This town needs a good story

I’m not a baseball fan by any means. In my mind, the only acceptable time to watch the sport is a) in person or b) with your grandparents. These are the only times I will watch the Detroit Tigers.

Yet, somehow, I got caught up in the Tigers hype yesterday. I’ve been vaguely aware about how they had been choking away their playoff hopes, but I hadn’t watched a minute outside of what was forced down upon me via SportsCenter. I had no intentions of watching the tiebreaker game they had with the Minnesota Twins. I had class until 9 PM anyways, but I most likely wouldn’t have watched it even if I wasn’t. Sorry. Just can’t get into it. And if you’re on Facebook, you learned yesterday that 90% of the people you’re sure don’t watch baseball will watch a big game simply so they can coach the team via status updates, which was rather annoying. I did not want to be one of those people.

But I’m aware of what happened. The fellow that sat in front of me during my night class was following the GameCast on his laptop, so at times that was more interesting to me than different all the millions of scene transitions we were going over in Film Culture. Only at times, though. I’m not a fan, but I’m not one of those people that’s going to root against the hometown team just for the hell of it. I wish them well. The city of Detroit just seems like a happier place to be in when the Tigers are doing well. I noticed that they were up 3-0, and I was happy. The next time I looked, it was 4-3 Twins, late in the game.  I then learned via my Twitter feed how exciting the end of the game was, and I almost wished I watched.

I watched the game highlights, voluntarily — the first time in my life such an event has transpired. And honestly, I felt bad. The team essentially choked their way out of the spot, it’s not like they worked their asses off and just fell short (and that Cabrera drunkeness news is just hilarious to me, and certainly didn’t help the team), but I didn’t realize how much it would bother me. Not just for the Tigers, but for the fans. They’re definitely a legit team, unlike in the early 2000s, but no playoff success other than the World Series run.

And while they likely would have been crushed by the New York Yankees, that’s not a certainty. They would have been a big underdog, the way I understand it, but this town needs a good story. They need a pick-me-up. And now.. the good story possibilities have been greatly reduced. The Tigers just played like 300-something games in one season, and didn’t make the playoffs. The Lions won one game — making this season a drastic improvement over the last — but even if Stafford was healthy right now they’re only going to win like three or four games max, making this season another meaningless one in the ever-lasting rebuild process.

The Pistons were a mess last year, but I follow them with less interest than the Tigers so I don’t know how they’re shaping up for this season. Regardless of who you follow in college football, that season is shaping up poorly as well. The Spartans looked like their season was absolutely lost, leading most to start wondering when college basketball starts, but then they beat an undefeated Wolverines team, delaying their run back into national prominence. I’m a Wolverines fan. I didn’t think they would go undefeated by any stretch, and I don’t think this changes the fact that they’re going to play in a bowl game (likely on January 1st). But if you’re not winning the National Championship, you need three things for a good season — a win over Notre Dame, a win over Michigan State, and a win over Ohio State. I would be happy if Michigan went 3-9 every year as long as those were the three wins. But now, with the severe likelihood of only one of those three things happening, I’m a little less enthused. That said, a win in Iowa on a beautiful ABC night game would be outstanding.

So, it’s up to the Red Wings to provide the good story. And they couldn’t look any worse right now. With Vancouver leading Montreal 3-1 late in the 2nd period, there’s a good chance Detroit could end up back in the conference cellar by the end of the night. While that means nothing at this stage of the season (Taylor Hall, here we come?), it’s still never happened in my lifetime. It feels weird. And the first two games sent the message that this team is exactly like last year’s team, which leads to less than happy thoughts when you figure you don’t have Hossa or Conklin to bail you out. As much as I don’t miss either, they did bail us out last season on our patented 20 minute effort games.

It’s time to step up. It’s time to forget about Sweden and play like a team that’s actually angry and actually wants to atone for shitting the bed last season. We’re on a four game losing streak, in games that matter. That’s no good. Get the act together.

Home opener tomorrow night against Chicago. Tomas Kopecky says it will be fun to beat Detroit. Yeah… remember the three games you played well in while you were in Detroit, Tomas? Because most people think it was too, but I think it was three.

Everyone’s least favorite player Brett Lebda is benched for tomorrow night, and everyone’s second-least favorite player Derek Meech is in, according to Ansar Khan. Also, Darren Helm is certainly out, and Patrick Eaves may come in for Justin Abdelkader or Kirk Maltby. I realize he’s (tied for the lead) leading the team in scoring right now, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s much more useless than Justin Abdelkader, who wouldn’t be in Detroit right now if he was about to be a healthy scratch to Patrick Eaves and Kirk Maltby.

Meech will be paired with Ericsson. I hope he plays well, and eventually, that pairing is split up. Meech or Lebda, I don’t like either with the rookie Ericsson. I think a Lidstrom-Kronwall (an official passing of the torch), Ericsson-Rafalski, and Stuart-Lebda/Meech is a much more rounded out lineup. All I know is I’m going to throw a tantrum if Detroit struggles defensively and Babcock doesn’t mix up the pairings, because it occurred to me tonight that I probably should have been calling for that when Detroit was letting in hilarious amounts of goals last season, but that never happened. Either way, we need Lilja.

Lastly, via Bob McKenzie, Detroit signed Brad May today, after his tryout with the Griffins. Not a big surprise. I’ll write a little something on that later tonight. I like it a lot, but I’d be surprised if he wasn’t a Griffin for the entire year. But that’s just a nice player to have at your disposal.

Anywho.. be a good story, Red Wings.