Wednesday, February 7, 2007

It Comes From Where You Least Expect It

The strangest thing about watching the Cardinals play in the World Series this past fall was having to do so in such close proximity to so many Tigers fans. These people were EVERYWHERE. Chicagoans in my neighborhood were cheering loudly for whoever the Cardinals happened to be playing, much like two years ago when somehow overnight everyone on the Northside became a Red Sox fan. Regardless, there was an awful lot of navy blue and orange around these parts and not all of them were resentful Derrek Lee enthusiasts. No, this year was different from 2004 in that a reasonable percentage of these fans were actually from Michigan and legitimately followed Tigers baseball. Chicago being the biggest city in flyover country, it should surprise no one that it's a melting pot of small town kids from all over the Midwest. A lot of them happen to be from Michigan. Several of them even have the distinct privilege of being my friends.

Now, as you can imagine after watching the Cardinals' late season collapse, I wasn't really all that concerned with these friends at the beginning of the playoffs. I anticipated cheering for the Tigers right along with them if they made it to the World Series, assuming my redbirds would bring the colossal disappointment of the regular season into the playoffs. They seemed so disoriented about what they were supposed to be doing at that point, I half expected Jim Edmonds to eat his bat in the on deck circle and Jeff Weaver to pitch on all fours. By the time they face planted into the postseason I was convinced it was a lost cause. So it was only after we had finished dismantling the Padres and began chipping away at the Mets that I began to realize there was a possibility we'd face the Tigers in the championship series. I immediately knew I'd have to start bracing myself for a new breed of harassment coming from the most unlikely of places. I mean, until that point I was on their side! It was all very strange. Initially unsettling, but ultimately satisfying.

I was scared. It had been hammered home all year long (hell, for the past several years) that the American League is far superior to the National League. The Cardinals may have beat the Mets in game 7 of the NLCS, but it's not like we steam rolled over them. That effectively meant that a barely .500 team from the laughable central division scraped by with an unlikely win over what was considered to be the best team in a highly ridiculed league. We were headed to face a veteran manager leading a young team that had largely dominated their division all year. Not exactly a compelling or balanced match up, I'll admit.

I tried hard not to get too terribly excited about getting past the Padres and Mets, as I was burned badly the last time I believed blindly in the Cardinals championship capabilities. This time I was timidly optimistic and realistically cynical. I was happy for them to be there, but resigned to the fact that we probably couldn't pull it off. There was no way we could bully our way past the amped up team that surprised the Yankees in the division series and demolished the A's in the ALCS. So when the match-ups were set and we started the World Series in Detroit, I took the abuse from the Tiger fans in stride. They had a point, after all. We WOULD be lucky not to get swept. Maybe I SHOULD buy a broom. Perhaps the Cardinals DO take it in the Poo-holes. (Evidently this is a regional crowd pleaser.) It was unnerving to be hassled by yet another legion of fans in Chicago and honestly a little exhausting. I expect this from Cubs fans, but the Tigers? Where did they come from anyway? Even after winning the first game in Detroit and the first in St. Louis proved we weren't gong to lie down and ahem...take it in the Poo-holes, I didn't have a legitimate comeback. 1968 anyone? Plus, it was the Tigers! The feel good team of the year! After years and years of sucktitude they finally had a good, well managed team that deserved to succeed. But then something happened that no one could have predicted and I could hardly have hoped for. The Cardinals actually won. And the weirdest part was, despite my mind blowing elation over our underdog triumph, I kind of felt bad for those guys. Here's a team that stormed through the regular season (for the most part), blew through the playoffs and seemed posed to make up for years of inadequacy by winning the World Series. They got totally Red Soxed! Like us in 2004, the season long momentum couldn't do much for a team that appeared to be phoning it in down the stretch. So either I feel sorry for these fans because I'd been there not too long ago or I actually liked the Detroit team. It's probably a combination of the two. However, the point is I was ready to take pity on those friends of mine from Michigan. But surprisingly, they don't really want to talk about baseball anymore.

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