Things like "ouch" and "this sucks"

It's a good problem to have, waking up on Oct. 28 to realize that last night was the last Detroit baseball I'll be seeing for the year. The team normally checks out somewhere around the Fourth of July. which is what made this season so decidedly special. Contenderism is a wonderful feeling, especially with your baseball  team, and it'd been such an arid climate in Detroit for that, for so long, and with such consistently shitty baseball, that when this team came around and started playing well, it excavated a lot of powerful and exciting feelings for people.

I am not sad about last night. How could I be? Yes, it would've been incredibly overwhelming to win the World Series. But this season, just getting to the playoffs and then what they did to the Yankees alone was worth it. And yes, it's no fun watching your team implode in the championships. That was pretty brutal. I can see us losing games via an Albert Pujols walk-off in the 9th, or Scott Rolen lining a triple to score a couple of runs. But to beat yourself first, through a momentary but pivotal blackout of basic fundamentals (stopping wild pitches, throwing to first or third, playing routine line drives, etc.), somehow makes it worse. Losing is still losing, and Detroit choked big-time. That's why I'm not bummed. I'm glad it's over, if Detroit is going to play like that. That is some shit I don't want to watch.

But to have a team in first place, with the best pitching in the majors, grappling with division foes in a tight pennant race, watching what Chicago and Minnesota is doing ("Did they win last night?"), those elements went right to me. It will also be noteworthy to see the ripple of effect of this team's success. Owner Mike Illitch, if he so much as sniffs a championship, opens the wallet kindly.This, we saw with the Red Wings, when, in one off-season, they signed Hasek, Hull and Chelios. Guys might want to come here now, and he hopefully won't have to overpay obscenely to get them. Of course I couldn't care less what he has to spend, seeing as how he outpriced me out of the playoff experience with the cost of tickets. But hey, that's my fault not his.

I followed this season and postseason closely, with suspicion that it could be an abberation. This team could  lose 90 next year. Who knows? But I made sure to have as much fun as possible while it was going on, right up until  last night. I try to appreciate shit for what it is, not what it is not. And on these very e-pages, my excitement may have gotten the best of me. Scornful, overwhelming pride is not very flattering on anyone. But you go a decade-plus putting your heart behind a team that chronically underachieves and you'd reek of a little hubris too if they turned it around seemingly overnight.

I did not think I would wake up today feeling so content and in a good mood. I have friends of mine I'm probably better off leaving alone for a few days. You won't want to get anywhere near them after last night. But I can't roll like that.

Pitchers and catcher report in mid-February. Can't hardly wait.