A Tigers fan's empathetic Royals preview

Years ago, I wrote for a site called Knuckleballers (proof), now inactive, run by a guy named Matt Wallace. It was a good time while it lasted, just old boys turning in a day's honest work before meeting at Toots Shor's to kibitz till last call (metaphorically). But then tediums caught up with me, leaves changed colors, the Knuckleballers lost touch with one another and lone and level sands stretched far away. So it goes.

But then, in the vast desert of the World Wide Web, I stumbled upon an oasis of a thing called Talking Tigers. I dug about and brushed away the dirt and was ready to proceed onward with other business before it hit me: the name. The thing was, indeed, owned by none other than the doyen of our previous enterprise. And wouldn't you know, the top entry was his Royals preview:

The easy thing to do would be to make a lot of jokes about team ERA and poor decisions. But I think any Tiger fan reading this probably remembers going to websites or picking up issues of magazines doing their baseball preview and taking a deep breath before reading what they had to say about the Tigers.... A Tiger fan making fun of another team’s struggles would be like Bill Buckner throwing a beer on Zumaya for throwing that ball away in last year’s series. It would take either a stunning lack of empathy or a remarkable ignorance of recent history. If any Royals fans are reading, I hope you enjoy perhaps the only preview done by a fan of an opposing team that will treat your boys in blue with dignity and respect…mostly.

Royals fans could learn something from the Tiger faithful, who still aren't done thanking their boys for last season. A lesson in faith, you might say. Hopefully Matt will elaborate.

POSTSCRIPT: I've got more Royals previews for you later this week as we commemorate the approach of Opening Day.

POSTSCRIPT 2: It's not too late to hop over to Fire Joe Morgan to join the Schilling vs. Shaughnessy skirmish, already in progress. A synopsis: Schilling recently started a blog, 38 Pitches, which offended Shaughnessy, who speaks for Old Media. Feeling threatened, he wrote a "satirical" column that Schilling basically destroyed with a flick of his wrist. The whole thing is highly entertaining, especially when we learn about the pitcher's intimate knowledge of Everquest.