Bless You Boys

There's something strange happening around here. A certain illness. I've been trying to ignore it all year, but I'm afraid I've come down with penant fever. You see, I've been a Detroit Tigers fan all my life. One of my fondest memories of childhood was the 1984 World Series Championship team. But that was 22 years ago. And 22 years is a long time in the life of a gangster like myself.

1987 was the last year the Tigers were in the playoffs. This will be the first year in a decade that they will win more games than they lose. A decade. To say there have been some slim years of late would be a pretty huge understatement.

But this year, pretty much out of nowhere, they got off to a great start and had the best record in all of baseball after the first week of the season. To my knowledge they have kept the best record in baseball all year long, an exceedingly difficult thing to do even for a team that is used to winning.

I cannot explain it, but this can no longer be called a fluke. So, in honor of this amazing, surprising team, The Lyrical Gangster is creating a new regular post, which I will update whenever I feel like it, showing the current standings in the American League's Central Division. We can all watch together and see if the Tigers win the penant and make the playoffs for the first time since I was 13.

Team Games Back

Detroit ........................................... --
Chicago ..........................................7.5
Minnesota .......................................8
Cleveland .......................................24
Kansas City ....................................35.5