Baseball: Despite the Unfair Playoffs System, I Do Not Feel Sorry for the Underachieving Detroit Tigers

I am vehemently opposed to both the wild card presence and the three plus rounds of playoffs that diminish the importance of baseball’s 162 game regular season.

With that in mind, one must make some allowances for the Detroit Tigers’ failures in post season, they have nary a World title, and just one pennant to show for 4 straight AL Central titles.

However, their “measured” play in regular season, often struggling to win the mediocre AL Central, makes me feel less sympathy for this underachieving team.

Further, there are some annoying and vastly over rated current and former players/manager that also make it easier to swallow the slight injustice, that denies Detroit its first title since the “wire to wire,” 1984 Tigers won it all 30 years ago.

The annoying, and yes over rated players include Miguel Cabrera, the least of the offenders, but he was seen laughing in the dugout with his team still down (4-3) in game 1 of the division series vs Baltimore after he homered in the top of the eighth inning.

Would Joe DiMaggio have been laughing with his team behind late in the game, even if he had hit 3 home runs.

Also Cabrera, a great hitter, but not the deity all the “lazy, say what is easy commentators” make him out to be, has not exactly torn it up in post season play and certainly has failed in many clutch situations.

Others also annoying, include current pitchers Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. Meanwhile ex Tigers Prince Fielder’s hitting woes and ex manager Jim Leyland’s really unforgivable, in baseball terms, decision to pitch to left handed slugger David Ortiz with a right-hander in game 2 of last year’s ALCS are well documented.

For the record, Verlander stuck it to the Yankees and their fans (that does not include me, by the way), by staying on for a full inning with TBS, which also should be ashamed, as Detroit scored runs while completing a sweep of the Yankees in the 2012 ALCS. The SF Giants then swept Detroit.

Scherzer thinks he is the greatest thing since “sliced bread,” is beyond mercenary, and what has he done in post season?!

Only one team can win it all and the three (plus) tiered playoff rounds is horrible, but the failure of good, but measured Tigers’ teams

Annoying

(2011-2014) to win it all is not that great an injustice, if one at all.