So it all came down to that. Two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning, his team trailing by a single run, a 2-2 count, and the first Triple Crown winner in 45 years at bat. The windup, the pitch, and..... alas, there will be no joy in Motor Cityville because the mighty Miguel Cabrera watched a fastball right smack dab down the middle of the plate whiz by without even bothering to swing at it. As Ernie Harwell used to say, "he stood there like the house by the side of the road". Strike 3.
Somewhere Dandy Don Meredith turned out the lights. Fat ladies the world over belted into a song. Yogi Berra officially proclaimed it over. And so it was.
After having swept the Yankees to get into the World Series, the Tigers in turn were swept away by the San Francisco Giants in the Fall Classic. The broom giveth and the broom taketh away.
It could be noted that the Tigers caught the Yankees at a bad time -- for the Yankees. A few of their usual sluggers were slumping, Derek Jeter was injured, and their pitching dropped off. But that's no excuse. Stuff happens.
Conversely the Tigers caught the Giants at an equally bad time -- for the Tigers. The San Franners were on a roll. They'd just come back from a 3-1 deficit to the St. Louis Cardinals to win the series. Counting the 4-game sweep of the Tigers, that's 7 wins in a row in the post-season, supposedly against the best competition. Pretty impressive stuff.
On paper, many thought the Tigers were a superior club to the Giants. They were, and they weren't. The Tigers had a better starting pitching staff, and certainly a more potent batting lineup. The Giants had a better bullpen, better defense, more team speed, and that mysterious thing that counts the most sometimes -- intangibles. Whatever it took, when it counted, they found a way to win.
The World Series played out oddly in a way. In the first game, the Giants hammered the reigning AL MVP and Cy Young award winner Justin Verlander, chasing him after only 4 innings. After that, when many expected the Giants to keep swinging their hot bats -- they didn't. Many also expected the Tigers potent lineup to break loose any minute of any game. They didn't either. Games 2, 3, and 4 were low-scoring. Intangibles won.
One more thing most Tiger fans don't seem to have considered --- the Giants did this without their best hitter, one Melky Cabrera, who was well on his way to becoming the National League batting champion before he was suspended a while back. If the Tigers' version of Cabrera had been out for whatever reason during the last couple months of the season, it might very well have been the Tigers never would have sniffed the post-season to begin with. In that respect, they don't have any excuses either. Sometimes stuff happens, and sometimes it doesn't. They really can't complain. Though Tiger fans are no doubt disappointed, all things considered, their team did quite well.
On a lighter note, one is left to ponder the final "move" Tigers' manager Jim Leyland made in this World Series. If one was watching closely, they noticed that during the course of the Series everybody in the Tiger dugout was wearing Tiger gear and everybody in the San Fran dugout was wearing SF gear. Except Leyland. He had on a World Series jacket. It said so right across his chest in big letters. When that final pitch Cabrera watched go by thudded into the catcher's mitt for strike 3, game, set, and match, Leyland immediately left the dugout.
Was it to congratulate the opposing manager, Bruce Bochy, which would be the honorable thing to do?
Nope, he headed down the tunnel into his own clubhouse. Gone in 60 milliseconds. Some might consider that poor sportsmanship but yours truly has a different theory.
If he had any sense he was getting rid of that damn jacket. I mean, c'mon, what good is a World Series jacket if you would up being the loser? And WHAT, pray tell, was he doing wearing it in the first place? Isn't he supposed to be representing the Tigers? If so, then why wasn't he in Tiger gear like everybody else? Ah well, nobody cares or will remember who the runner-up was anyway. Maybe he can sell it on eBay for a few bucks.
At any rate, congrats to the San Francisco Giants, the 2012 World Champions. This was no fluke. It was there, and they took it. Convincingly.
And somewhere a broom factory is working overtime.
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