Happy Halloween everyone!

And so I find myself sitting here as St. Louis celebrates their World Series win (Damn, why couldn’t 1968 repeat itself?) and I can hear the sobs of bitter disappointment coming from 60 miles north of here (and plenty around town here too). So why bother posting? Well, to (badly) paraphrase a running gag from the book/movie Big Trouble, “You guys are talkin’ trash when the Gators win, but when they lose, you don’t have the nerve to call in.” Well, obviously I’m not a Gators fan, but my team did lose, so I’ll take the challenge and “call in.”

Somewhere in the pit of my stomach I knew my boys were doomed the minute they were labeled as the favorites. As I said in my previous entry, the Yankees were the favorites in the AL, and then the A’s. Being the favorite didn’t get them very far. And since we were the overwhelming favorite, it seemed to stir up feelings of antagonism in some people. After the Cards took Game 1, I read an article or blog in which the writer was thrilled with the win cuz “no one had given them a chance,” and I found myself surprisingly taken aback by this. When had we become the bad guys? I don’t dislike the Cardinals (except for Jeff Suppan, but that has nothing to do with baseball). I actually rooted for them in 2004 when they played against the Red Sox. At any rate, I can tell you, I’m as much a Tigers fan as you can get, and I certainly gave the Cards a chance. Perhaps a little ignorance can lead to insight from time to time. I’m surprised that I’m as disappointed as I am right now, given the fact that I’ve never been able to see the Tigers make it this far before (since I would’ve been a year old the last time they won the World Series). What sucks is that now people won’t look at the fact that the Tigers still had a pretty damn good year. All they’ll see is that the Tigers were the World Series losers. Perhaps it would’ve been better if the Tigers had just been Yankee fodder back in the ALDS. At least then they might have been able to garner the respect of making it to the playoffs when they weren’t expected to. Maybe I was hoping to splurge on one of those Sports Illustrated commemorative books/videos that they make for championship winners in order to get you to subscribe to their magazine. I definitely was hoping for a movie to be made about this team (There aren’t enough movies about the Detroit Tigers. There’s a movie about Ty Cobb, and there’s some not-very-well-known 80s movie called Tiger Town, which is essentially Angels in the Outfield without the angels). I just know that it’s gonna be a long wait till April (sorry, but I just don’t get into football, basketball, or hockey the way I do baseball). But I’m sure my boys are determined to come back and turn a few heads next season.

Despite the loss and the risk of negative social stigma, I still plan on going to Sears tomorrow and buying lots of Tigers stuff. Hey, at least it’ll be on sale.

The Phantom will be returning shortly, though. Team pride or not, baseball season is over.

Tigers lost again last night. Sigh. You know, I meant to post this earlier, but I was never completely at ease with the sports people labeling the Tigers as the “favorites” in the World Series this year. After all, the Yankees were the favorites in the ALDS, and the A’s were the favorites in the ALCS. I didn’t really pay attention to the National League much this year (in fact, Game 7 of the NLCS was the first National League game I have watched all year), but I do know that the Mets were the favorites in the NLCS, at least until the Cards won a few games. I don’t know. Even before the World Series began, it just seemed like the Year of the Underdog to me. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t real comfortable with all this “Tigers in 3” business that USA Today put in their article. Add in some really dumb pitching mistakes (Verlander thinking that someone recovering from a hamstring injury would try to steal a base; Zumaya trying to go for a type of double play that hasn’t been accomplished since 1923, etc.), and you get our current situation. Right now all I’m hoping for is that the Tigers win either tonight or tomorrow night, cuz that’ll send the series back to Detroit…and Kenny Rogers (smudged palm or no, he’s still our best pitcher, IMHO). They’ve been saying good things about Bonderman on TV, but I just don’t feel that great about him. I didn’t get to see too many games that he opened, but he just didn’t impress me much when I did see him, and the Tigers ended up losing every game I saw with him. Then again, he did pitch the Game 4 clinchers against both the Yankees and the A’s.

Still, I do have hope that my boys can pull through and make it back to Detroit. I kinda wanted to see them win the World Series in Detroit anyways. The Detroit fans just seem to have more spirit than the St. Louis fans (and I’m not just saying that because I’m a Tigers fan, but I do like it when teams’ fans have the right amount of spirit; the Cardinals fanbase seems just slightly anemic, emphasis on “slightly,” while on the other hand, the intense fervor of many Packers fans is a big part of why I strongly dislike the Packers, but I’ll save football discussions for another day).

