Very rarely am I right. That’s why I see no shame in pulling this out from last Monday:
At the same time, the mere fact that the Tigers are still playing means they have a shot. If the Tigers can find a way to take one of the first 2 games I actually believe the Tigers will win this series. This is fully a homer pick and not based on anything resembling solid logic. I’m confident that Kenny Rogers and Jeremy Bonderman can pick up wins against the Yankees 3rd and 4th options.
Sometimes it’s good to be a homer. I wasn’t expecting the complete shutdown of the Yankee bats, but I’ll just attribute this to Blind-Squirrel-Nut.
A link-a-thon of who’s saying what about our Tigers…
DREW SHARP: Cinder-fellas’ ball
The Tigers won one for the little guy, reaffirming that champagne doesn’t necessarily clash with blue collar. They proved that soul and passion aren’t measured through a bank statement, emerging as the more virtuous in the morality play that every Yankee playoff series seems to become.
Lynn Henning: Champagne washes away years of bad memories – 10/07/06 – The Detroit News Online
Saturday, the Tigers showed all of baseball why they were, for so many months in 2006, the best team in baseball. They beat the Yankees for the third consecutive day and cemented the ‘06 Tigers as one of baseball’s premier teams and best-ever stories — an ongoing documentary about one club and how it has come farther in three years than any team in major-league history.
New York Daily News – Baseball – Mike Lupica: No more excuses for Torre
You can say the Red Sox loss in ’04 was worse, because the Yankees lost four straight, because no baseball team had ever done that, because it was the Red Sox. This one was just as bad. Tiger relief pitchers ruined them, Kenny Rogers ruined them, Jeremy Bonderman looked like he might no-hit them yesterday. The best batting order since the ’27 Yankees had nothing. They were supposed to make history. Instead they turn New York over to the Mets, and maybe get their manager fired. They can’t only be Torre’s Yankees when they win.
NOTHIN’ LEFT IN YANK TANK By GEORGE KING – New York Post Online Edition: Seven
Praise the Tigers all you want, and the Yankees certainly did, but the reason their season is over after a second straight one-and-out performance is easy to explain: They stunk.
FOX Sports – Ken Rosenthal – Leyland has all the right moves in Detroit
Underdogs? That was Leyland’s story, and he’s sticking to it, making the Tigers’ four-game victory over the Yankees seem that much more improbable. It was improbable — insane, really — but for heaven’s sake, the Tigers led the majors in ERA this season and won only two fewer games than the Yankees. What’s more impressive, starting with old Mr. Softie, Kenny Rogers, they generated more fire in this Division Series than the corporate Yankees will ever muster.
Scott Miller – CBS SportsLine.com
Though he is too modest to ever admit it, this has been the most skilled craftsmanship of Leyland’s storied career. And we’re talking about a man who managed Pittsburgh to three division titles in the early 1990s and Florida to a World Series title in 1997.
Bob Nightengale – Bonderman brilliant as Tigers trounce Yankees to advance to ALCS
The Yankees simply were beaten in every facet of the game. The Tigers dominated the Yankees on the mound. They overpowered them at the plate. And they outdazzled them on the field.
ALDS: Tigers vs. Yankees: The Mighty Yankees Fall — The Hardball Times
It’s hard to believe that anyone could top Kenny Rogers’ performance on Friday, but Bonderman did just that. He retired the first 15 batters he faced and it wasn’t until Robinson Cano singled to lead off the sixth that Bonderman faced his first “threat.” He threw 99 pitches over 8.1 innings, and 70 of those were strikes. He did end up giving up two runs, but it wasn’t until the Tigers had put up eight runs in the first six frames.
Baseball Toaster: Bronx Banter
Anyone feeling hungover this morning? I am and I didn’t even have anything to drink last night. The Yankees’ entertaining and highly enjoyable season ended prematurely yesterday, with a whimper then a thud, and we fans can’t help but feeling angry and sad–completely helpless. There will be plenty of blame to go around (if you think we’ve seen the peak of the A Rod bashing, hold onto your hats). Will they fire Joe Torre, How Could This Have Happened?!, etc, etc. Guys, I just don’t have it in me to dig into the dirt right now, so you’ll excuse the lack of links. The Yankees weren’t the only team to take it on the chin in the first round–look at the Twins, who also had a rewarding regular season. But that’s what makes baseball unpredictable, wonderful, and, at these times, painful.
