Wild Card Baby!

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I know this is going to seem weird given what the majority of my content has been about lately, but we are going to shift gears a bit today and talk about softball and baseball. In case you missed it, the Detroit Tigers busted out some late season heroics and made their way to the ALCS Wildcard game. If you aren't familiar with it, this is a fringe game that gives some bubble teams a chance to make it into the playoffs.

There's likely a lot more to it than that, but that is the cliff notes version.

Anyway, by finishing the regular season strong, the Tigers were able to slide into the wild card slot. This pitted them against the Houston Astros to see which team would be continuing on in the playoffs. In a best of three game series down in Texas, the Detroit Tigers swept the Astros in two games to knock Houston out of the playoffs.

If you are a Tigers fan, you know this is a really big deal. The last time the Tigers won the world series was back in 1984 and people still talk about that team fondly today. Sure, we came close a decade or two ago, but unfortunately, we fell a bit short.

I think part of what makes this season so special is how similar it is to the old Moneyball scenario that we saw in Oakland back in the day.

Let me give you some numbers...

Then entire Detroit Tigers 26 man Wildcard team roster has a combined salary of 18.8 Million USD. By comparison, 62 players have an individual salary greater than that combined number. Four of those 62 players are on the Houston Astros. That's right, the "Stros" star closer has a salary contract of $19 million this season.

Isn't that crazy?

I'm not saying they are going to go far in the playoffs, I haven't watched enough games this season to tell you that, but there is little doubt in my mind that this is going to be a Detroit Tigers team that has a lot of folks pulling for them. Whether they are disgruntled bandwagon jumpers or lifetime fans like myself.

Meanwhile, both my nieces had some softball action this past weekend down in Columbus, OH before the remnants of hurricane Helene came through and put a stop to the action. Thankfully they didn't get the flooding that other areas did, but the rain was enough to make the fields unplayable.

The Lasers Scarlet team played just three games this past weekend before the weather put a stop to the action.

They had a 10 to 0 win over a team from Indiana, then a 4 to 5 loss against a team from Louisville, KY and a 2 to 10 loss to a team from somewhere else in Ohio.

I don't have any results from the Tiffin game, but I know that they had to cut things short due to the weather. They were scheduled to face off against Ohio State University for a charity game and I don't think they even got to throw the first pitch in that one.

Now that the Tigers have made it to the post season, I actually get to see their games again (stupid Fox Sports/YouTube TV feud), so you better believe I am going to be giving you the updates. Tiffin is finished for the fall season, but my other niece still has some travel ball to play. We hope to get down to see her play in a couple of weeks!

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Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports

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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or @mrsbozz unless otherwise sourced