A Thousand Deaths

First things first, I'm over at Romancing The Blog today talking about Great Moments In Romance Genre History. OK, maybe it's not quite that involved. Still, I spent a fair amount of time banging my tiny pea brain against the proverbial wall trying to come up with a topic for this post - so why not go on over and check it out? Maybe leave a comment? C'mon, you know you want to.

In other news, for those of you insane enough to watch last night's tie-breaker between the Tigers and the Twins, now you know what the hell I've been going through all year long. Everyone is now talking this morning about what a great game it was, and how it's an instant "classic."

Horse hooey.

By my count, the Tigers stranded 349 base runners last night. You cannot win games when you strand base runners, and you sure as hell don't win games against the Twins doing that crap. You cannot leave the door open on the Twins. They will, sooner or later, waltz right on through it. Which is what they did last night. So once again I get to watch the Tigers do a late season swoon, while the Twins, once again, kick on the afterburners and finish strong.

Sigh.

Oh well.

Not that it matters much.

In theory it doesn't really matter who won the American League Central because on paper the Yankees should mop the floor starting today. Of course the playoffs are kind of funny. So often it's not about the best team, the all-star players, or who even had the better record during the regular season. Nope. It's all about who gets "hot" at the right time. And the Twins could, in theory, get hot after last night's emotionally draining win. We'll see though. My money is still on the Yanks (damn their black, merciless souls) although my heart is now rooting for the Angels.

As for the National League? Watch out for the Cardinals. As for that other southern California team? Joe Torre or no Joe Torre coaching them, I don't believe in the Dodgers. Sorry L.A.

Urban Renewal

For those of you who thought about me this weekend, why yes - the Detroit Tigers are trying to kill me. Instead of, oh I don't know, playing some offense and actually, oh I don't know, hitting the baseball - they've decided to make life interesting. So instead of doing something really radical like, oh I don't know, not dicking around and just winning the American League Central division already - we now have a tie-breaker game on Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins to look forward to.

Since I know you're all dying to know what I think, I'll tell you.

Tigers lose.

Why? Because even if our pitching staff shows up and has a spectacular game, the Tigers have shown all year long that they can't hit the baseball. So unless the pitching staff all turn into .350 hitters and we decide to play National League rules on Tuesday, I don't see the Tigers in the post season.

I know. Aren't I just the little killjoy?

I hope I'm wrong - but I don't think I am.

A lot has been made of the Tigers postseason run (at this point, dreams) because of what a clusterfuck (yeah I said it) the city of Detroit is. I'm a Michigan girl, through and through, but even loving the area as I do, it's hard to look at Detroit and the state as a whole, and not want to weep these days. While a lot of people in the country didn't start feeling the effects of the current recession until recently, the Midwest (and I'm lumping western New York state in here as well) have been feeling it for years. I moved to California five years ago because of it.

Five years ago.

And if I'm honest with myself, the writing was on the wall before that.

People in Michigan tend to have a healthy disdain for Detroit. First there's the resentment in the belief that if Detroit fails, the entire state is screwed. Also, it's hard to love Detroit when there has literally been decades of ineptitude and corruption. It's easy to be pessimistic about the city, especially with countless examples of urban decay, poverty, a horrifying unemployment rate (28.9% - no lie), and despair smacking you in the face.

All that being said, Detroit is still a city worth saving. Despite it's multitude of problems, there are good people in that city, fighting the uphill battle of trying to resurrect it. Will they be successful? Who knows? But in the meantime, Time magazine has decided to follow the story. They bought a house in the city, and plan to spend the next year profiling all things Detroit. The industry (such as it is), the politics, the people. Will the coverage be all about how terrible everything in Detroit is? Well OK, there is some of that. But there's also some hope. And Michiganders are nothing if not hopeful.

Go Tigers!

Follow Time's Assignment: Detroit coverage.