I was WAY OFF.

I had the tigers sweeping the world series, or doing to the cardinals what they just did to the tigers. win it in 5 games or something. MAN WAS I OFF. I remember last week talking to my gf (from MI) saying something to the degree of how the Tigers MIGHT be a victim of their success- they had way too many days off between the ALCS and the WS. I didnt think it would really affect them that much, because if you have pitching, you have pitching. And let's be REAL CLEAR ABOUT THIS- the cardinals DONT HAVE PITCHING. when jeff suppan and jeff weaver are your 2,3 you dont have a pitching staff. carpenter is good. but that's about it. somehow, in spite of these non-negotiable truths, they still put the tigers down. How?

it's not that complicated. The 06 Tigers, while a vast improvement on their previous incarnations, just werent that good. oh yeah, they beat the yankees. I'm happy about that, but the yankees arent that good, dunno if people've noticed that. they have allstars. big deal. again, NO PITCHING. Chien Wing [eat my] Wang is their ace. not bad. I've seen aces- He's no ace. While the Tigers tore thru their competition in dominant fashion, I think they were really harmed by all the days off. While there's no way to measure this level of psychology, something obviously turned off in their off days, while the cardinals just streamed along playing their mediocre ball. By the time the WS started, that was enough to beat the Tigers, as they reverted back to post-AllStar-Game-form.

BTW, did anyone watch the WS outside of DET and STL? i tried. it was hard. with all due respect to my friends from DET, it was one of the hardest series to watch. everyone knows that I have no respect for the cardinals for due reason. I had some respect for the Tigers until game 1 WS. it looked like two bad teams trying their hardest not to lose. Yes, rogers had a good game. i'm not going to even venture to talk about the Pine Tar Incident, because it's boring as sh!t, and i just dont care. everyone cheats in the MLB- the opportunity cost of crying about it is too much. There's be more benefit in having a colonoscopy performed on me than discussing the "dirt" on his hands. nonetheless, i dont know the properties of pine tar, but I'd imagine that there'd still be residue in spite of you "washing it off your hand." nuff said.

This is what kills me though. My guess is that in DET, they're singing the tune of "it's been a great season, way to go, let's go again next year." All I know is that if it were the sox, it would have been a COLOSSAL FAILURE of a season. being the AL reps in the WS is about all you need to know to decide who's going to win- it's AL, almost all the time. Personally, I would be ashamed of losing the way they did. I mean, the errors by the pitching staff is reminiscent of Suppan's errors in the '04 WS- yeah, ridiculous as sh!t. you just dont do that. it's pathetic. Didnt know I was watching freaking little league. slipping around the field, tripping on yourself, overthrowing balls to first. please. if you cant throw the ball to first, then ROLL THE DAMN THING THERE. Even Julian Tavarez figured that one out this year. it's ok- your 1B will be able to do their job and field the grounder to get the out. it's ridiculous. i dont know how else to stress that. yes, it's nice that the tigers actually made a mess in the postseason this year, and i know they were TERRIBLE in years past, but please. they had the WS wrapped up. All they had to do was show up.