betterREDthandead

No worries. IMO, we're light-years ahead of either NL team, so it won't matter. Look at the pitching matchups today and yesterday. Jeff Suppan? Steve Trachsel? Oliver Perez? Casey and Zumaya can get healthy in a week, and besides, now we get a whole week to savor this. 'Cause I dunno about everyone else, but I was watching BBTN last night, and got all kinds of chills and butterflies looking at the player pictures and press conferences, all with the beautiful Olde English D on the cap, and hearing the words World Series said over and over in conjunction. I've spent my whole life following the Tigers 11 months out of the year, and then having to step aside while other teams take the big stage with the bright lights in October. Kept having to watch arrogant empires like the Yankees or uppity little punk upstarts like the D-Backs or Marlins take the limelight. Since I started following baseball ('89 was the first World Series I saw - it was the earthquake series, I was seven years old) there's only a small handful of teams that haven't been to the postseason: Expos/Nationals, Devil Rays, Brewers, Royals, Rockies, and of course, Tigers. So I have basically been on Cloud 9 all month, and I am absolutely going to enjoy this next week.

Contractually, the Series was always going to start on Saturday the 21st, it doesn't matter what happens in the NLCS. Schedule looks like this, with all times Eastern: Gm 1 - Sat, Oct. 21, 7:30 @ Detroit Gm 2 - Sun, Oct. 22, 7:30 @ Detroit Gm 3- Tue, Oct. 24, 8:00 @ NL Gm 4 - Wed, Oct. 25, 8:00 @ NL Gm 5 - Thu, Oct. 26, 8:00 @ NL Gm 6 - Sat, Oct. 28, 7:30 @ Detroit Gm 6 - Sun, Oct. 29, 7:30 @ Detroit

Maggs is HUGE.

Don't think Rutgers, Louisville, or Boise State appreciate being left off that list And don't count out Louisville. They play West Virginia in two weeks, are ranked #7 right now and will be ranked higher than that soon. Florida's taken themselves out of the race, and USC will too, one of these days. We know that Michigan-Ohio State is looming as a big game that could determine one spot in the national title game. Louisville-West Virginia could be the other one.

FIU might have gotten the brunt of the ejections, but this is the sort of thing that follows Miami around. And no wonder: the first thing that happened after Miami scored the first TD of the game was that the touchdown-scorer taunted the FIU bench. Jackass thing to do. Miami's the more established program and the better football team, they have no business taunting an 0-7 football team they brought in to inflate their record.

Cardinals take a 2-1 lead tonight. Either way the NLCS goes, the Tigers would have to be considered huge favorites. The pitching the Cardinals and Mets have doesn't even come close to what the Tigers have. Bummer for the Mets that Pedro and El Duque are hurt, otherwise we might already be looking forward to a Tigers-Mets series. I can't decide who I'd rather face. It'd be fun to do the "rubber series", so to speak, with the Cards, them having beaten us in 1934 and the Tigers getting revenge in 1968. Tigers/Cardinals is definitely a great old-school matchup, plus I think the Cardinals have the weaker lineup. But it would also be fun to beat both New York teams in the same postseason, and new WS combinations are also fun. I think my slight preference goes to the Cardinals for being old-school, or at least older-school than the Mets. It comes down to the fact that if the Tigers lose, I'd rather lose to the Cards than a team from New York. And when in doubt, root for the team that hasn't been to the Series in a longer time - the Mets went in 2000. Also, the Cards have cooler unis. WAY cooler.

Auburn beats Florida. Another team in front of Michigan goes down. Couple of other big upsets too: Vandy over Georgia, IU over Iowa. And USC is tied 21-21 against Arizona State. Michigan's holding on to a 17-10 lead right now....so they could conceivably be the #2 team after this week. USC will lose sooner or later. Even if they beat ASU, they've had too many close ones against teams like Wazzu, ASU, etc.

2006 AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPION DETROIT TIGERS. the most beautiful words in all the language right now.... so fitting the hero was Maggs....all the doubters wondering why Maggs would sign with a loser like the Tigers....all the doubters wondering why the Tigers would take a chance giving big money to Maggs. they're pretty quiet now.

