Waiting is the Hardest Part

When a team is on a roll like the Tigers have been it is tough to sit back and watch the other teams playing to get into the World Series. Detroit, however, should benefit from the week's rest, especially Sean Casey and Joel Zumaya. They are two very integral parts of this team's success and its projected fortune once the series starts against... either the Mets or the Cards. Watching the pitching of both of the National League teams must have Detroit chomping at the bit to get back out and hit the baseball.

Much like last year's White Sox, there is the waiting while the National League Championship series goes longer and potentially wears out the starting pitchers. Detroit's young guns and old rifle, Kenny Rogers, have time to re-energize and come out slinging in the Series opener in Detroit on Saturday. The biggest question going in, once it has been decided who they'll play, is the weather. Colder weather tends to favor the pitchers, because most batters don't relish the thought of hitting a ball thrown at 100 m.p.h. when the temperature hovers around freezing.

I'm sure that the media and the folks at Fox are rooting for the New York Mets with their larger potential television audience. It would be fun to play a new team in the Series for the Tigers, but the lingering smell of success against the Cards in 1968 is sweet, also. The Carloses, Delgado and Beltan, scare me with their ability to reach the fences, but the walls at Comerica Park are quite a distance from home plate if the ball is hit anywhere but directly down the lines. Albert Pujols seems to be the biggest threat for the Cards. Neither team, however, has a pitching staff that holds up against the Detroit aces.

Another rainy day and night here at Tigers' Central in Freeport, Illinois and this doesn't bode well for the weather the next few days in Detroit as they usually have our weather 24-48 hours later. I look forward to the Series even though I can't be there or see the first game live on TV. There are at least four good reasons to believe that Detroit will once again be World Series champions and they are... Nate, Kenny, Justin, and Jeremy, and of course there is Joel, Jamie, and Todd out of the bullpen... and Placido, Pudge, Maggs, Brandon, Carlos, C-Mo, Curtis, Sean, Marcus and the rest.

Detroit in 5.