Watching Jeremy Bonderman cruise through the first 5 innings today, on only 40 pitches, against “Murderer’s Row & Cano,” really drilled the Yankees problem home, to me. Working the pitcher, playing for deep counts, etc., is only successful against bad-to-average pitching. It does not work against good, great, or hot pitching. When you face pitchers who can pound quality strike after quality strike, you better start stringing together some singles for a rally – because you’re not going to get that fat and/or cookie pitch to blast for extra bases. Go ask Sheffield, or Giambi, or A-Rod about that.
Replacement Level Yankees Weblog
I felt as good about this team going into the postseason as I had about any team since the 1999 team. The lineup looked stacked, the starting pitching was solid if not great, and the top of the bullpen seemed decent enough. But Detroit outplayed them on both sides of the ball, and earned this series victory. I find this Tigers team to be fairly likeable, so I’ll be pulling for them to win it all now.
Mack Avenue Tigers: A Detroit Tigers Blog
I wish I’d have been lucky enough to get tickets for this series. I thought what the players did, getting the fans involved in the celebration, has got to be one of the most amazing sights in baseball, if not all sports. This series had the feel of the Pistons-Lakers a few years back. No one gave the Pistons a shot, no one gave the Tigers a shot. On paper, it was no closer than the experts thought. But you’ve got to play the games, and both times, the Detroit teams came through, at first with a hint of victory to come, then both flat-out took what was theirs. When the Pistons finally clinched, and it was known from the middle of the game they would, there was a championship. The Tigers and fans just felt like they’d won one.
In my series preview, I had predicted that the Tigers would win the series because of superior pitching but never in my wildest dreams did I think that they would win so convincingly. At one point, they held “the best line-up ever assembled” scoreless for 20 straight innings. In the last two games, the Yankees actually looked overmatched. Beating the Yankees is one thing. Completely shutting them down is something else.
Athletics Nation :: An Oakland A’s Blog
Let the Yankees have ESPN and the biased commentators, who, no doubt, are scrambling for intelligent analysis on a series between two teams they’ve largely ignored. They can show Derek Jeter golfing to their hearts content. I’ll be watching Detroit/Oakland; two teams who haven’t been dancing this long in October in more than a decade; two teams who promise pitching duels, instead of slug-fests; two teams who exude pure, unabashed love for the game, and two teams who have cities full of fans asking nothing more than good October baseball.
I’m thinking about maybe coming up from Cinci to see a game. Does anybody have any Friday tickets that they may be looking to sell? For instance, if they coudn’t make it that night for whatever reason. Otherwise, what does the scalping market look like on the streets. What have you been seeing tickets go for?
WHAT FUN! WHAT FUN!! THE BEST TIME I EVER HAD, WALKING THRU THE ISLES HIGH FIVEING EVERYONE, AND I MEAN EVERYONE! WHAT A PARTY! THE PLAYERS REALLY GAVE US ALL A GOOD TIME WITH THEM! THANKS, WE APPRECIATE BEING INVOLED! CAN’T WAIT FOR OAKLAND!!!!!! BOO-YEA!!!!!
Ken Great question on what are they going for on the street. You could check stub hub or one of those outlets.
Steve
PS, Bring the oatmeal pies, that may want to barter.
Haha..cmon Steve, if you bring me along instead of your wife and kids I’ll give you a whole crate of pies.
Stub hub prices aren’t too bad, considering. I just picked up one in the mezzanine behind home plate for $250 for Saturday’s game.
ESPN.com is reporting that Torre is going to be fired if he doesn’t resign.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2617224
Never could I have dreamed that the Tigers would be the team to end the Joe Torre era.
The Pistons ended the Lakers as we knew them, the Tigers seem to have ended the Yankees as we knew them.
But somehow, I don’t think anyone in the NFL is too worried.
“I still think we’re the best team,” Johnny Damon said. “Sometimes the best team doesn’t win.”
What kind of medicine is this greedy self loving idiot on, you just lost a series 1-3 and got smoked in the last two games scoring a grand total of 3 run . Maybe he is right the best team did not win,,,,,,,,,,, they get smoked.
ESPN is annoying with their little polls, the one on friday said who will be the first team to clinch their series, it listed 4 teams, the yanks being one of them and the tigs were not an option, even tho they were leading the series 2-1 at the time!
The new one is ‘who is to blame for the yanks early exit?’ the choices are something like, Torre, Arod, the rest of the team or the front office, how about putting another choice up there that says The Detroit Tigers!!!
Hello Tiger fans! I’m a reader from metsblog.com and i just wanted to come on here and thank you for beating those god damn yankees.
Of course, I am a mets fan, and I just wanted to let you know that all over sports talk radio the yankees fans are going crazy and even saying that this series loss was worse than the one they suffered to the Red Sox in ’04. Torre is going to get fired, and the fans and media are wanting Giambi, Sheffield, Matsui, Musina, Johnson, and needless to say, A-rod out.
