God damn it. God damn it man. It happened again, but this time three-fold. We can officially add Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez, and….Fernando Rodney to the ex-Tigers to have won a World Series, not on the Tigers. Here’s the complete list since 2017:

The 2014 Detroit Tigers rotation that featured Verlander, Scherzer, Price, Porcello, and Sanchez who ultimately got SWEPT by the Baltimore Orioles in the ALDS has become a baseball commentary narrative as prevalent as the “did you know Clayton Kershaw and Matthew Stafford played baseball together in high school?” The only difference with the exhaustion of the narrative is that the Kershaw-Stafford one is a cute little fun fact that doesn’t make me bleed from my internal organs when I hear it.

The pictures are everywhere. All the baseball world knows. HEY REMEMBER HOW GREAT THE TIGERS WERE FOR A LONG A TIME BUT JUST COULDN’T CLOSE THE DOOR? Yes. Everyone and their mother in Michigan knows this. It’s gut wrenching. I’ve been torturing myself with old media and pictures since the Nats closed the door in Wednesday’s Game 7.

And the question we all keep coming back to is HOW? How in all of hell did we not win? And who knows the god damn answer to that? Some will say our bullpen, others will say our inability to throw to first base, some may blame poor base running. Whatever your choice of poison, it still ends in the same stomach pit of sadness and emptiness of knowing we had a top 3 MLB team for the good part of a decade and only have two ALCS Championships to show for it.

What pains me the most is one day when I have a kid, they’re going to ask me about the old Tigers teams that I grew up with. Well maybe they won’t ask me but you can bet your sweet ass I’m going to tell them about them, probably 9 beers deep driving them home from their little league game (it’s a joke don’t drink and drive). But they’re going to ask about Verlander, Scherzer, Price…these Hall of Famers who will ultimately be inducted as Astros, Nationals and Red Sox, and I’m going to say….

“YANNO WE USED TO HAVE THOSE GUYS?”

And the kid will go “Wow Dad! No way!”

and I’ll say “yep! and they all were on the same team at one point!”

And they’ll say “Wow! did they win a World Series?” then I’ll say no, and they’ll say HOW…..then I will proceed to let my kid out of the car and drive into oncoming traffic.

What sucks is I’m so happy for the guys who have won, it just breaks my heart that it wasn’t with Detroit, obviously. I’m glad they have had the crowning moment of their professional career…but it was supposed to be in Detroit, together. And what’s most painful is that the Tigers team now is not just bad- they are the worst team in the MLB. A feeble unrecognizable skeleton of what they once were.

We watch Miggy, the best hitter of our generation, struggle to hit 10 home runs as he flip flops from the IR to questionable month in and month out while our home grown products of Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello throw no-hitters and grapple over the Cy Young award. We watch our diamonds in the rough, our fan-favorite redemption story in JD Martinez win over his new city and propel his team to championships while Detroit gets the pleasure to indulge in a long-time TV announcer shoving match over a chair.

For the first time since I could walk or talk, I didn’t attend a Detroit Tigers game this year.

What the fuck happened?

That article is for a more in-depth, tactical Detroit sports writer. I’m just a loud mouthed fan who loves championships, and is starving for a formidable Detroit sports team…and right now it looks like I’ll have to wait till I have that metaphorical kid I mentioned above to see the boys win one.

And maybe, just maybe I am over-reacting, and Avila, Ilitch and whoever the fuck else have this under control, and we just need to go full Houston Astros and kick this turd down the road until we’re atop the MLB again…the only difference with Detroit and Houston is that Houston wasn’t king of the MLB before tanking, we got so god damn close, didn’t get there…and are now stripped down to nothing. And somehow….that stings more.

#eatemup 🍾

– Frank

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