For the most part, I've been following the Tigers' post-season on the radio. I'm working as pizza delivery guy, but I have Sirius/XM radio, so while driving around town I've caught most of the action. For the Oakland series, I was home for game four, when Jose Valverde blew a two-run lead and extended the series to five games, making me very angry. But Justin Verlander came in to save the day.
For the Yankee series, game one was the fulcrum. I was working, and when I got in the car and turned on the radio I was just in time to hear Raul Ibanez's game-tying homer off Valverde, which made me pound the steering wheel in frustration. I got home and learned that it was the second home run of the inning that Valverde allowed. Manager Jim Leyland earned my enmity for keeping Valverde in after one homer, given his performance against Oakland. But, amazingly, the Tigers were able to win the game, and after that it was fairly easy (though there tense moments in game 3 in the 9th inning).
Listening to New York media, it's all been about the Yankees' lack of hitting, and A-Rod being pinch-hit for/benched. Little credit has been given to the Tigers' pitching, which had historic E.R.A. numbers for starters and limited the Yankees to only two runs for the entire series. That's to be expected, I suppose, but it's also some delicious schadenfreude--this is the third time in seven years that the Tigers have knocked the Yankees out.
The MVP of the series went to Delmon Young, and I can't argue with that--he had the game winning RBI in all four games. But I might give consideration to Phil Coke, who is pictured above in a victorious pose. After Leyland lost confidence in Valverde (and to a lesser extent, Joaquin Benoit), it was Coke he turned to. Listening to New York radio today, they say the Tigers don't have a bullpen. But Coke was brilliant, getting two saves (one of them two innings) and finishing off last night's game (not a save situation). It is true that the Tigers will be hoping for great and deep starting pitching in the World Series, for Coke's magic could run out, but let's give credit where credit is due.
I was thinking about it last night, and this is perhaps the greatest era to be a Tiger fan since the Ty Cobb days, when they went to the World Series three years in a row (but lost them all). They hadn't been in the post-season two years in a row since they were in back-to-back World Series in 1934-1935. They then went to the Series in 1940, and again in 1945, not to go back again until 1968. That team had one last gasp with a division title in 1972, but it would take until 1984 for them to win it all again. Then, after one last gasp from that team in 1987, they would until 2006 (with some awful years in between) between playoff appearances.
But now, under Leyland, they have won two pennants and been to the post-season three times. That may not sound great by Yankee standards, but for the Detroit faithful it's a wonderful era. But Leyland has not won a championship with the Tigers, and it looks good this year. Except--
The Cardinals. They haven't won yet, but it looks like they will. The Tigers have already played the Cards in three of their ten World Series, a statistical anomaly, and have only one once (in '68). The Cards are like what the Yankees were in the late '90s--you've got to put a stake through their heart. They get great contributions from all their players, and they have good pitching (the Tigers didn't hit particularly well in the ALCS until game 4).
For now though, it's time to relax and bask in the victory over the Yankees.
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