Terry Foster: Will The Real Detroit Tigers Please Stand Up
A guy has been emailing me for the past two weeks and he only wants me to do one thing. He wants me to stand up to Tigers manager Jim Leyland and General Manager Dave Dombrowski and tell the world that the Tigers stink.
I won't do it because I know I will eat my words just I would have eaten my words the last two seasons. The Tigers are 9-9 after 18 games heading into a nine-game home stand at Comerica Park.
I won't say the team stinks because I must be consistent. When the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Texas Rangers got off to bad starts in the past I simply said the better teams make their push in late June, July and August. Normally that is the way it plays out. There is always a team like Cleveland that gets off to a hot start only to fade when it actually gets hot.
The Tigers are a very good baseball team and I believe they will take off when the time is right. Leyland likes to pace his team. He does not want to run them ragged to start a season. He wants something in the tank when the season turns into a grind. Fans want to see their team win every game. I understand that.
However, the Tigers know they can turn it on when they have to. And that is exactly what I expect them to do. There is no need to panic or get angry. This is what this team is. The past two seasons the Tigers are 183-141 and made the playoffs twice. They are 32-34 in April and 151-107 the remainder of the season.
So is this a team that sucks? Or is this a team that turns it on when it has to?
