This should be fun

First off, congratulations are due to the Detroit Tigers, your 2006 American League Champion. There's lots of talk going around right now about how the Bucs blew their chance by not hiring Leyland in the offseason, but I don't think that's necessarily true. That, however, is a discussion for another day. Right now we should just focus on how well the Tigers are playing and the fact that it now seems possible that Andy Van Slyke will get a ring before Barry Bonds, and just how sweet that would be.

We should also be focusing on the fact that it's entirely possible that the team that finished with the best record in the majors this year will hang their entire season on Oliver Perez today. Maybe that's a bit strong, but 3-1 deficits aren't overcome all that often. It's true that I give Dave Littlefield a ton of crap for everything he does, but the fact remains that Omar Minaya has put his team in a situation in which they must win a game with Oliver Perez on the mound to avoid a 3-1 deficit in the NLCS. If anything, it should be fun to watch.