The Clincher: Tigers 8, Yankees 3

Mark,

Loved the photos and video.

Joe

http://dugoutdiary.mlblogs.com

Stick a fork in them, the're done!!! Hey George, what's up for next year....more old bats, past their prime pitchers & add another 100 million to the payroll. Thanks ? I say scrap what you can and rebuild for a winner in a few years just like everybody else chooses to do. I'm getting tired of your nonsense. I'll just wait till next year I guess?

i am a 3rd generation yankee fan and i am sickened to what i witnessed today.first and formost i hate to say it but joe torre gotta go!pitching wright what were u thinkn 0-11 in post season my god man pitch wang on 3 days rest this is go or go home!!!sheffield playing period i know i know hes gettin the bux but wheres he been all year hurt cabrera,cairo,crosby,bernie all the guys that helped this team win the al east again were cast aside for the money players!!well wher has that money got us now!!its all about role players.bucky dent,graig nettles,mickey rivers,roy white,scott brosius,jim leryitz,luis sojo,tino martinez,paul oneill !!!all of these players together didnt make what a-rod does but they have world championships and he never will as yankee.trade him to fla. for dontrelle willis,get rid of sheffield,r. johnson,mr.85mph fastball mussina,torre must go in favor of lou piniella,who was another of those famous role players new york has forgotten.sweet lou would bring that fire back that the yankee faithful hasnt seen since billy martin ,the all time greatest yankee mangr,died.i played ball im superstitous #13 shouldnt be worn on yankee uniform.remember another yankee who ****** in post season dave winfield #31 get it !!!all ican say is 0-17 w/rsp new record for a-rod in post season!!u gotta go 25 million will get some great pitchn , a 3rd baseman and an outfielder/1st baseman not to mention sweet lou at the helm.im still in shock icant believe a bunch of scrubs have beaten my beloved yankees again.there is no joy in mudville again!!!!!

When will the yankee management understand it's not about $$$. It's about HEART. You can't buy that - and they have none. The best hitting lineup in history? Give me a break. They actually believe other professionals WITH heart will roll over and play dead.

"im still in shock icant believe a bunch of scrubs have beaten my beloved yankees again.there is no joy in mudville again!!!!!"

another myopic self-absorbed yankee fan. isn't it bad enough that we have this 200 million juggernaut spoiling the game by unleveling the field, we also have to deal with the entitlement rampant among yankee fans?

give credit where credit is due - the tigers played a **** of a series and had several guys step up and perform exceptionally well. Kenny Rogers, Bonderman, Zumaya and even Todd Jones showed how important pitching is in the post-season. And before you declare them 'scrubs' you should step outside your bubble and take a look at how they did this season. They have proven all year that they are a good team and have exactly the recipe you need to succeed in the post-season. Solid starting pitching, excellent bullpen and a bunch of hitters that can hit the long ball.

I am glad to see "the best team money can buy" lose, just to prove in baseball you cannot buy a World Championship. To outspend your nearest competitor is ludicuris, so they deserve to consider the season a total failure. It must be a joy to play in that circus.

A correction to my previous blog-to outspend your nearest competitor by $70 Million is ludicuris.

to all yankee fans, get over it, you didnt lose the series, you got your butts kicked. you lost because the tigers have the best pitching in the league, period. all this series did was prove the most basic truth of baseball, great pitching beats great hitting, period. but enough about the yanks. GO TIGERS!!! finally, after 19 long seasons we get to drink from the post season well & man its sweet.

to all yankee fans, get over it, you didnt lose the series, you got your butts kicked. you lost because the tigers have the best pitching in the league, period. all this series did was prove the most basic truth of baseball, great pitching beats great hitting, period. but enough about the yanks. GO TIGERS!!! finally, after 19 long seasons we get to drink from the post season well & man its sweet.

When the Tigers find themselves getting owned by the A's the only well they'll be drinking from is the one at their local run down pub. Kenny Rodgers will eventually totally lose it and have to be carried off the field in a straight jacket and a few years from now when the Tigers have their next 100 game losing season this little glimmer of post season glory will be all but forgotten.

