Maybe it is about Twins. The Yankees just might be merciless if they were facing Ronde and Tiki Barber or Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, too.
Perhaps, as exemplified by a four-game whitewash in Minnesota last week, it does not matter who wears the Yankees uniform — Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, or Luis Cruz and Alberto Gonzalez. As long as the opponent is the Twins, then all will go right.
The Twins were born of the Washington Senators, but it appears the Washington Generals when the Yankees visit, with Ron Gardenhire in the role of Red Klotz — Meadowlark Cano, anybody?
Yet as the Yankees were making Minnesota look like the worst Twins since Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger, I was thinking about the Tigers. Namely how could a team as talented as Detroit be playing in the AL Central and yet have essentially the same record as the beat-up Yankees?
After all, if you had to play 18 games against Sox, it would be preferential that they be last-place White rather than first-place Red. Right now, the Yankees are 13-1 against AL Central opponents who are not Detroit — 4-0 vs. Minnesota, 6-1 vs. Cleveland and 3-0 vs. Kansas City. It is the difference between the Yanks currently being contenders for the playoffs rather than a top-10 2014 draft pick.
1. But this is more than a 2013 matter that has me contemplating the Tigers. Detroit has had arguably the best hitter and pitcher
in the majors the past five years with Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander, and perhaps again this season with Cabrera and Max Scherzer. They have had an owner,
in Mike Ilitch, willing to fill in around the elites with costly stars such as Prince Fielder, Torii Hunter and Anibal Sanchez. Four years later, it appears the Tigers with Scherzer and Austin Jackson are the winners of that famous three-way trade with the Yankees (injured/free-agent-to-be Curtis Granderson) and Diamondbacks (regressing Ian Kennedy).
Yet, what I am wondering with half a season left is if the Tigers are going to be baseball's Buffalo Bills — the most talented team never to win it all, never to cash in the overflow of talent into an actual championship. Look, they might just be bored with the regular season like it seemed last year when the Tigers allowed the White Sox to hang around and hang around and hang around before blowing them away in the final weeks of the season. That probably is what happens again this season, just with the Indians playing the part of the White Sox.
But for a team that has so much going for it — including a pro-active front office and a Cooperstown-touched manager in Jim Leyland — here are the Tigers again as the AL Central giants, unable to shake comparative Lilliputians.
Besides the parochial matters with the New York teams, the Tigers' ability to finally get that title for Ilitch is at the forefront of my second-half thoughts. Here are the rest of Hardball's Top 10:
2. THE NATS or GNATS
Like Detroit, Washington was supposed to dominate. But in Davey Johnson's last year as manager, the Nationals have been a disappointing .500-ish team. They still have the most talent in the NL East. Can Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg stay healthy and make Washington D.C. Division Champs … and more?
joel.sherman@nypost.com
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