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Phil Coke: "We Got The Monkey Off Our Back, It's Been There All Year" [VIDEO]

By: Jeff Riger
@Riger1984

I think it's safe to say that some Tiger players might have felt the pressure of the massive expectations that have been put on this team this year.

Detroit reliever Phil Coke is one of them!

"Now we can get excited, now we can play" Coke said. "We've got the monkey off our back. It's been there all year!"

I assumed the monkey Coke referred to was the team's expectations, so I asked...

"Absolutely, absolutely" Coke said. "The expectations are so high that sometimes you don't meet or exceed those, you're considered as though you might have failed. We've met one of the expectations and that was to win the Central."

No doubt Coke struggled early in the season and then found his game a bit before struggling recently again. The reliever does take fan criticism to heart. He does care and it shows. Check out the Coke video to hear what else the pitcher had to say about his team clinching the AL central for the 4th consecutive season and if the expectations put on this team are fair or not?

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