Opinion

Baseball is a game of superstitions.

It is the only game where teams are damned with century-long curses—curse of the Bambino, Billy Goat Curse, etc.—and failures can be blamed on something that happened two generations ago.

Batters are some of the primary examples of superstitious acts.

We all know about Nomar Garciaparra's rituals when he comes to the plate, and I think it's safe to assume that Wade Boggs was the most habitual man on the planet. 

Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tim Wakefield, Brad Penny. Hard to believe a team trotting these guys out on the hill every fifth night would start the year with a 2-6 record.

Especially with the offense anchored by Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, and reigning MVP Dustin Pedroia.

But hey, you can't win them all, right? After losing six out of their first eight games, that was one of the most asked questions among Red Sox Nation.

The New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics 9-7 in 14 innings because of a walk off home run by Melky Cabrera. CC Sabathia started and did not pitch well. He gave up seven runs on six hits in 6.2 innings of work for the no decision.

In one of his first media interviews back in 2004, then general manager Jim Bowden made it very clear that first priority—his only priority really—was to stock the Nationals' barren farm system with pitching talent. "You develop pitchers," Bowden said, "and you find the bats through trades and free agency."

And so we watched as all those unknown names with a "P" next to their name were taken in the Amateur Draft in 2005, and 2006, and 2007, and we happily waited for them to mature from Minor League prospects into Major League pitchers.

And we waited.

One fine day last August, Bradley Campeau-Laurion just wanted to leave his seat and use the bathroom at the old Yankee Stadium. The 30-year-old New York resident had no idea that nature's call would lead him down a road to perdition where he would be accused of challenging God, country, and the joys of compulsory patriotism at the ballpark.

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It is only a matter of time until Major League Baseball sees fewer and fewer fans coming to games across the nation.

The average ticket price rose five percent in this struggling economy to $26.64 with "premium" tickets falling a tad under one Ben Franklin for this 2009 season.

The average cost for a family of four to attend a Major League Baseball game?

A tad under $200. With this terrible economy and the unemployment rate skyrocketing, few families can say they have been to a ball game this year.

The Mets are not a .500 team. 

I'm pretty sure Cleveland will win more games than it loses, and I don't think Toronto is going to win 2/3 of its games for the rest of the season.

Got that? 

So why is this a problem?

We're less than ten percent through the 2009 season and already we have fans complaining, ready to throw in the towel. 

Baseball is a game of streaks and slumps. Full of hitting slumps and streaky pitchers. 

Welcome to DL's (Rudy Dominick and Johnny Lawrence) first weekly installment of Detroit Tigers information and analysis.  Each Wednesday, we will delve into all things Tigers. Read and digest, or skim and spit out our insightful banter.

Keep an Eye on...

Alfredo Figaro, Starting Pitcher—Erie Seawolves (AA)

Eastern League Player Of The Week  (April 13-April 19)

1-0, 12.2 IP, 9 K, 0.00 ERA

Drive-By Argument:  Best Free Agent Acquisition

When young pitchers start to struggle or even pitchers who have established themselves in the league, it usually begins with when a runner gets on base.

Usually for the pitcher, it's because they now have to contend with that baserunner  and the batter at the plate. Yet, the problem becomes when they become more concerned with that runner than on base than they are with the batter.