The 2006 Detroit Tigers? So 2005.

Although I usually groan at silly, superficial comparisons between teams and/or players, I admit that there are some disturbing similarities between the 2006 Tigers and the 2005 White Sox. Namely:

• Both are AL Central teams (obviously).
• Neither had been in serious playoff contention the season before, nor had they been predicted to win the division preseason. (Not very rare, but still in common.)
• Both have charismatic managers that receive(d) a disproportionate amount of credit for the success of the team.
• The press has more often attributed the success of both teams to intangible nonsense than to the obvious cause--excellent pitching.
• Both teams have passionate but fickle fanbases that flocked back to the ballpark once realizing the team was legitimate.
• Both seem to have adopted "Don't Stop Believing" as a season theme song. (At least the Comerica Park P.A. was playing it last night during the on-field postgame interviews.)
• Both had the same record through the first two rounds (7-1).

So it's for these very reasons that I hope to hell the Cardinals or Mets can knock them off in the World Series.

Why? First of all, it's nothing against the 2005 White Sox. I was all-out pulling for the Sox last year and loved watching their rotation pitch like bastards all playoffs.

And I have nothing against the Tigers either. In fact, as the other members of this blog know, I have a particular soft spot for Detroit and its teams. (I still do, however, feel the Tigers sold their soul when they abandoned Tiger Stadium for downtown Comerica Park, or as it's known in my household, Kramerica Park.)

But I can't pull for the Tigers in this World Series simply because I absolutely refuse to take another offseason of the same feel-good story sap storm of this past offseason. I can't stomach any more fluff pieces about chemistry or hunger or heart or leadership or stick-togetherness or old "Lucky Strike" Leyland for at least five more seasons, and maybe more like ten. Even the nine years since 1997 seems as though too short a time has passed for this to be happening again.

So here's hoping the Cardinals or Mets can take down the Tigers, and here's hoping they do it by pitching badly, stroking dingers, committing lots of errors, fighting amongst themselves, and making baserunning mistake after baserunning mistake. To sweeten the deal, I hope they win in spite of a severe bout of narcolepsy that claims the mental capacities of their manager--whether it be LaRussa or Randolph-- for most of the series.

Sure, this is all asking a lot, but if a man can't hope, what's he have left?

(Heart. That's what.)