Where's The Love? Tigers Keep Getting Buried In The Papers

If a baseball team is in first place and nobody in its home town writes about it, does it make a noise?

Those poor Tigers. For 12 seasons in a row they play considerably south of .500 -- many times shy of .400 -- and now that they are winners, they are ignored in their own city.

I don't mean the fans. They're coming out now -- with crowds touching 35,000+, and with ten straight games at CoPa starting tonight, they might draw 350,000 during the homestand, which includes seven games with the Yankees and Red Sox.

I'm talking about the local papers -- and the Free Press specifically, since that's what I read most often.

Yes, I know the Pistons deserve love right now -- Eastern Conference finalists and all -- but why isn't there any space for the Tigers before page 7, or 9, of the sports section?

Yet that's where the Tigers find themselves -- redheaded stepchildren in their own town.

That the Tigers are being buried in the newspapers is ridiculous. This is supposed to be a great sports town; we can't handle two good teams on the same front page?

I'm also wondering when the Tigers -- possessors of MLB's best record -- are going to be featured on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. But that's national, and I should be more patient in that regard.

But the Tigers are being given the short shrift, india ink-wise, and that's a shame.

The dailies are missing a pretty good baseball season.