As we always say: There's Always Next Year

Microcosm — a small example of an overall picture, e.g. the performance of the Detroit Baseball Club on Tuesday afternoon versus the Minnesota Baseball Club is a microcosm of the troubles the team faced throughout the season, i.e. hitting with runners on base.

• The Tigers pitchers still walked a lot of people during the season. As good as we believed the pitching was, the final ERA of 4.29 and 588 walks reflect an average pitching staff (maybe below average) .

• The Tigers hitters .260 average is too low for an American League Team. Overall, the team's hitting stats are below average – and last in the major leagues for doubles (in Comerica Park, at that). Wow.

• The Tigers are supposedly so bad against left handed pitching. The hitting stats aren't much different between lefties or righties.

• One more win — ANYTIME — during the season and we don't have to play on Tuesday afternoon. In fact, there is no reason we should have been playing. To finish the season 1–4 while the Twins finished 4–1 tells you everything you need to know ... They wanted it more. And the Tigers were an average team who happened to be in first place for five months.

• The writers I follow on blogs and Twitter were talking up the game as an instant classic. One even said it should be replayed 15 minutes after it ends on ESPNClassic because it was such a great game. I'm sorry, but it was not a great game. Lots of lousy at bats and failures to hit when one tapper to the outfield would have produced a run.

Maybe I'll write more. Maybe I'll write nothing else.

Mr. Leyland, thank you for managing the Detroit Tigers for four seasons. Enjoy your retirement. You resigned 10 years ago from exhaustion and because you weren't having any fun ... As Steely Dan might say, "Go back, Jack, and do it again ... "