Yankees fall to the Tigers, 8-3
SO IT'S DETROIT
Jeremy Bonderman pitches a no-hitter for five innings and leads the Detroit Tigers to victory over the New York Yankees. The A's will face Detroit in the ALCS.
I'm happy for Detroit. Honestly. I'm happy for them today. And their fans. For a few years now I've thought of Detroit as a loser destination. When Jeremy Bonderman was traded to the Tigers (with Carlos Pena and Franklyn German), I thought Bonderman was being unfairly punished. Scuttlebutt says Carlos Pena was untrainable and he was shipped out of Oakland after only a couple of months. In exchange, the A's got Jeff Weaver who was promptly traded to the Yankees for Ted Lilly and a couple of other players. I've always favored Bonderman and viewed him as someone who should've stayed with Oakland. But, hey, far be it from me to question Billy Beane.
So I'm really glad that Jeremy Bonderman enjoys this success today. He is a winner and his environment has changed to mirror this.
• A guy was wearing a t-shirt that said, "Bondermania." A sign in the stands read, "Spiderman, Superman, Bonderman."
• When the Tigers won, manager Jim Leyland kissed his daughter and his wife through the netting behind home plate that protects the fans from foul balls. A male fan also pursed his lips through the net. Leyland gamely kissed the bill of the fan's baseball cap. I thought that was a nice moment. Amusing, but also touching.
• The Yankees deserved to lose. Yesterday they were criticized on Baseball Tonight for playing "without emotion." In the TV close-ups of Gary Sheffield and A-Rod in particular, you could see the defeat in their eyes. And this was when there were still two innings to go!
• For a brief moment I allowed myself to fantasize that the Yankees could rally in the 9th and score a bunch of runs, but eventually lose 8-7 to Detroit. I also fantasized that the Yankees would win and drag out their series a little longer. Either way, I wanted the ALCS opponent of the A's to be as tired as possible.
• A teeny tiny part of me also wanted the Yankees to win and get beaten by the A's in the ALCS. As it is, this defeat by the Yankees to Detroit might be the last straw for George Steinbrenner. He might acutally -- yipes! -- explore other strategies for building a baseball team. He might condone a closer look at how Billy Beane runs the A's.
• After clinching, the Tigers grab bottles of champagne from the plastic-protected clubhouse, then rush back OUT to the field so they can spray fans and share the celebration with them.
• Even Kenny Rogers, of all people, clambers onto the roof of a dugout with two bottles of champagne. Fans reach out to him, anticipating the champagne spray. This is Kenny freakin' Rogers. I shake my head.
• The Tigers carry Jim Leyland off the field. Literally carry him up on their shoulders. We'll never see that happen to an A's manager in the Beane era. Can I call him Mr. Wildcard?
• More cool signs in the stands that were shown on TV: "Fly Home Alex" (referring to A-Rod, of course); "Destiny" (with the capital D in the Detroit logo); and "Happy Day."
• And finally, they also showed a fan in the stands holding aloft a simple sign. "Oakland you're next."
The A's are ready for you. Bring on the Tigers.
Jeremy Bonderman pitches a no-hitter for five innings and leads the Detroit Tigers to victory over the New York Yankees. The A's will face Detroit in the ALCS.
I'm happy for Detroit. Honestly. I'm happy for them today. And their fans. For a few years now I've thought of Detroit as a loser destination. When Jeremy Bonderman was traded to the Tigers (with Carlos Pena and Franklyn German), I thought Bonderman was being unfairly punished. Scuttlebutt says Carlos Pena was untrainable and he was shipped out of Oakland after only a couple of months. In exchange, the A's got Jeff Weaver who was promptly traded to the Yankees for Ted Lilly and a couple of other players. I've always favored Bonderman and viewed him as someone who should've stayed with Oakland. But, hey, far be it from me to question Billy Beane.
So I'm really glad that Jeremy Bonderman enjoys this success today. He is a winner and his environment has changed to mirror this.