Im sick of people sticking up for A-rod, hes a grown man. Let him put up or shut up. Meaning one more seaon to prove he more than a liability at third and at the plate with risp. If he blows it ship him to a less stressful city where he may thrive. If he cant handle the pressure of the media and the fans go to KC im positive he'll have no problem staying well below the radar there. **** if i have to put up with the stress of watching the team with the best record in baseball get beat by a team that lost the last 30 something games out of 50 then he should be able to handle a little media pressure. Or just not play so horrible in key games, and maybe they will leave him be and move onto other worthless yankees like the man that used to be Randy Johnson.

Time to clean house. Start a three year program with young fresh faces and arms. Keep the best and get rid of the rest. Dump the Pavanos, Johnsons. Byebye Sheffield, Giambi. Give the kids a chance

This suxs, I have to go back to Boston and listen to Red *** fans talk trash. Torre has to go, he is to soft. Bernie,Melky, Cairo all should have been in the lineup. Reward those guys for the work they did all summer not Sheff and Matsui. Hope to see Lou next season.

I wonder how Money Damon feels this morning. He brought the Curse of the Bambino back to New York. The Yankees tripped over their money belts. I love Detroit!
Go Tigers!

The Yankees need strong pitching and players that can hit the ball in the post-season.

Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada play great baseball in the playoffs. Derek and Jorge need better complimentary players.

During the playoffs, all Alex Rodrigues does is watch pitches buzz by him for strikeouts. It is obvious in the past 3 playoff runs, that Alex Rodriguez is no Reggie Jackson. If only us normal humans can make so much money and not do our jobs well.

Playoff baseball has a simple solution. That solution is to play "small ball" and to have good pitching. When you do not have those 2 elements, early exits are within reach.

I just wish other team's fans (Detroit) could win with at least as much dignity as Yankees fans do when they win. It's not enough to beat the Yankees - you have to rub it in on top of it instead of singing the praises of your team. I GUESS IT'S JUST YEARS AND YEARS OF FRUSTRATION THAT YANKEE FANS DO NOT (AND NEVER WILL) HAVE ANY CONCEPT OF. So to Detroit fans, here's to 1984 and 1968 - cause those are the two years you'll STILL be talking about in 20 years!

Wild Card???
I have always been a fan of the wild card in baseball. I think it makes the game more exciting and the playoffs more enjoyable. Here we go again with the WC team. IT has won the last 3 of 4 World Series and now it has knocked off the best record in baseball in the AL. Did Detroit not just blow an enormous lead to the Twins? I still see Tiger fans talking about "We had the best record most of the season.", but guess what? You didn't even win your division. Baseball is unique in that if you win 60% of your games your a good team. Why do we have 5 game series anyway? I’m sure my Yanks would have lost a seven game anyway, that’s not the point. Its just makes me crazy that the winner of the 5 month series (162 game) gets rewarded with an extra home game that they didn't even get to play.

GOOD LUCK TIGERS, you’re as good as all the other wild card teams.

Hey Yankees I still love ya, i will always be a yank fan til i die. the yanks will always be the best team in MLB history along with the greatest city on the face of the earth. The're are no better fan than a yankee fan and you can ask anyone about that one. This is just another season played well but not well enough, the yankees still played a **** of a freakin' season when they swept those god **** redsox 5 days in a row, that show alot of skill on the yankees behalf. but to all of those yankee fans out there reading this, remember what team still has the 26 penants on there list, thats right the yankees, so our time will come again soon and i'm sure of that. I am a true yankee fan, even if they pulled a 119 games loss like the tigers did last year i'd still love em'. Dont get me wrong to all of those Detroit fans out there, the tigers are a great team, but the yanks will always be loved through out the ages. GO YANKEES!!!!!

GO YANKEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still LOVE YA. And if there is any RED SOX fans reading this," GET THE **** OUT!!!!!" You're not welcome.

A good playoff team is different from a good regular season team. Each year proves that out. Yanks, quit touting 26 rings - 20 of them came when there was only 11 teams and one series.

I'm tired of all the other teams dogging the Yankees. Don't take your frustrations out on the players. I do agree though that the management was not there. Cairo, Williams, Cabrerra......they played all season and helped with the division......why didn't they get to play much?? I'll always love the Yankees. They are a class act and they do NOT rub it in when they beat lesser teams. Congrats to the Tigers.....but Tiger Fans need to stop gloating......I don't think you're going to get any farther than you just did.....you're not going to be lucky twice.

