With the 119-win 2018 Red Sox winning the World Series the other night and cementing their legacy as one of the greatest teams to ever set foot on a baseball diamond, Tigers fans should be left with this nauseating feeling in the pits of their stomachs. And it’s not because it was the Red Sox who shook off that disaster of a campaign in 2012 under Bobby Valentine to win the entire fucking thing in 2013 before doing it again this season.
It’s because after seeing Justin Verlander get traded at the 2017 deadline to the Astros, recapture his playoff magic and win a title with the Astros, fans in Detroit were left with an even more gut punching visual this season.
Seeing five former Tigers in David Price, Ian Kinsler, JD Martinez, Rick Porcello and GM Dave Dombrowski win the World Series with Boston.
But what probably makes matters worse is the ‘what could have been’ factor when taking a look at this season’s Red Sox and last season with Verlander and the Astros.
Because over the course of the past two years, six former Tigers from their 2014 team went on to win the title on two different teams.
So what’s the shit factor here?
Well that’s easy, its former Tigers manager Brad Ausmus who just scored another MLB managing job with the Los Angeles Angels.
Now I’m not going to get into some long deep diatribe into just how awful Ausmus was as a manager. Ausmus’ surface shittiness is more than enough evidence to justify his overall ineptitude as a Major League manager.
But Holy Hell… How fucking bad do you have to be to have the likes of Justin Verlander, David Price and Rick Porcello at your pitching disposal PLUS JD Martinez and a 2014 version of Ian Kinsler in the lineup and not win a single fucking game against the Baltimore Orioles who were without Manny Machado and Chris Davis?! And I’m not even mentioning the Tigers also having Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez (who was probably Detroit’s best pitcher that season), Miguel Cabrera and a 2014 version of Victor Martinez who finished the regular season with a .974 OPS.
First it’s a crying fucking shame that the 2014 Tigers aren’t heralded as one of the best teams in MLB history. Second it’s and absolute atrocity they were swept in the divisional series in the postseason. And third it’s a goddamn crime Ausmus was allowed to manage for another THREE seasons after that.
But don’t get me wrong. I’m not placing the entirety of one of the biggest fucking missed opportunities in MLB history squarely on the shoulders of Ausmus. Lets not look past good ol’ DD himself.
Tigers fans should be well tuned into the notion that the hiring of Ausmus was completely the idea of Dombrowski himself. And I’m only assuming that it was Dombrowski’s idea to play eyesie’s closies with the Tigers seasons there after.
You see Dave Dombrowski isn’t a great general manager or even a good one. He’s decent at the very most who managed to walk himself into another good situation with plentiful opportunity to pillage the Boston farm system and win himself a title.
But I guess that’s ultimately what it’s all about right? It’s just too fucking bad he couldn’t do that during the 13 seasons he was with Detroit.
Anyways, after what happened a couple of nights ago, Tigers fans shouldn’t feel any sense of pride. They shouldn’t be happy for JD, Kinser, Porcello or especially Dombrowski for finally capturing a title. That sense of pride for Verlander last season got really annoying really fast and it’s even worse this year with any Tigers fan proclaiming as such. JD, Kinser, Porcello, Price and Dombrowski are Red Sox now. So fuck em.
If anything, Tigers fans should be furious. Furious over the fact that Ausmus and in a sense Dombrowski wasted a chance at MLB history, something that Detroit missed out on and Boston capitalized on.