Collision Course

It's seemed to me, since about day 2 or 3 of this year's Divisional Series (we're talking Major League Baseball here), like the 2 teams that caught my eye just past the halfway mark of the season were headed toward a World Series to dream of! Before their tailspin in the last couple months of the season, the Tigers were the cream of the American League reaching the lofty height of 40 games above .500 and seemingly well on their way to a 100+ win campaign. Meanwhile, the only National League team to look good pretty much the whole way through was the Mets. Then things got blurry in August and September, with the Tigers finishing something like 29-41 in their last 60, and the Mets cooling off slightly around the time the NL Wildcard race grabbed everyone's attention (with about 10 days to go, up to 6 teams were battling for the 1 Wildcard spot!).

Those reversals of fortunes in late Summer made me think: maybe it's not a foregone conclusion that we'll see a Detroit-New York World Series. And 8 teams make the postseason, after all, so what are the odds (1 in 16 I guess?) that it would be those 2 teams.

Now, of course, the Tigers have a 3-0 lock on their trip to the Fall Classic, and the Mets are well on their way toward going up 2-0 (although Game 2 is just in the 2nd inning here in PVRland, as I'm about 2 hours behind after being out for part of the evening). As a big baseball fan who can always appreciate the plight of the Mets (living in the Yankees' shadow 99% of the time), and a longtime Tigers fan (2nd in my heart only to the beloved Jays, for MLB), the prospect of these two teams going head to head, in a year where each is fielding a very solid contender, is nearly enough to make me overlook my New York Rangers losing to the Penguins last night in the young NHL season. Although I don't do predictions, I'm quivering in anticipation of what could be one of the best World Series in years.

Or it could end up being the Cardinals over the comeback A's, in a sweep. (I like to cover as many bases as possible!)