The Phillies and the Degradation of Detroit

Yeah, don't talk to me.

My poor Rays, after their split game, lost the World Series.

I'm sorry, Rays. I think I may have cursed you. Everyone I root for seems to come SO CLOSE, but never make it. Case in point: 2006 Tigers.

Pah.

But still, I guess it was nice for the Phillies to win in their hometown, and it's always fun to watch teams celebrate no matter who they are. My ultimate fantasy would be to get a baseball team for Grand Rapids, and then celebrate with them as they win the World Series. One day, before Gordon left for basic training, we were going through team names. Here are a few that I can remember, good, bad, ridiculous, plausible, some from Grand Rapids's reputation as a growing medical area, its history as a furniture manufacturing city, and the Grand River that is the namesake:

1. Grand Rapids Gators
2. Grand Rapids Geriatrics
3. Grand Rapids Groovers
4. Grand Rapids Rovers
5. Grand Rapids River Rats
6. The Grand Rapids River
7. Grand Rapids Grands
8. Grand Rapids Glands
9. Grand Rapids Rectum
10. Grand Rapids Rectal Thermometer
11. Grand Rapids Recession
12. Grand Rapids Gamma Rays
13. Grand Rapids Genesis
14. Grand Rapids Radiation

Okay, so I totally googled medical terms, but still.

(Grand Rapids, MI)

Also, it would kind of make me nervous. Grand Rapids is growing, and quickly. Our downtown is being redone block by block, and it's coming out gorgeous. People are flocking here in droves, and very few people who are born here leave. Or if they do, they come back here to have families. If you put a major sports team here, and if our Grand Rapids Genesis or whoever become popular, suddenly the Detroit Tigers lose half (or more) of their fandom, and therefore, their income. The Lions are doing next to nothing (Last Sunday's game was the first game not sold out since Ford Field opened, and was blacked out all the way to Lansing,) the Red Wings are popular as far as hockey itself is popular, and if you take even half the fans of even one sports team out of Detroit, Detroits shaking foundations get downright unstable.

Detroit is not a very successful city. The last time I was there, it was like a ghost town if you got any more than a couple blocks away from Comerica Park. You're not fooling anyone, Detroit. You're standing strong on your sports teams, and that's it. Detroit is dying, and it's sad. It's got a pretty colorful history. And I love Grand Rapids, but I'm sitting over here on the western side of the state, watching the east side of the state stumble about, and I feel bad about it all. Come on Detroit. Get with it. Clean it up. Get back to work. Get back into your city. It could be such a great city. Man, I don't want to be ashamed of a city that is the first thing Canadians see when they come across from Windsor. I swear, Canadians, the rest of the state is much nicer!