The View From Here: No Panic! Go Tigers!

 
By Ken DeLaat

While I have tried to stay away from commenting on my beloved Tigers, this weekend has unleashed the pent-up emotions a true dyed in the wool Tiger fan is going through these days They dropped three in a row to those damned Guardians.
Side Note: It remains amazing in a way to me how the national sports media continues to downplay the team that has consistently been atop the W-L records in all of the majors. They have been dominant in many ways and while many of their current sparkling stats will undoubtedly  return to Earth soon, they have,  thus far, been at the forefront of the measures used to rate the quality of teams.
But here’s my Tiger moment.

That team from Cleveland (still despise Casey Blake) has been a bane for many years and knocked us out of the playoffs last season. They were on the cusp of a sweep, a 4 day meltdown for the home team and a chance to crawl within a couple games of our frontrunners.

Enter Tarik Skubal. What does an ace do? He shuts it down. He stops the streak, pulls the plug on the sweep and reminds doubters that the holder of the Cy Young award is still here and still stepping up to toss a blistering complete game 2 hitter that says to his team, “Get me a run. Maybe 2. Then climb on my back and watch us win.”
That’s Jack Morris stuff. 

I love this team. All the grit from last year and a couple of pieces to help. We got Vierling back and Meadows is waiting in the wings. And forget about a lengthy collapse with Skubal prowling the mound every 5th game. He’s the best pitcher I’ve seen in a Tiger uni since JV was painting the corners.

It's a long season. There are further injuries, unfortunate streaks and puzzling lapses ahead. But man this team, as we said early on, is a whole lot of fun. I’m heading down to Motown for a few games and will be following this collection of clutch performers and players who seem to have transcended the desire for personal stats and traded it in  for W’s. It is truly a good time to be a Motown enthusiast.
Go Tigers!

​