Yes, Detroit, This Moment Is Worth Celebrating
A good thing happened (again)! I'd never seen a no-hitter in person, and I sure as hell didn't think I'd see one today. The weather was UGLY in downtown Detroit. In only his third start back from the IL, Matt Manning was having trouble locating early on. In fact, he hit Bo Bichette to begin the game. He settled in, then got better and better and better as the game when along. Is a little bit of air taken out of the balloon? Maybe just a tad. Do I give a fuck? Absolutely not. If any sports fanbase has earned the right to celebrate even the smallest of accomplishments, it's Tiger fans.
I'm incredibly happy for Matt Manning. He may not have finished what he started, but he FINALLY showed today that he has the makeup of a really solid Major League pitcher. Jason Foley and Alex Lange finishing the job was unsurprising. Foley is the most underrated reliever in the sport. Ideally, he'd represent this team in Seattle for the All-Star game next week. Pitching coach Chris Fetter has proven time and time again that he can get the most out of these guys (and they've needed to because the amount of injuries this staff has suffered is unbelievable). This day belongs to them. They deserve it.
Baseball is a game of moments, and those moments matter. We get so caught up in championships and "What have you done for me lately?" And don't get me wrong, I want things to improve in Detroit. There's nothing I want more in sports than to see this team be a championship contender. Seeing this team stumble and fall the way that they have over the last 7-8 years has been depolarizing. The organization's incompetence has lost an entire generation of Tigers fans. That breaks my heart, but it doesn't make these moments any less cool. Because moments like this are about the ones who stayed, it's about the ones who will have a front seat to the bandwagon if and when this team is good again. These moments belong to the ones who stayed up to watch West Coast games when Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer were in the lineup. It's not a championship, but it's a good moment, and good moments are worth celebrating.
Tomorrow, the sun will rise in Detroit, and we'll return to reality with a team well below .500 and stumbling into the All-Star break. The holes on the roster won't disappear because this team threw a combined no-hitter. That will come tomorrow. Tomorrow can wait. On a day like today, you see the briefest of glimpses into what this can be if Scott Harris and company right the ship. You can see the smiling faces and feel the energy at the ballpark. This no-hitter was a genuine surprise, but it will mean so much more if we can look back at this moment at the beginning of the end of this miserable era of Detroit Tiger fanbase. Manning was brilliant; the bullpen was electric. Riley Greene reached base four times. Spencer Torkelson had an RBI double, and Kerry Carpenter had an RBI triple. These are things we could all get used to. We'll collectively celebrate this moment today. These fans have earned it. But maybe, just maybe, it could be the start of something so much greater.