World Series

I am happy to see the Cardinals and the Tigers in the World Series this year. I've always been a Braves fan and I would have certainly preferred to see the Braves make it to the "Fall Classic", or even the Cubs, which is my second favorite team. But the Cards are my third favorite team and I've been following the Tigers all year. I knew that they would be much improved with some good young pitching, some really good acquisitions, and a new manager, Jim Leyland. The boys and I even got to attend a Tigers game in Comerica Park in July. I was really glad, also, that the Tigers and Cards knocked out the Yankees and Mets.

The first game was Saturday night in Detroit. St. Louis pitcher Reyes was the story of this game. He was one of only two pitchers to ever start game one of the World Series with an earned run average over 5. He was going against Tiger's star rookie starting pitcher Justin Verlander. Verlander won 17 games and was repeatedly being clocked at over 100 miles per hour in one of his playoff starts against the Yankees. The Cards, behind Reyes, won easily in game one. Pujols hit a two run homer for the Cards.

I watched game two Sunday night with my Mom and Dad. Kenny Rogers of the Tigers continued his pitching in this year's playoffs. He now has thrown 23 consecutive shutout innings this postseason. Behind Rogers, the Tigers won game two by a score of 3-1. Pell City, Alabama resident Todd Jones picked up the save for the Tigers.

The big controversy in this game was whether Rogers applied pine tar to his pitching hand. The umpire, at Cardinal Manager Tony Larussa's request checked him out and ruled that it was just dirt on his hand and he told him to wash his hands between innings. However, listening to "Baseball This Morning" on XM 175 this morning, the three hosts of the show, Mark Patrick, Orestes Destrada, and Buck Martinez all seemed 99 per cent sure that it was pine tar, not dirt. They cited Larussa's close relationship with Leyland as the reason that no formal request was made to eject Rogers. Tim McCarver, the Fox analyst made a great point when he said, "If it wasn't illegal then why did he clean his hand?"

It was probably a moot point anyway, because that happened early in the game and Rogers continued to pitch awesome after the "incident". The series is now tied 1-1 and it moves to St. Louis on Tuesday. The Cardinals have to be satisfied to leave Detroit with a split and some of their best pitchers available, in Carpenter and Suppan.

Caught Looking