Monday, October 29, 2012

Maybe next year?

The best team won

Detroit will have to wait at least a year for a shot at another World Series.  Going into tonight's game, there was only a 6% chance of the Tigers winning the series.  For yet another game, Detroit's offense sputtered, and the breaks went against them.

At least the Lions won today!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

I'm glad SF won!

Detroit or San Francisco - it's a toss-up

I'm glad San Francisco will be Detroit's opponent in the World Series.  They've never faced one another in a World Series, and San Francisco has the better regular season record.  Both teams have "superstar" players with MVP credentials, so it should be an exciting series, regardless who wins.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Na na na na, hey hey hey, Goodbye

Na na na na, hey hey hey, Goodbye

Well, the Yankees have been sent home with their tails between their legs.  Who's next, I wonder?

Friday, October 12, 2012

Bring on the Yankees!

Bring on the Yankees!

I wish the Tigers could have finished off Oakland in four games.  That would have meant resting Verlander and having him pitch two, maybe even THREE games in the race for the pennant.  Now, I guess he'll be limited to a maximum of two.

I hope that'll be enough.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Need a game 5 - too bad!

During the playoffs, it's never a good idea to let things go to the last game... there's just too much that can go wrong.  I was getting ready to celebrate with Detroit holding a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the ninth inning in game 4 of the playoffs.  A win would send Detroit to the next level.  A loss would mean a final game 5 faceoff with Oakland.

Well, I guess there's going to be a game 5.  Last inning heroics by the home team means that Detroit will have one last shot to get to the next round.  They came into this round as the underdog, but quickly won the first 2 games of the best-of-5, so it looked good.

Now, it's down to a 50/50 chance to advance.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Miguel Cabrera's Triple Crown

Re:  Miguel Cabrera's Triple Crown

A feat more rare than a perfect game occurred today in Detroit's last game of the season.  Miguel Cabrera reached one of the most difficult pinnacles in baseball, finishing the season with the highest batting average, the most RBI's and the most home runs of anyone in the league.  The last time this was accomplished was in 1967.

But in a way, this feat was more spectacular than what happened in 1967.  That was the year that Carl Yastrzemski pulled off the Triple Crown.  But Carl won by TYING in the category of most home runs.  In other words, nobody had MORE than him, but he wasn't alone at the top.  In fact, the last Triple Crown winner that stood alone at the top of all three categories was Frank Robinson, who won the title in 1966.

Since 1973, when the designated hitter rule came into force in the American League, winning the Triple Crown has become more difficult, in my opinion.  Why?  Because there is no reason to remove an effective pitcher from the game simply to try to get a better hitter into the offensive lineup.

Cabrera's feat was partially engineered by the keen eye and mind of the Tiger's manager.  With one eye on the statistics of the other players who mathematically had a chance to catch Cabrera, it was determined that a "worst case" scenario might be for the person in second place in the batting average race to have a perfect night at the plate.  If that happened, Cabrera would have to do no worse than 0-for-2 to maintain his lead.

With that in mind, Cabrera was allowed to enter the game.  The managers knew that if he did well, they could leave him in; but if he was having an off day, they could remove him after two, unsuccessful appearances at the plate without jeopardizing his Triple Crown title.  And that's just what they did ... Cabrera went 0-for-2 before being removed in the fourth inning.  Meanwhile, his closest rival went 2-for-3, falling just short of catching Cabrera for best batting average.

This feat is amazing and nothing will detract from Cabrera's win.  But, I can't help thinking back to the 2010 season when a Tiger pitcher threw a perfect game - only to have that feat negated by a bad call by the umpire on what would have been the last out of the game.  The umpire called a runner safe (the replay clearly showed the runner was out), thus spoiling the perfect game opportunity.  While that game will never go down in history as a perfect game, at least the umpire had the decency to apologize to the pitcher after the game for making his grave mistake.