Lucky twice? Lucky? That was "lights out" if it's ever happened. Where does it say anywhere that a Yankee fan is entitled to have the only team that can play well? The problem with the Yankee fans that are still whining, is that they live in a world where money buys baseball talent, not heart. There is no true competitive nature in baseball when the team can be stacked year after year. Thanks to all the Yankee fans that have the class to recognize that this years team was outplayed, flat out. Tigers over Oakland in six.

What is the matter with you people? You think just because the players on the Yankees are paid well that they don't have any heart??? I do agree that the Yankees didn't look like themselves at all the last two games and they were outplayed, but to say they don't have any heart is ridiculous. However, despite the fact that the Tigers outplayed the Yankees in this series, I doubt very seriously that you guys will win the World Series. I think the Met or the Athletics will do you guys in IF you make it that far.

If your a yankee fan, you have to be routing for the tigers to go all the way now...all the talk is about the yankees bats going cold, but the bottom line is they had three pheonominal starts against them...Our pitching was horrible.

Ok, there is heart on that team, but you have to admit the Yanks appeared to cash it in after the 5th of game 4. You have some great young players and a guy named Jeter to wrap your hopes around for '07, but you need some starting pitching. You're right emmalfsd, these may have been 2-1 or 3-2 games if your starters would have stiffened up. Your closer probably needs to start mentoring someone too, he's been world class for many years, but his pin stripes are starting to fade and wrinkle a bit as he gets older.
If the Tigers pitching holds up, the A's and the Mets will have no better chance than the most powerful lineup in baseball just did. Someone out there in the Bronx please ask George to leave our pitchers alone for a couple of years, ok?

yanks definately should be bring ing up phillip hughes next year and from what I hear, he is a cant miss dominating starter...yankees REALLY need to fix the bullpen.

and again, instead of laying blame, you gotta give the tigers credit...their pitching was lights out...

I miss guys like Oneil and brosius...even knoblauch

A total embarassment. Torre pulling Wang, Sheffield at 1st. Big Unit pitches well in NY, so he pitches him in Detroit.

A-Rod a normal post season for him, Sheffield gone.

Trade A-Rod for 2 pitchers. let Sheffield,and all the free agent pitchers go.

I'd rather lose with an effort than fall asleep watching pros going thru the motions.

And YES get a manager who can motivate vs sit there and look like Alfred E. Neuman

torre has taken the team to 6 world series and won 4 in his 11 years as yankee manager. He has gotten the team to the postseason each year. whatever he has done wrong recently, he deserves to go out on his own terms. he has one more year on his contract. why not name pinella bench coach and successor and let joe give it one more shot...he could still go out on top

I hope the Yanks do let Torre go so that Boston can pick him up! He's a great manager, unfortunatly he's been given a bunch of overpaid heartless players (mainly ARod) to work with. The other unfortunate part of Torre's recent skipperhood, is that George won't leave him alone!! The guy is managing scared, scared that if he doesn't play these overpaid players (Sheff at 1st and ARod batting 4th??) he'll be out of a job. The Red Sox resisted the temptation this year to make a "big" trade at the deadline just to win a few more games than the Yanks and get embarassed in the playoffs because they have one more big hitter to show for it(sound familiar Yankee fans). Now if the Sox can get a manager (i.e. Torre) that can work with the young talent/arms that the Sox so wisely hung onto.... the Sox will win future World Championships while the Yankee fans continue to hang onto the only thing they have left, and that's the past! Wake up Yankee fans, ARod is your cancer, not Torre.

I live in Florida and my husband and I follow the yankees they are our team!!!! We got to go see them play the Devil Rays in July and otherwise have listenend to every game on XM satelite radio or saw them on tv every night or day game. We just feel really let down by the post season play. I mean it was like we were there rooting for them every time they played and now there is nothing.... I am glad that Sheffield and Matsui got heathly to play......BUT I feel that while they were out the players that held that team together and kept winning by playing small ball should have been the players to play in the post season. Sheffield is no 1st baseman....let Andy Phillps play that position like he and Giambi did during the season. Melky was one of our star players but he didn't get to play really until the 4th game. Also in the 4th game when you saw that Wright was not doing good take him out earlier and put someone else in ....... I mean what did we have to lose ......it was a win or go home for the rest of the year anyway. Sheffield and Matsui could have done the DH position if you felt like you really had to play them. I don't go along with the A-Rod bashing. I think yeah he made some mistakes but he also made some great plays and got hits during the season but people only say bad things about him when he makes a mistake and does not really applaud him for the good he did for the team. I hope Jeter gets MVP because he deserves it!!!!! He is a great Captain for the Yankees and he don't have to have "C" on his jersey for the world to know he is Captain unlike Boston. Anyway we will be back to support the Yankees next year. Please George get us some good pitchers that are not over the hill and think about those players that came through during the year to get you to the playoffs and consider keeping the around.

