The Post I Didn't Want To Write.

Let me start this post off the way I've started many other posts: it's no secret that I am a Yankees fan. At heart, I am a baseball fan first and foremost, but if I have to pick a team to root for, through thick and thin, no matter what happens, I've picked the Yanks. They were winning pennants and World Series left and right when I was in my formative years, and I grew to love them. So this post, as few before and potentially many after were and will be, is difficult to write. But it must be written: the Detroit Tigers have defeated the New York Yankees in a 4-game sweep, and will be moving on to the World Series, to face the winner of the St. Louis Cardinals-San Francisco Giants matchup in the National League.

These two big boppers will have a chance to strut their stuff in the World Series.

To the Tigers' credit, they certainly earned this honor: they have the best batter in baseball (reigning Triple Crown winner and serious MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera, who is only hitting .290 with a towering 2-run homer and 5 RBI this postseason but is a force nonetheless), the best 1-2 punch in the middle of the lineup (Cabrera and Prince Fielder, who's hitting .182 but has a home run and 3 RBI), and the best pitcher in the game (Justin Verlander, whose past postseason struggles appear to be behind him, as he's 3-0 with a sparkling 0.74 ERA this October). Their lineup, also supported by players like Delmon Young (7 postseason home runs for the Tigers, a franchise record for a team that once housed sluggers like Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer and Al Kaline), Jhonny Peralta (who's hitting .385 and has delivered some clutch hits when the situation has called for it through the first two rounds), and Austin Jackson (who's hitting .273 with a triple and has made some spectacular plays in the outfield). The bullpen has effectively weathered the struggles of fallen closer Jose Valverde, with Phil Coke stepping into the 9th inning role and pitching to a pristine 0.00 ERA and 2 saves, or one more than he had all regular season. And while Valverde's time as the closer may temporarily be over, Papa Grande is still available to pitch in a tight situation, which shows that the Tigers' pen is indeed a lucky one, to have the most recent "perfect" closer not even finishing games. What's more, the rotation is just as It's scary to think how much better this team could have been, or still will be, with Cabrera and Fielder batting to their abilities. These are two of the best batters in the game, and they're getting upstaged by people like Alex Avila to this point. Could they win it all? There's an extremely high chance, and it'll be easier to determine that once the Senior Circuit has their champion crowned. For now, the Tigers are riding high on the adrenaline of their second World Series appearance in the last decade.

Is he frustrated about yet another strikeout, or blowing a kiss to a woman in the stands? Too hard to tell.

The biggest heartbreak is not that the Yankees lost (many would argue that it's not a heartbreaker at all), but how they lost. Derek Jeter went down in the first game of the ALCS with a broken ankle. Robinson Cano set the longest hitless streak in postseason history by going 0-29. Alex Rodriguez...I'm not even going to get into that one. I'll just say the next 5 years are going to feel way longer than they should (and I'm just putting this in writing on the off chance it actually happens: the Marlins will come a-callin' about A-Rod very soon, and the Yanks will be overjoyed at the opportunity, no matter how much of the albatross of a contract they'll have to eat, you heard it here first). Raul Ibanez and Ichiro were the top performers? What is this, 2004? What was even worse was the rotation. The Yanks sent Hiroki Kuroda to the mound, but even though he turned in a pretty good performance for the first Japanese pitcher to throw a postseason game for New York, he couldn't turn it into a win. And past that? Whew. Andy Pettitte, who still holds the record for most postseason wins, was 0-1 in 2 starts this October, with a respectable 3.29 ERA and 10 strikeouts in 13.2 innings, but in this case, runs matter more than the peripheral stats. Phil Hughes did well in Game 3 but still took the loss. David Phelps blew up in Game 1, the same game where the mighty Jeter fell. Overall, not a prosperous October for the Bronx boys. I could take a page from Cubs fans and say there's always next year, but you know what that will bring? The same team, a year older. That didn't work out so well this year, especially against a Tigers team whose three best players (Cabrera, Fielder and Verlander) are all under 30, whereas the average age on the Yankees bench is 36 (this is not a joke). Just like with the Rangers, the window for a championship title anytime soon is closing, and 2013 will create more questions in New York than it answers.

Congratulations to the Tigers for sweeping, and for the chance to win their first championship title since 1984. Will the Tigers square off against the Giants for their first World Series title in 28 years? Or will they face the Cardinals for the 4th time in baseball history? Stay tuned.