On Friday night (yesterday) after the Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians and improved their MLB best record to 34-14 the Tiger manager spied a fan holding a sign. The sign read, "When do playoff tickets go on sale?" A veteran of 15 seasons as a manager Jim Leyland knew the guy was getting a bit over excited. The chain-smoking Leyland said, "My cigarettes have filters on them. I don't think that guy's did."
That guy could have been me on Friday when I wrote about the Tigers reaching 19 games over .500. I assured you, loyal reader, that the Tigers had last reached that lofty height in their last playoff year, 1987. Perhaps I got a contact buzz from all the BC bud in the area. I was just plain wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. The Tigers were an impressive 23 games above .500 in 1988.
Why didn't I notice? I only looked that their final record that year: 88-74. A good year, but only 14 games over .500. What happen? The 1988 Tigers were indeed a robust 73-50 on August 21st, and then the roof caved in. They won only three of their next 23 games including a 17 inning loss to the Yankees on September 11th. They finished the season with a respectable run of 11-5, but still finished one game behind Boston for the AL East crown. It was probably for the best since Boston got hammered by Oakland in the ALCS four games to none. Oakland in turn was roughed up by the Dodgers in the World Series which featured former Tiger Kirk Gibson's now famous home run in game one.
Lessons learned:
1) Check your damned facts better!
2) No matter how promising things may appear, the roof can cave in at any time.
3) There's not a whole lot that's good about September 11th.
4) The Tiger's really missed Gibby that year.
By the way, the Tigers won again today. They are 35-14, have a 3.5 game lead on the White Sox, have won 15 of their last 16 games, and will break my heart at any moment now.
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