• A guy was wearing a t-shirt that said, "Bondermania." A sign in the stands read, "Spiderman, Superman, Bonderman."
• When the Tigers won, manager Jim Leyland kissed his daughter and his wife through the netting behind home plate that protects the fans from foul balls. A male fan also pursed his lips through the net. Leyland gamely kissed the bill of the fan's baseball cap. I thought that was a nice moment. Amusing, but also touching.
• The Yankees deserved to lose. Yesterday they were criticized on Baseball Tonight for playing "without emotion." In the TV close-ups of Gary Sheffield and A-Rod in particular, you could see the defeat in their eyes. And this was when there were still two innings to go!
• For a brief moment I allowed myself to fantasize that the Yankees could rally in the 9th and score a bunch of runs, but eventually lose 8-7 to Detroit. I also fantasized that the Yankees would win and drag out their series a little longer. Either way, I wanted the ALCS opponent of the A's to be as tired as possible.
• A teeny tiny part of me also wanted the Yankees to win and get beaten by the A's in the ALCS. As it is, this defeat by the Yankees to Detroit might be the last straw for George Steinbrenner. He might acutally -- yipes! -- explore other strategies for building a baseball team. He might condone a closer look at how Billy Beane runs the A's.
• After clinching, the Tigers grab bottles of champagne from the plastic-protected clubhouse, then rush back OUT to the field so they can spray fans and share the celebration with them.
• Even Kenny Rogers, of all people, clambers onto the roof of a dugout with two bottles of champagne. Fans reach out to him, anticipating the champagne spray. This is Kenny freakin' Rogers. I shake my head.
• The Tigers carry Jim Leyland off the field. Literally carry him up on their shoulders. We'll never see that happen to an A's manager in the Beane era. Can I call him Mr. Wildcard?
• More cool signs in the stands that were shown on TV: "Fly Home Alex" (referring to A-Rod, of course); "Destiny" (with the capital D in the Detroit logo); and "Happy Day."
• And finally, they also showed a fan in the stands holding aloft a simple sign. "Oakland you're next."
The A's are ready for you. Bring on the Tigers.
posted by blank book at 4:51 PM
5 Comments:
I'm glad we're going to face the Tigers, I know we can beat them. I've been afraid of the Yankee's bats since the season opener -- just as well that the Tigers put them down for us. -- Dave
At Comerica Park, they played the 1980 Kool & The Gang song "Celebration" after a win. EXCUSE ME, but the A's have been playing that song after a victor since, oh, 1980. ;-p
I forget who said this over the air, but someone compared the Yankees to Team USA in this year's World Baseball Classic while comparing the Tigers to Japan, the country that won the tournament. I thought that was fairly insightful.
Yes, I noticed the "Celebration" song, too.
The more I think about how the Tigers celebrated with the fans in the stands, the more it makes me think both the team and the city want to win this ALCS more than Oakland does. And we want it a lot!
I hope this feeling goes away on Tuesday... when the A's beat them.
By defeating the Yankees, I think Tigers fans feel like they already won the World Series. As enjoyable as beating the Twins was, can you image what the Coliseum would be like had they swept the Yankees instead?
To be honest, the winner of the ALCS is almost assured of winning the World Series. Neither the Mets or the Cardinals can find enough starters they can rely on. The Tigers' starters just shutdown the lineup of the Ages and the A's are so deep, they have a 16 game winner (Blanton) whom they can't find a place for in the post season.
You're absolutely right: whoever wins the ALCS would go on to win the World Series. All the more it's important that the ALCS winner is us.
The A's can't find a place for Blanton because they're trying to find a start for Harden. Personally I hope they concede that Harden should come in from the bullpen if necessary. I hope Harden concedes it as well. He just hasn't pitched enough in the last couple of months to demonstrate he'd be a reliable starter. We're talking a playoff start here, after all.
I also like that Danny Haren would be in line to be the Game 7 starter, should it come to that. Boy, I'm loving the depth of our pitching!
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