COLUMN: National news unfair to Tigers

(Ricky Lindsay / MJ)

By JOHN MACDONELL, Staff Columnist

So while everyone else is probably writing about the Tigers and how they’re magical play has brought them a World Series birth, I think I’m going to take a different route this week.

Did anyone else get the feeling that the Yankees were catching all the publicity? Other than our local papers here in the Detroit area, most attention was centered around why New York couldn’t get it done other than how dominant our hometown boys were in this series. This should anger you all.

Sure Detroit gets some bad rep. Some of it is justified for obvious reasons, but there certainly is a lot of good in this town that can slide under the radar. Whenever you hear a national story about the city, it is usually involving the mayoral scandal, the lack of police and fire personal, and the mounting debt this cash-strapped city is facing. We get it. We all have troubles.

But when something happens that is worth spreading the news, the national media seems to spite it. Headlines from ESPN.com included, “A-Rod plans on return to Yanks,” and, “CC to have sore elbow checked by Dr. Andrews.” Nothing about the Tigers on the MLB section of ESPN. No love.

Now I do understand that the New York area is home to millions of people and stories that come out of that part of the country sure do rack up the views online. But quite frankly ESPN, “A-Rod” and “CC” did absolutely nothing for their team to win. But that is a testament to the Tigers’ pitching and the sudden outburst of hitting.

Alex Rodriguez was atrocious this post-season folks. He looked lost at the plate and quite frankly was not even feared by the Tiger’s pitching staff. Why can’t Verlander, Scherzer, Sanchez, and Fister be praised as much as the Yankees were questioned? I’m still on the search for answers.

My girlfriend, Aly, has a hardcore Tiger fan in her household. Her father loves himself some Tigers. One thing that he’s told me throughout this season, when I started to complain about their inconsistencies, was that all you have to do is play well enough to get into the dance. I scoffed at this because I, like thousands of other fanatics, had little faith that they would jell and come together in time. Down three games in your own division with 16 to go? Nearly impossible.

The team with the worst regular season record that made the playoffs, facing the exciting A’s team? A dog fight.

Then sweeping the “Mighty” New York Yankees while looking like a perennial power while doing it? That’s post-season ball right there. This is what we live for. And this is what we’ve waited for. Hopefully next week I’ll have even better things to say about this team. But one thing I’ll say now is that I’ve eaten my words for the regular season.

Forgive and forget. GO TIGERS!