Previewing the Series

This is a relatively straightforward series to preview. The Tigers have gotten good hitting and fantastic pitching in the playoffs to beat the A's and Yankees quite easily. The Cards have overcome a severe lack of talent to reach the World Series, mostly thanks to the fact that the Mets made Jeff Weaver and Jeff Suppan look like two very excellent pitchers. In theory, the Tigers should have no trouble making quick work of the Cards. The talent gap between these two teams would seem to be greater than the Astros/White Sox and Cards/Red Sox gaps of the past two seasons, both of which resulted in easy AL sweeps. In practice I don't think it's going to be so easy. The Cards just have this feel about them right now, that somehow they're going to get done what their two more talented predecessors couldn't. Also, every team I root for in major sports championships seems to lose (minus the Steelers, of course, which is a trade I will take every day of the week and twice on Sundays) and I'm certainly rooting for the Tigers here. I dunno, I just feel like everyone is making this out to be waay to easy for the Cards and everyone has made a few too many MLB vs AAAA jokes (between the continuous cheap shots at blogs, the repeating of the same "AAAA" joke over and over and over again with no effort to learn anything about baseball besides the Red Sox, and the absolutely brain damaged commentary on the Yankees' problems I've had it with the Sports Guy). The Cards finished the season slow but they were on the Mets' heels until Labor Day this year. There's been no sign of the team that almost collapsed in the playoffs and despite everything I've said all year, I think this is going to be a good series. I'm not making a prediction here because I don't want to jinx the Tigers. I think they're the better team and I feel like if I pick them, they're doomed (I'm an impressive 0-6 on playoff series this year) and if I pick the Cards I'm reverse jinxing them. Anyways, Verlander and Anthony Reyes kick things off somewhere between the listed 8 PM start time and 8:45 tonight. I don't know the last time two rookies started a World Series opener, but I'd imagine it's been a while. Detroit (the city) should be absolutely electric tonight. The team blogs to follow for this one are Viva El Birdos and The Detroit Tigers Weblog.