These colors don't run, bitch

But they score a lot of runs, though. At least when they need them. Detroit is going to the World Series. I still can't believe I can actually type that sentence. I'm trying to keep my head about me. You know, a decade-plus of ineptitude gets wiped out pretty quickly when you win a pennant, and then the ALCS and make it to the World Series, but it's still 12 years of shitty baseball.  And it's all fine and well until you actually win the thing. Both teams playing in the NLCS aren't exactly bums. The Cards are hungry for it and New York is New York, but you take away the key player from either of those teams, Pujols in St. Louis, Beltran in New York and what do you have? Not much. Take away Pudge from Detroit and still have to account for Ordonez, Guillen, Monroe, Inge and even Granderson, who is showing more clutch than a five-speed in these playoffs.

Still, no one gets bigger props than Magglio. A year ago, this guy was short of being branded and over-paid (well, they're all overpaid, grossly I might add; the salary structure in baseball is the most obscene of any professional sport), injury-prone bust of a sign. But he turned it on this year, even if he can't run for shit. And who needs to burn up the basepaths when you're blasting two home runs in a deciding game 4? One, I might add, that ties the game and the other, ahem, that actually wins it, that's right, the bottom of the ninth inning.

To call this season "magical" is not only understating it, but makes one guilty of using one lame, gay-ass adjective. Magical my fucking foot. This season was a cunning, resolute and unrivaled showcase of dedication to fundamentals, focus, power and determination. Jim Leyland bitched this team out something fierce back in early May and they responded. The eight-game winnng streaks, the sole ownership of first place, the All-Star break buzz. On any day I could open my sports page and see Detroit at the top of the AL Central. I could look at team pitching stats and see Detroit at the very top. It seems like we NEVER had that here.

And even though Detroit is headed to the World Series, I would bet that it still is not enough for the national media to embrace, which is fine with me. I couldn't give a fuck less if Joe Buck, Fox, ESPN, Jon Kruk, Peter Gammons of any of the rest of the "pundits" gives to Detroit the dignity and respect it so richly deserves. We really don't care around here. Detroit gave to New York the wood shed treatment and every headline from here to Al-Jazeera screamed about what would now happen to the Yankees. It wasn't "Detroit wins," it was "what's happening with A-Rod." I'll tell  you what's happening with A-Rod. He's at home, jacking off with fistfulls of hundred dollar bills with his autographed Don Zimmer butt plug firmly in place. That's what he's doing.

I woke up today with a baseball hangover. Game One of the World Series is next Saturday. I hope I have another morning like this a week from today.