Mets fans, Red Sox fans, and all fans who hate the yankees want to thank you and congratulate you on a great series and wish you luck in the next round (except i cant promise any good wishes for the world series.) You guys have a well rounded team that has great chemistry, and a great mix of young arms, power and maybe most importantly speed (which is nice to see in the AL.)
Basically, to sum up, thank you for putting yankkees fans in their place.
Thankyou Detroit Tigers !I’ve been a tiger fan since I can remember sitting on the edge of the couch with my father watching the tigers, Willie Horton and all my favorite tigers. I was a fan then and I will always be a fan no matter what. I had such a great year watching you guys, what a great team. You guys have made us fans feel like we have been part of every game and I thank you for that. This is the first year I have felt like I was right on the field playing with you guys. Thanks again! Good Luck playing against Oakland. So proud of all of you and it sure helps having the greatest manager ever! Love Ya! Go Get Em!!!!!!!!!
Hey all, just wanted to quote something I read on the Oakland A’s blog Billfer linked to above. Sorry if I’m wasting space on something you all could read for yourselves, but I thought this was especially insightful. Supposedly it’s an anonymous e-mail from a Tiger fan to a radio station:
3 things:
1. I’ve never seen a team carry the manager up on their shoulders.
2. I’ve never seen a team bring the celebration out on the field.
3. Whichever player took the Leyland for Governor sign and held it up is priceless in my book (someone let me know who it is).
What a great team – praise the manager and reward and share with the fans. I couldn’t see any other teams doing it!
I believe it was Bondo took the Sign.
-Sam
actually the mets took their celebration onto the field when they clinched the NL east this year, but i don’t think anyone has ever done it in the playoffs.
Thanks for posting that, Anne. “Unadulterated joy” is exactly how I’ve described being at Friday night’s game to people who have asked about it.
One more fun stat from the Yankees series:
• The Yankees, who led the major leagues in runs scored during the regular season, did not score for 20 consecutive innings before posting a run in the seventh inning on Saturday. That was the longest postseason drought by a team that led the league in runs scored during the preceding regular season since the infamous 1919 White Sox (aka the “Black Sox”) failed to score in 26 consecutive innings against Cincinnati during the World Series.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2006/news/story?page=shorthops_061007
So before this series, the only way to be as bad as the Yankees were was to TRY to be that bad.
I turned 21 on Saturday. Pretty good birthday present, eh?
I imagine champagne was flowing in more places than Comerica, Chris!
I was wondering if anyone has heard any interviews with tram or sparky about this season? I’m sure they are as proud as ever!! – Bless You Boys
Speaking of interviews, Ernie in the booth game 3 was a huge highlight.
As I watched the games over the weekend, I realized that baseball is still my first love (sorry Pistons – we can still be friends). These Tigers play baseball in a way that’s exciting and effective. Now if only I can convince my son that baseball isn’t boring…
Also, thanks for the link to the A’s blog. I found a post that was the perfect intro to the ALCS there!
Roughly what inning was Ernie on the ESPN broadcast? I was at the game and need to go back and watch that porition of the broadcast on tape.
I think it was around the 4th – 6th innings. You gotta see the very beginning when he launches into “Ernie recap” right off when they introduced him “Well, the Tigers got three early runs off the Big Unit…”. My wife said “It’s so cute – it’s like he doesn’t know anything else to do”
Hey everyone…
Farlane,
Totally agree seeing and hearing the Great Ernie Harwell on Friday night was a huge highlight. It reminds me of the summer-days of ’84 when we listened to him every night. How awesome would’ve that have been if the Tiges hit a home-run during that inning so we could’ve heard him once again do his legendary home-run call “it’s a llllllllloooooooonnnnnnnnnnngggggggg Drive, way back and gone!!!!”. I was hoping Ernie would’ve kicked those other two bumbs out of the booth. Joe Morgan – what a joke compared to Ernie!
Also, I think a lot of people now realize how strong their passion is about the Tigers when compared to the Pistons or Red Wings. Baseball is a much bigger family-event. It seems we can always remember back on a great childhood experience going to the old ball park with are dads and getting sick on all the cotton-candy.
How fast will Hockeytown be replaced again with ‘Tiger-Town’?
My 13 year-old son has never seen a winning season until this year. He suffered stoically during the 119 losses three years ago and was rewarded this year. I will never forget watching the celebrations late into the night with him. He began to fade to sleep, lying on the sofa and I heard him muttering “I’m so happy…I’m so happy…” over and over. Just typing this I’m getting misty again. Leyland and the boys have given me a priceless memory I will never forget.