Bless you boys

A former high school classmate of mine, Steve "Scoop" Karageanes, once gave me some advice when I was struggling in Mrs. Grangers' AP English class. He said I would write better papers if I wrote about subject matter I cared about, as opposed for instance, the history of flight (which was in fact one of my term papers). I took this advice into my MBA program where I was required to write about the fudiciary responsibility a corporation has to its stockholders. Quite a bore right? Know how I wrote mine? It so happened at the time, the Red Wings were in their first cup year (of our generation) and I made an analogy to the ticket price of playoff games to a stock price. As the product of Detroit Red Wings corporation kept improving, the ticket (stock) price rose. The stockholders felt a tremendous value in the product and the corporation invested more in the product (this was the year they signed Brendan Shanahan). Much more interesting than the current HP scandal, eh?

So what?

So nothing really. I often like writing just for the sake of writing so I started yet ANOTHER blog near and dear to my heart. My family is my biggest joy, and therefore the main blog. I've got a blog for mom. I've got a blog for wine. This one is for everything else (and probably mainly sports) but not always. That's why I've called this random thoughts. I was thinking about calling it 'Deep Thoughts' by Jack Handey, but my guess is only a few people would get that. I'm hoping to make this much more interactive. Leave comments. Start a discussion. I'll give you a topic. No big woop.

First topic - THE DETROIT TIGERS. They just made a $175 million dollar payroll look like a bunch of junior varsities. 19 long years for starved baseball fans. Michiganders have actually been spoiled since the last baseball title. 3 NBA titles. 3 Stanley Cups. 1 NCAA football title (albeit SHARED). 2 NCAA basketball titles (for you MSU fans, yes I am including UM accomplishments here - of course you probably figured that out when you saw 1 NCAA football title). 1 (maybe even 2?) WNBA titles (but who cares, right?). Throw in a Rose Bowl or two and a few Final Four appearances and it hasn't been a bad couple of decades.

So why does this one feel so different? Why do we like these guys better than the Bad Boys? Why is Pudge a better captain than Mateen? Why do we think Kenny Rogers shows more swagger than Chris Webber? Because it's baseball. Pure and simple. The boys of summer. America's pastime. Hot dogs. Applie pie. Chevrolet. And what better way to do it than beat the friggin' New York Yankees! America's team. They're laughing in Boston. I'll venture to say that Texas and Seattle fans are smug about Alex. As for me - well I'd believe this group beating the Yankees would have as much chance as adding Rasheed Wallace would allow the 'stons to beat the Phil-Kobe-Shaq-Mailman-Payton-and what the hell Magic-Jordan-Bird and whatever other big name you can think of Lakers. But as the native Michigander, Derek Jeter says: "That's why you play the game".

So Bless You Boys because We Are Family. Another One Bites the Dust and now The Final Countdown begins. Thanks to Alan, Kirk and Lance for trying. Kudos to Higginson for the stamina to endure what is likely the most frustrating career in all of sports. On to Oakland.

Let's go to work Detroit.