THE TIGERS WIN THE PENNANT! THE TIGERS WIN THE PENNANT! THE TIGERS WIN THE PENNANT!

Oh man....tied 3-3, bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 7th, and Guillen at the plate, Huston Street coming in to pitch.....where has this kind of baseball been all my life? edit: pleccchhhhh....double play. ugh.

GO TIGERS GO BLUE

That's insane. Hudler is NOT better than Lang, not by a longshot. Why on earth would you think that would be an upgrade?

TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS

Here's a fun passage from a column I just read: The knit cap was silly. I'm surprised it was even legal. Never seen that before. The passage pretty much sums up my feelings on wearing a knit cap in the field.

Um, was that article even meant to be accurate? That was a straight-up Onion clone. But if you don't like to be pigeonholed as violent couch-burning thugs, there's a simple solution: Stop burning couches. When your school has to spend $30,000 to put a stop to riots and try and get fans to stop acting like assholes to visiting fans, you have a problem. When over 40 fires are started in response to a victory, you have a problem. And if rioting is a "tradition" you actually defend and rationalize, that's a BIG problem.

Oh those will be out in full force tomorrow night. Me, I had a different image in mind:

3 games to nothing lead. This is unreal.

The A's just are not hitting anything Kenny is throwing. He's not striking them out like he was against the Yankees, but both the A's hits have been chintzy, and they can't get more than a piece of the ball. If I were an A's fan right now, I'd have a pretty sick feeling in the stomach. They just can't hit Kenny Rogers, and he's being brutally efficient. Bet he pitches into the 9th.

Yay! I got off work early and what do I find? Tigers up 2-0 oh, and pansy frickin' Californians wearing wool caps in the field?? According to weather.com it's 46 degrees. Downright balmy for October!

I do find that picture hilarious. It looks especially good with the "pounce" headline. And now, for tonight: KEN-NY! KEN-NY! KEN-NY! This is the one time this postseason that Pacific Time is screwing me. Don't get off work til 4

YAY SNOW. But October is too early for snow. I prefer it not to snow until mid-November or so.

Really, how can you not fall in love with this team with a guy like Todd Jones as the closer? When you are nicknamed the Rollercoaster, and you earn every bit of that nickname and still get the job done, oh and by the way you have an awesome faux-handlebar 'stache and you're the last Tiger to have played your home games at the Corner, and to top it all off you're an awesome guy off the field (by all accounts) and write a terrific column for The Sporting News to share with the fans what it's like being a player......basically that all adds up to totally sweet. It is totally fitting that Jones gets to be a Tiger during this season. By the way, you know those commercials with Tommy Lasorda giving pep talks to distraught fans of non-playoff teams? Terrific commercials by the way. ("What've we got?" "They're all in the cupboard. Cleveland fans.") This is a great year to be in the playoffs, if for no other reason than we don't have to see Tigers fans hiding in the cupboard or in a tree or in the bathroom. Honestly, I can't get enough of those plugs, but it gives me such a wonderful warm fuzzy feeling to not see the Tigers included. And the Red Sox are. Priceless.

Tigers have tied or broken a couple obscure but neat playoff records so far. (By the way, this is the really cool thing about baseball, where no other sport even comes close, that you can break the numbers down so many ways.) The four double plays in Game 1 is an ALCS record, and it ties the LCS record set by (guess who!) the Mets, who turned four on (guess who!) none other than the Cardinals, in 2000. And the six strikeouts in a row tonight (Grilli, Rodney, Jones) ties a postseason record. Oh, and the A's tied a record for one-game futility in the postseason in Game 1 by going 0-for-13 with RISP.

I dunno, I kinda had a feeling Santiago was going to pull off a clutch play, either in the field or at bat. Perez really doesn't inspire my confidence any more than Santiago. I'll tell you who we need to have back in this situation: Shane Halter.

As long as the onion rings are consumed by others at the table, no probs. I'm real generous like that. I like to let everyone else have all the onion rings.