Have fans, will travel
I'd have to expend a lot of brain power to tell you the last time I went to a Detroit Tigers game. When my wife and I were first married, we used to attend at least once a year on a bus trip with her brother. I remember one year I accidentally spilled a beer all over my wife and instead of walking around like she had wet herself all night she bought these bright pink sweat pants from one of the vendors to wear.
Not my proudest moment... or hers.
Probably the most recent game I went to was with that same brother in law when he got tickets right behind the home dugout. They were probably some of the most amazing seats I have ever gotten to a sporting event like that. I will likely never get to see a game like that again.
Lately, my Facebook feed has been blowing up with people traveling all over the US to see the Tigers play. This sort of thing happens when the teams starts doing good. Fair weather fans come climbing out of the woodwork and long time fans start making big trips as a sort of "I told you so" to everyone else.
Most recently, people have been making the nearly six hour drive from the middle of Michigan to Pittsburgh where the Tigers have been playing the Pirates. It's actually a bit crazy just how close Pittsburgh is to certain parts of Michigan. Perhaps that explains why there are so many Steelers fans in the state.
Like I said though, at least three or four different couples have made the trip to Pennsylvania this week to watch the Tigers play. I remember back when Verlander was still on the team, people would buy tickets just to the games that he was pitching. I feel like the same thing is kind of happening with Skubal.
Unfortunately for them, the Tigers have been in a bit of a slump lately. They had a six game losing streak that spanned across the all star break before they finally won their last game against Houston. Then they dropped he first two against the Pirates. I'm actually not mad they are getting this out of their system now so they can hopefully make a deep run in the fall. It would be far worse if this slump were hitting them in September.
The bad news is, that losing streak allowed Houston and Toronto to move within one game of the Tigers. They are still ten games ahead in the AL Central, so not much to worry about there, but with a series against the Blue Jays after they finish up with the Pirates, they need to get back to their winning ways.
Meanwhile, the Cubs have clawed their way to the top of the NL along with Milwaukee who are now tied with the Tigers at 60 wins versus the Dodgers 59 wins. The National League is still looking really tough with lots of teams doing quite well in their divisions. Las Vegas still has LA pegged to win the world series, but we will see what happens.
Meanwhile, in the NL East, Philly and The Mets are in a battle royal for that top spot tied at 58 wins a piece. It's going to be interesting to see how this all shakes out as we get closer and closer to the post season.
My Sports Account - @bozz.sports
