personal thoughts as we enter 2011 ALDS, Tigers @ Yankees

[© tweed]

to not waste more time.  to let you know where I am, in life, in the things that should be most important, or so I'm told, I'll tell you the following.  in 12 hours 13 minutes I will begin the LSAT exam.  I've tried to review for it, but have proven largely unable.  my two practice exams suggest I'll do just fine... so I'll display my trust of that through ostensible apathy.

there are two moments I'd like to share with you all before 837pm, when CC Sabathia will deal pitch number one, with Old Dominion grad Justin Verlander sitting in the third base dugout.  first is the October 2006 ALDS, AL East title winner NY Yankees and the AL Wild Card winner Detroit Tigers.  to refresh, Detroit, picked by nobody in the preseason punditry, stormed out of the gate in '06, winning at a 2-to-1 clip through midsummer.  but then proceeded to slow down, as the Minnesota Twins caught fire and the White Sox likewise faded.  the crash and burn culminated in Detroit getting swept by hapless Kansas City, in Detroit, on the final weekend of the regular year.  Minnesota thusly took the division title, with both teams tied at 95-67, head-to-head tiebreak going to the Twin Cities.  Detroit's consolation prize was the wild card berth and a trip to the Bronx.

the Yankees, on the other hand, started slowly, very slowly in 2006 before hitting stride.  this was part of a stretch lasting three seasons (2005-2007); Yankee haters like yours truly gleefully looked at the standings in late May of each respective season to see the $200 million Bombers buried.  but no dice, we wouldn't be able to enjoy a Yankee-free October until 2008, meaning I spent every single public school October having to defend a stilted superego against the onslaught of a largely obnoxious, lumpenproletarian, often Italian-American mass of pinstripe wearing goons.  (and you wonder why I'm so bitter?)

but my digressions are getting wider, as can happen when I write about a topic I know a lot about, and my time is dwindling, so on to the main points.

-I remember that '06 ALDS as fondly as any other baseball memory I have, save the 1999 Mets run from October 1-19.  on October 7, 2006 the Yankees were forcefully eliminated by Moneyball goat Jeremy Bonderman and the upstart Tigers - who were, about 48 hours prior, down 1-0.  this in a series that Mike Francesa declared "the easiest the Yankeees ever faced".  and at night, the Mets advanced past the LA Dodgers.  marking the first time since 1988 that the Mets outlasted the Yankees in a baseball season, and providing me for the first time a sense of MLB-inspired vindication.  I always knew it was out there, but before I felt it, it was only a thought, just beyond the horizon.  2006 gave it to me, and the Tigers, Justin Verlander, Jim Leyland, and others played an indispensable role in this Long Island drama.


-on March 31, 2011, I both cut class (Collective Bargaining in the Public Sector, for those keeping score at home) and had Blue Moon for the first time in my life.  this was by design, and had been the plan all along.  the Tigers would lose to the Yankees, as CC Sabathia would defeat Justin Verlander.  now, exactly 6 months later, and in a fundamentally different place in life, I vicariously seek my vindication.


enjoy the game, comrades.