Wait 'Til Next Year!

It's over. The baseball season has come to a close, and with it the championship hopes of the Detroit Tigers. But as I watched the pitiful ending on Friday night, I wasn't particularly distraught, because I knew one thing--if someone had come to me on opening day this year and said the Tigers would be in the World Series but lose, I would have taken it. This team has had over a decade of lousy play, so this season was a huge leap forward.

Unfortunately, they went out with a whimper. After a stirring win over the Yankees and dominance over the Oakland As, they just about handed the Series to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Tigers couldn't hit, and they couldn't field, especially the pitchers, who had an error in each game. Certainly pitchers' fielding will be worked on hard next spring training. They pitched well enough to win, but that wasn't enough.

As for St. Louis, I didn't feel bad watching them celebrate. They are a good baseball town, and they hadn't won a championship in a longer time-period than the Tigers, and they've been tantalizingly close in the LaRussa era. And the last time the Tigers lost to the Cardinals in a World Series they came back and won the next year (granted, that was 1935).

I don't know what changes the Tigers will make. Clearly they need another bat in the lineup, preferably a left-hander. I would hate to see any of the current players go in a trade, and I would be extremely hesitant to trade any of the young starting pitchers they have. But I have faith in GM Dave Dombrowski to do the right thing. After all, he took a team that was epic in its awfulness three years ago and turned them into a pennant-winner.