It wasn't the rainout, although that did feel weird I will admit. It wasn't the Tigers mediocre pitching performace during the ALDS. It wasn't the cold weather, the *** little orange towels waved by so many classless Detroit idiots...It wasn't A-Rod, It wasn't Joe T....and it certainly wasn't Jim Leyland and his motley crew of sub .500-since the all-star break-scrubby wanna-bes and never-had beens. This pathetic ALDS embarrassment lies ALL at the feet of the Yankees as an entire team....

They weren't present to play pure and simple. End of story. When was the last time the Yanks went 20+ innings this season without scoring a single run? When was the last time that this lineup for 2006 went 4 games with a collective .246 average at the plate? These are only a few of the disgusting offensive (pun intended) Yankee points that are going largely unnoticed in the face of such blatently stupid praise for what has proven to be a very mediocre pitching staff for the Tigers in 2006---ESPECIALLY when playing the Yankees! The Yanks ate up the Detroit starting rotation during the regular season, and the only reason they didn't in the ALDS is that the only way they could have played more poorly is if they had forfeited games 3 and 4 and stayed in their hotel rooms. Good pitching beats good hitting, yeah right! Sure--if you're Johan Santana or Curt Schilling or Roy Halliday---Yeah--of course---But Rogers and Bonderman?! Oh, paleeeaaassee!! These guys may have had better years than ever before in their careers, but certainly not recently and certainly not against the 2006 Yankees overall. These pitchers are about as mediocre as they come in professional baseball and Oakland's victory in the ALCS will prove my point all too soon...

The truth of the matter is that the Yanks simply did not show up to play in games 3 and 4 and as a result, Xmas came early to the city of Detroit. Nothing personal Detroit fans---but when eggs that size are layed on your home field and they go largely uncommented on, someone has to call them out for what they are---a giant scrambled "EM-BARE-****-MENT" for the NY Yankees and MLB.

I mean really---Walter Matthau's Bad News Bears would have beaten the Yanks the way they played...and I'm afraid that is going to be an all too painful reality for all of you in Detroit that will be all too obvious starting this week in Oakland...

Gee strongbowff, that was shameless. At least George and your Yankee GM had enough class to admit that the Tigers had a good series. The Yanks did lay an egg, but with 100+ mph BB's screaming by. It's people like you who make it easy to hate the Yanks and give all of the good, classy and true Yankee fans a bad name. You're not entitled to have a winning ball team every year, you're just fortunate that you've got an owner that cares enough to give you the best chance money can buy every year. You ARE, however, entitled to sit there and identify the orange towel waviers as one of your own though, being a free country and all. If the Tigers do make it to the series, we will all expect you to stand before the class and say you're sorry.

It's been really quiet here Mr. Strongbowff.

Tigers 4

A's 0

Any questions?

The Yanks are a great team year in and year out. Let's give the Tigers their due and let them enjoy a spin around for the first time in 20 years, eh?

If Mr. Strongbowff is a typical Yankee fan, don't expect him to stand up like a man and apologize! When their team is doing well (which is quite often), there's no more conceded fan in sports... but when things go bad for the all mighty Yankees, it's a lot like a million or so turtles start hiding in their own shells and then once in a while they pop their heads out just long enough to say something stupid. But to think that one of those turtles will stick their heads out and say sorry for their stupid comment, just not going to happen.

So I'll tell you what Niebs, from a Red Sox fan to a Tigers fan, congratulations on a great ALDS and also on an incredibly well played ALCS!! The Tigers have played the game the way it's meant to be played; with a great deal of pride, passion, and just all around fundamentally sound baseball! Any baseball fan should respect and enjoy the way the Tigers have gone about their business... even if they're too stubborn to admit it.

Good luck in the World Series Detroit!!!