What a difference a week can make….

One week ago, if you would have told me the Tigers would win the American League Divisional Series over the New York Yankees, I would have had a good chuckle. Maybe not as good of a chuckle as watching a typical Lions game, but a laugh of disbelief would have been in order.

Well, here I am sitting in a state of pleasant surprise. The Detroit Tigers have not only beaten, but completely embarrassed the highest paid team in baseball in a 3-1 series romp. I am sure most televisions in Michigan on October 7th were not tuned into the big Michigan/Michigan State football game, but onto one of the most compelling pennant chases in a while.

As it stands right now, the Tigers will start their American League Championship Series versus Oakland on Tuesday. The team is now 4 wins away from (gasp!) do I dare say it… The World Series. If someone would have told me back in March that the Tigers would be playing in October and 4 wins from the World Series, I would have taken any bet with some poor sap that actually believed that.

The Tigers really didn’t give us much of a reason to believe in them going into this playoff series. The team had gone 19-31 in their last 50 games, and ended up losing the division lead that they had for the majority of the season on the final day of the season. And it’s not like they lost to a formidable team in their final weekend; they lost to the Kansas City Royals. They blew a 6-0 lead in the final game, to give the division title to the Minnesota Twins. So, going into the Yankees series; most Detroiters believed that this would be the disappointing way to end what had been a very good year for the team. (And if you really believed the Tigers would roll like they have in the playoffs, you probably still believe in the Easter Bunny and Santa really does make toys up in the North Pole with eight reindeer.).

But something weird happened during this past week. After the Game 1 whooping that the Yankees gave the Tigers, the Tigers made sure that the Yankees would not be competitive again in this series. Game 2 was a nail biter, with Todd Jones keeping everyone on the edge of their seats until the final out. Kenny Rogers’ masterful pitching performance in Game 3 almost made us forget how much of a hothead he is, as the Tigers cruised to an easy victory.

Most people thought that the Yankees would put up a fight to the death in Game 4, but Jeremy Bonderman’s pitching made us all forget that 6-0 lead he blew a week earlier. The Tigers made overpriced Yankee start such as Alex Rodriquez, Johnny “Sellout” Damon, and Mr. “I’m Sorry (About Using Steroids but never admitting to it)” Jason Giambi look like minor league players.

After the close of the series, the Tigers celebrated in a joyous scene with their fans, while the Yankees were sitting around and contemplated their next move. The Yankees will most likely clean house in the coming weeks; while the Tigers will be thinking about Oakland, and hopefully beyond.

It also helps that the team that denied the Tigers the division title also met their end this past weekend. The Minnesota Twins were unceremoniously swept from the playoff by those Oakland A’s, that will be battling the Tigers for a spot in the World Series.

So, now as we look at things a week after Mr. Elliott’s column last week (which mirrored a lot of my thoughts- and no! I was not writing under a fake name); we see that first assumptions will come back to bite you on the rear more times than not.

And even though the Tigers didn’t show us much leading into the playoffs, I would like to apologize for writing them off so quickly.

So, if I picked the Yankees in 4 games before the series got going; this time I am picking the Oakland A’s in 6 games, to go to the World Series….

Hopefully, I can be as wrong