interference call, a second error for Inge, and most importantly, another run for the Cardinals. Sure, the Cardinals won by enough where you could say this play didn’t matter. But those runs were the nails in the MLB-licensed coffin for the Tigers. Hopefully Inge won’t think to hard and he’ll be back to his old “You’re with me, Leather” self in game two. As for Rolen? Come on, Inge was standing 15 feet off the line before he even rounded third base. A smart play to exploit the rules of base-runner interference? If you like in St. Louis, maybe. Me, I call it weak. [Beck's Blog]
