By: Larry Sternberg, a typical Detroit sports fan
I admit it. I was losing hope for this year’s Tigers. They were playing less than 500 ball and falling behind the White Sox by 12 games. People were starting to call for Leyland’s job and Miguel Cabrera was being called a terrible trade.
What happened in the last two weeks?
Marcus Thames happened. Thames homered in the last five games he played in and has 13 homeruns for the season. This is the same Thames who the Tigers were going to trade and who was almost denied the everyday left-field job. Suddenly, a platoon guy gets off and all is right. It started off with a sweeping victory against the White Sox at Comerica. Cabrera started hitting and hit a walk off in a classic 2-1 victory, and the pitching finally found some depth -- even in games on the west coast. And guess what? Bonderman’s season-ending blood clot is forgotten.
That is the beauty of baseball; one player can ignite a team. For the summer of ’08, the player for the Tigers is Thames, and everyone is jumping on board. The Tigers are now 6.5 games behind the White Sox. I’m not printing playoff tickets, but at least the rest of the season may be interesting.
