Warning: Sports Ahead
So, the "disrespect" talk has officially started for the Detroit Tigers--best team in all of Major League Baseball.
I noticed it first yeseterday during the Free Beer and Hot Wings Show, as I was driving down to D-town for work. Those guys, when they're not talking to the national audience, are unabashed homers for Detroit sports teams. (Though they're currently employing the very sane wait-and-see attitude toward the Lions.) So, not unexpected that any slight to the Greatest Team So Far would be decried by them in loud voices and pounded chests.
What was surprising was the usually level-headed Mitch Albom hopping on that particular bandwagon. Now, I tend to be one of the first to cry disrespect when it's warranted... but it's not like the national media has been dismissing the Tigers, as such. It's just that the Tigers' current situation offers little in the way of drama. Both the AL West and AL East have much tighter races, and the other teams in the AL Central have much more ... impressive personalities and individual talents.
The Tigers, then, seem to be undone by their success and traditional Detroit all-team-effort. (That was a nice observation by the aforementioned homers this morning, incidentally. Of all the Detroit championship teams in the last twenty-two years, none of them have been "blessed" with Michael Jordan/Alex Rodriguez/Wayne Gretzky calibre super-stars. Though the 2002 Red Wings did manage to assemble an entire team of guys who will wind up in the NHL Hall of Fame.)
They're not interesting or dramatic enough for national coverage.
Which I think says a lot about the nature of American media consumption in general.
I noticed it first yeseterday during the Free Beer and Hot Wings Show, as I was driving down to D-town for work. Those guys, when they're not talking to the national audience, are unabashed homers for Detroit sports teams. (Though they're currently employing the very sane wait-and-see attitude toward the Lions.) So, not unexpected that any slight to the Greatest Team So Far would be decried by them in loud voices and pounded chests.
What was surprising was the usually level-headed Mitch Albom hopping on that particular bandwagon. Now, I tend to be one of the first to cry disrespect when it's warranted... but it's not like the national media has been dismissing the Tigers, as such. It's just that the Tigers' current situation offers little in the way of drama. Both the AL West and AL East have much tighter races, and the other teams in the AL Central have much more ... impressive personalities and individual talents.
The Tigers, then, seem to be undone by their success and traditional Detroit all-team-effort. (That was a nice observation by the aforementioned homers this morning, incidentally. Of all the Detroit championship teams in the last twenty-two years, none of them have been "blessed" with Michael Jordan/Alex Rodriguez/Wayne Gretzky calibre super-stars. Though the 2002 Red Wings did manage to assemble an entire team of guys who will wind up in the NHL Hall of Fame.)
They're not interesting or dramatic enough for national coverage.
Which I think says a lot about the nature of American media consumption in general.