This was one game I didn’t necessarily want to win, as dumb and as traitorous as it might sound. If we had pulled or squeezed this one out, we would have had the Pinocchio syndrome, only that the growth would have happened to the head. Let's face it: if we had won all three in New York, our helmets probably wouldn’t have fit over our enlarged pumpkins anymore. Summary: good, we squeezed out two games in New York, and that’s how we will roll going forward. Hope our starting pitcher outduels theirs, and maybe our popgun offense will come alive at some point. Hey, it worked in New York. Let’s see if the Tigers care anything about our strategy, because we are off to Detroit for the next three.
About a decade ago, I remember visiting my sister-in-law’s
family, who were living in the Detroit area at that time. We visited the Motown Museum, had dinner at a sports bar owned by former hockey great and local
favorite, Chris Chelios, and then went to a ballgame. The new ballpark I didn’t
care for, although I got to see Max Scherzer pitch against the Texas Rangers. Now
the older, gruffier Compadres among us will associate the Tigers with 1984, when we were
crushed in the World Series in five games following our exhilarating playoff
win over the Cubs. I think we can also tip our caps to them.
All right, so let the Detroit Tigers of 1984 have this post.
They certainly deserved it. What runs through my mind whenever I think about
that team? Legend. The greatest team I have ever seen in the non-roided era of
baseball. The starting rotation had Jack Morris, who won 19 games that year,
plus two against the Padres. Morris was a beauty of a pitcher, especially in
the postseason. Dan Petry won 18 games, Milt Wilcox 17. You had a Cy Young
winning closer in Willie Hernandez. On offense you had Lance Parrish, Alan
Trammel, Lou Whitaker, plus the ultimate warrior, Kirk Gibson. You had sneaky
contributors off the bench, like Tom Brookens and Ruppert Jones. You had pests
like Chet Lemon and Darrell Evans. Aurelio Lopez came out of the pen to set up
Willie. Of course, there was Sparky Anderson managing them, which parlayed
their talent into a 105-win season, plus easy playoff victories over the Royals
and the Padres.
We started in San Diego, where Jack Morris immediately shut
us down. Gave up two runs in the first, then lights out. And we had plenty of
opportunities against him, Lord knows. Game 2 was our moment of glory. Kurt
Bevacqua won it with a three-run homer. Kurt, arguably the goat of the previous
game, when he was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple, yanked
one off Petry, I believe, and we were off to Detroit with high hopes after
squeezing out Game 3. There would be no more home games in San Diego that year.
The Tigers rolled us in five, and we just couldn’t compete with them in the
end. Our peeps made a lot of noise at Jack Murphy, but the Detroit fans made plenty
of noise. That has been the Tigers’ last World Series victory, if I recall. Just
a great, great team, from top to bottom.
Back to Detroit in the year 2022. I wanted six out of the
nine games against New York, Detroit, and Minnesota, and I stand by that. Make
it happen, Friars.
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