"I do believe good pitching stops good hitting, but I didn't believe that good pitching could stop great hitting."
GOD JOE MORGAN SUCKS.
It's official, after watching the Mets-Dodgers last night with only passing interest, that I am actually--for the duration of this postseason at least--a Tigers fan.
I am into this Yankees-Tigers game tonight. Especially since the ESPN broadcast tools are so, so clearly pulling for the Yankees. It's really pretty disgusting, actually. They keep repeating, in disbelief, that Kenny Rogers "has lost his last seven decisions against the Yankees", as if that would somehow invoke the gods to come and rescue their poor pinstripers.
It's like Sam said in her excellent post on the same subject:
He’s a great baseball player. I get it. I GET IT. I acknowledge it. DEREK JETER IS REALLY GOOD AT BASEBALL. He can hold a big stick of shaped wood and swing it around and make contact with a small white ball in a fashion that we have arbitrarily decided is meaningful, and he can also run around an arbitrarily designated area and catch said small white ball, and he can do these things better than 99.998% of humanity while getting paid vast sums of money for his troubles. He is the AWSUMEST!!11! Kids love him, fellow players love him, teammates love him, ladies love him, announcers love him long time. Derek Jeter: good at what he does.
Now SHUT UP.
But it's not just confined to Jeter, tonight. Joe Morgan and Jon Miller are just...their palpable dismay whenever Rogers strikes out another Yankees hitter...the way they gnitpick about how batting average isn't the best statistic to measure hitting when it's pointed out to them that the Yankees lineup that they call "the greatest in history" doesn't have the highest batting average in history, but then turn around and tout batting average as a measure of greatness when ballwashing Yankees players...
I just can't say this enough. If you can't call an impartial game, don't be a national broadcaster.
Ernie Halwell was in the booth with the boys for an inning or so tonight, which made it even more embarrassing for them, I think. Then again, it also felt as if Halwell was simply more suited to speaking to a more informed audience--and a more captive one; today's cable sports analysts do have a different task at hand with all the choices for entertainment on and off television for people, and the waning interest in the game.
Anyway. The Tigers. I am excited about the Tigers. I believe that most of the time, whoever wins the second game of a series has the advantage, because if that team didn't win the first game they're proving themselves a worthy opponent, and if that team did win the first game, they're taking a sizeable opening advantage, especially in a five-game series. The second game is all-important, and the Tigers won it yesterday. They won it from behind, on the road, yesterday.
In fairness, no amount of haterade is going to change the fact that the Yankees made the postseason and the Red Sox didn't. Even if they lose, they still made it, and we didn't. So take my commentary here with a grain of salt, because yes, the Yankees beat my team and there's nothing I can really say about it.
But GOD I AM PRAYING FOR THEM NOT TO WIN. It would be awful if they went on, painful if they won the Pennant, unbearable if they won it all this year. Dear God, is my prayer every night, please do not let the Mother Fucking Yankees win the World Series this year. I think if thoughts could be seen, that collective message would be blinking into space from the American Northeast.
So really I'm a Tigers fan because I'm a "Whoever's Playing the Yankees" fan. And because the National League teams are out, because none of them are as cute as the Astros, and because they are all basically just dicking around waiting to find out which American League team is going to beat them. And because Oakland, I have decided, is to the Red Sox as the Steelers are to the Patriots--the clash of cultures between fan bases has the same feeling. And because of Sam. And because, as with the White Sox last year, I looked at the Tigers this year around midseason and they had the same glow. It's hard to prove, and hard to describe, but I've believed from at least midseason--even when the Tigers faltered--that this is probably the Tigers' year. My similar feeling about the White Sox last year turned out to be dead on--let's hope that holds true this time as well.
That is a cool pic.
I am in the same boat, 'who-ever is playing the MFY' is my team right now. I was hoping for more out of the Twinks. Oh well.
Hopefully Detroit can put the whole MFY nightmare thing to rest here in the ALDS and let us watch the rest of the post season in peace. Hopefully...
I use the word 'hope' a lot.
Posted by: Ernie | October 06, 2006 at 23:10
Yes Beth..I just left a comment agreeing with your J of S comment. Go felines!! Nice article, as always.
Posted by: Peter Mark | October 07, 2006 at 10:16
If you really want to stick it to MFY fans, then root for the Mets. Believe me as a former NYer, Yankee fans hate the Mets (and their fans)even more than the Redsox (and their fans). It's because their neighbors, coworkers, brothers, mothers whoever are right there in their face with their Met gear and whatnot. This is killing them and the thought of the Mets advancing past the Cards is just more nightmare to add to their already hellish past few days....Go Mets!!!
Have a great winter, Beth and thanks for another great season, albeit no post season.
Posted by: Sammy | October 09, 2006 at 17:06