Sunday, April 7, 2013

The Detroit Tigers. Over the top

It's almost comical sometimes. That being the incredible good faith leaps some scribes will make when describing their home town team(s) and particularly a few players. A couple years ago, the folks in the Motor City had their Detroit Lions Super Bowl bound the following season. As is their history, the puddy-tats crashed and burned. You'd think they'd learn. Now it's the Detroit Tigers.

After only a handful of games against mediocre competition, the koolaiders have been chugging away and are in full sugar rush mode again making the proverbial mountains out of molehills.

After Miguel Cabrera won the award last year, "Could this be Prince Fielder's turn to be MVP?", they breathlessly suggest. The honest answer is, well, it's possible. If he stays healthy and performs better than he ever has in the past for the whole season, he's got a shot. Along with likely about 30 or 40 other guys. People talking about an MVP award after only a half dozen games out of 162 is not only laughable, it's an insult to knowledgable fans. Would it be too much to ask for the glucose dealers to wait until, say, August, to take another look at Fielder's stats and see if he's even still remotely in the hunt?

One of the predisposed popsicle peddlers even had the audacity to suggest Tiger Drew Smyly could be the next "Yankee killer", obviously a reference to former Tiger pitcher Frank Lary. Lary pitched for the Tigers from 1954 through 1964, when the Yankees were the gold standard of baseball. Otherwise a journeyman pitcher (career record 128-116) Lary seemed to have an improbable knack of defeating the Bronx Bombers. Indeed, he went 27-10 against them.

Currently, the Yankees are an aging team with half their starters out due to injury. But, by god, in a mere single game, Drew Smyly pitched a whole 4 innings of decent relief against their depleted line-up, hence the insulin deficient folks suggested he could be the next Yankee killer. Nevermind a month ago the very same Drew Smyly was far from a given to even make the Tigers roster, and has a rather virginesque career big league pitching record of 4-3 -- he was exalted into Detroit Tiger lore. Please.

These are the same hyperglycemic band of minstrels that had the Lions possibly Super Bowl bound last year, and the Pistons serious playoff contenders this year. As they sing their sweet lullaby while looking through their rose-tinted glasses, they see the glass as eternally being half full. There is always hope, they say. Yeah, and when some Nigerian bank president offers you a can't miss get rich quick pitch on-line, if only you'll give him your credit card number, you can hope to be a millionaire too.

But I wouldn't count on it.
















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