Say It Ain’t So
By Blake VandeBunte • Sep 24th, 2008 • Category: 2008 seasonTalk about limping to the finish line. The Detroit Tigers have now lost eleven of their last twelve games and are fading fast.
The Tigers and Royals are set to play tonight and will wrap up their season series, a series dominated by the Royals. The Kansas Royals dominated the Detroit Tigers this season. Go ahead, let that sink in. Taking the mound for the Tigers tonight is Nate Robertson. The same Nate Robertson who is owed $17 million the next two years and has an ERA of 6.15 this season. Starting for the Royals is Brian Bannister who sucks against everyone except the Tigers. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the guy hurled a no-hitter tonight.
The Tigers and Royals are both 15 games out of first place but the Tigers winning percentage is .001 below the Royals, therefore the Tigers are currently in last place in the AL Central. A win tonight though would push the Tigers out of the cellar as they head into their final series of the year against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Tampa Bay is about to wrap up the AL East. However, the Rays still have something to play for. If the Los Angeles Angels go cold the Rays could pick up home field advantage throughout the playoffs. If the Rays have something to play for their entire series against the Tigers, things could get ugly for Detroit. However, the opposite is also true, so if you want to see some Tiger wins, pull hard for the Angels over the next couple of days.
This season has been a bit like career of the band Weezer. Ignoring the first month of the season, the Tigers were in really good shape in July. I would equate June-July of this Tigers season to the the Blue Album/Pinkerton era of Weezer. This is back when Weezer was awesome and could do no wrong. In June and July the Tigers finally started to get some quality starts from the pitching staff and the offense began to wake up. On July 30th the club was three games over .500 and within striking distance of the playoffs.
The hot streak of Miguel Cabrera is like the “My Name is Jonas” or “Say It Ain’t So” of the Tigers season. Armando Galarraga is “El Scorcho” or something like that. There was plenty of good stuff going on with this club for a couple of months as we could see them shaking off the rust.
However, right when they need to make a push, things started to fall apart. This is the “Green Album” era in our Weezer/Tigers comparison. The Tigers weren’t as strong as we all knew they could be as the calendar turned to August but we told ourselves it was all good and would be fine. The “Green Album” was a piece of crap in my opinion but it had some smash radio hits “Hash Pipe” and “Island in the Sun” that helped keep them afloat. However, the rest of the album was really awful but people were just glad to have Weezer back and making music, we just said it was good because we were happy they were back. Same thing with the Tigers. When the club traded Pudge we accepted it by saying the team needed bullpen help. With some bullpen help the team would be great, right?
The whole plan of pretending everything was good for a minute but then stuff starting happening way too fast. On the heels of the “Green Album” Weezer turned right around and released “Maladroit” within a year. This is the last Weezer album I paid for. Total and complete garbage. I can’t even name one song off that album. This is when Farnsworth started giving up homers like it was his job and Todd Jones went down for good.
Following “Maladroit” was “Make Believe” which was even worse than “Maladroit”. Tough to pull off but Weezer did it. This was all of the late August games leading up until early September. The Tigers became tough to watch even for the die hard fans. In the same way, “Make Believe” was never even considered as a possible purchase for me. I own over 400 CDs and “Make Believe” was never considered. If I saw it in a used bin for $1.50 I would laugh and move on.
That brings us to today. The “Red Album” came out in June and features the band dressed up like the Village People on the cover, this is what they have resorted to. This is the Tigers current situation, the 11 losses in 12 games, the decent to last place. The Tigers, like Weezer, look like they cannot sink any further but they someone just keep digging deeper and deeper down.
Sadly, like Weezer, I feel like the Tigers recent crappiness is beginning to take away from their previous success. I want things like the 2006 season and “Pinkerton” to remain as positive memories. I want to look back on them fondly. I want to look back on my memories of the 2006 season and “Undone (The Sweater Song)” and smile about it. I don’t want those things tainted by what is going on now.
Maybe Weezer will get back to their roots and turn out something worth listening to. Maybe the Tigers will rebuild the team this off season and put together a playoff run in 2009. I’m just banking on either of those things happening.
Blake VandeBunte is a posting fiend.
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