Anyways, the game starts in less than an hour, so I better take a shower now. C’mon, Tigers, bring it back home!

We're off to the World Series, baby!!!!!!!!

Tigers have beaten the Yankees!!!!! Who’d’ve thought that a year ago, huh? I normally like the Yankees well enough, but hey, they shouldn’t have gotten in the way of my Tigers. Next up is Oakland. Go boys! Kick some ass! I feel kind of bad that the Dodgers are out, mostly because (for inside joke reasons) I would have found it kind of funny if the Tigers and the Dodgers faced off in the World Series. I also just realized a few days ago that the Dodgers were in the playoffs (it was one of those “didn’t they recently suck?” moments). It seems that with all my attention on the Tigers, I’ve been completely ignoring the National League.

I’m in kind of a Ghostbusters mood right now. Must be the proximity to Halloween. Once it gets closer I’ll probably start in with Garfield’s Halloween Adventure and Sleepy Hollow, among others. Anyways, I have a weird perception when it comes to Ghostbusters, cuz I saw the second movie when I was six, right after it came out, but I didn’t see the first movie until high school. Also, a friend of mine from high school bore an eerie resemblance to a blonde version of Egon (sp?), especially if he arched his eyebrow. I’ll have to find pictures or something.

I’m kind of falling asleep here, so that’s all for now. I’m still looking for someone to go to Denison with me, as well.

Okay, okay, I realize it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted. I don’t really have a whole lot of time to post right now, so here’s the recent events in a nutshell:

1. I played in the Alumni Band at my high school’s Homecoming game. Here’s an interesting one for you: the place kicker was elected Homecoming Queen.
2. Speaking of high school, Cardinal Stritch (my high school) made the front page of the newspaper today for two rather unflattering reasons. The first was that it “failed” a security “test” involving an undercover newspaper reporter walking into the school unquestioned. The second was part of a report that several area pedophile priests (including one who used to be the principal at Stritch, though he left rather suddenly the year before I came) still have teaching licenses. This is 8^th grade visitation week, which is the school’s biggest recruiting tool (and Stritch is facing a recruitment crisis as it is, as the number of enrollments have been going down each year), so this isn’t the best time for that kind of publicity. On top of that, the school is infested with mice.
3. My current schooling seems to be going rather well. I negotiated my Chemistry grade back up to an A, and I got a 96 on the last Biology exam.
4. Since I live in Ohio, of course I'm been pummeled with political ads every commercial break, especially since there's a gubernatorial and a Senate race here. In the race for governor, Ted Strickland (D) is leading Ken Blackwell (R) pretty nicely in the polls. The Senate race between Mike DeWine (R) and Sherrod Brown (D) is more of a toss-up, with both candidates trying to paint each other as the guy who will tax you to death. Then I saw a couple of TV commercials for judges or Ohio Supreme Court justices or something. In both these ads (and I don't think the two are running against each other), the judge seems to be going out of his way to demonstrate how "conservative" he is. Um, I'm no law expert, but aren't judges supposed to be neutral? As in, not conservative OR liberal? If you're telling people how biased to one side you'll be if you get elected (or re-elected), aren't you basically demonstrating how bad a judge you are? There are also two smoking bans on the state ballot. One is an actual ban and one is actually a front funded by the tobacco companies, which would ban smoking in all public places except bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, dance clubs, outdoor concert venues, any place that prohibits minors, and about 900 other locations. They are currently trying to get the signatures on the "real" ban's petition invalidated, but if both bans do end up on the ballot, and both of them pass, the weak one will prevail because it's a constitutional amendment, whereas the "real" ban is just a law. If the weak one is passed, it'll overturn Toledo's smoking ban, which would suck, cuz I like going out to eat without having to smell cigarette smoke from the other side of the restaurant.
5. I was flipping channels today while I was making lunch and came across the last 10 minutes of the Jetsons movie, which I probably haven’t seen since I was eight. Man, that was rather nostalgic.
6. Tigers are in the playoffs!!!!!!! J

Well, that’s it for now. I may post pretty soon, but if not, I’ll just say that next week I’ll be down at Denison for Homecoming. The theme this year is Phantom of the Opera. How could I pass that up? My mom’s not too happy about me driving an 11-year-old Corsica 300 miles to Granville, but she says she can’t stop me. She’d rather I take someone with me, but my options are pretty slim, as most of my friends don’t live around here. Oh well, that’s the price you pay for going to college so far away from home.