Tony LaRussa is definitely on a roll. The long time manager retired shortly after his St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series last year. Nothing like going out on top. Being in the World Series affords the skippers of both teams the honor of managing the following year's All Star squads. LaRussa came out of retirement for one day and got to watch his NL team throw an 8-0 shutout, and pretty much put a beat-down on the ALers. Now he can go back out to pasture and start counting down the days until he gets inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. He's a lock. Does it get any better than that? High. Very high.
On the other end of the spectrum were the players representing the Detroit Tigers. Justin Verlander was the starting pitcher. As the reigning AL MVP and Cy Young award winner, Verlander has a reputation of being not only dominant, but intimidating while on the mound. Evidently, the National League hitters didn't get the memo. They treated JV like -- well -- JV, as in junior varsity. The NL hitters lit him up like a pinball machine, beat him like the proverbial red-headed stepchild -- and all that.
The Tiger hitters? Prince Fielder went 0-2, and Miguel Cabrera grounded into a double play. In 3 times at bat, they made 4 outs. Low. Very low.
Yet, never fear. All is not lost for Detroit's beloved puddy-tats. They get to return to the friendly confines of the AL Central, widely considered to be the worst division in major league baseball. Over the long haul, against such lesser competition -- they'll probably fare well. The Tigers could even make the post-season and, after that, it's a crap shoot. They had no business knocking off the Yankees last year in the playoffs, anymore than St. Louis had defeating a clearly superior Texas Rangers team in the World Series. But it happened.
So here's to Tony LaRussa. He gets to ride off into the sunset like Roy Rogers on Trigger. Happy trails.
The Tigers have some work to do. If Verlander, Fielder, Cabrera, and the rest of their team somehow can't even manage to win the pitiful AL Central division, perhaps they should be in westerns as well.
Following down the same trails -- with a major-league sized pooper scooper.
Somebody's gotta do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment