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American League Division Series, Detroit vs Cleveland

 You know what's great about this series?  Two teams from two cities in an area the coastal folks call "the rust belt" but should be better known as the Great Lakes Watershed.

Detroit has been through some really tough times in the last 30 years, you'll have that when all of your economic base leaves for cheaper labor markets.

Cleveland has been through some really tough times in the last 30 years, you'll have that when your economic base pollutes the land and waterways so badly the river catches on fire regularly.

These are major American cities, both of them degraded by decades of corporations chasing cheap labor,  lacks environmental protections, pre-1970s, that left a scarred landscape that 50 years of the clean water, clear air, RCRA, and Superfund sites has only recently started to show real improvement.  And lets not forget the trade deals that hollowed out Detroit and Cleveland for imports from China and Mexico.

Detroit and Cleveland... I think you mean the Athens and Sparta of the once great working class empire.

The last time the Detroit Tigers were good.  Chrysler was bring new production back to Detroit and running ads that said "Imported from Detroit".  Once again the Tigers are doing good and at the same time major renovation projects are revitalizing the city.  These things are not coincidental.  The people of Detroit coming together to rebuild the city, and a gritty team whos combine salary is less than some professional athletes single year salary is playing good fundamental team baseball and winning.

I don't know who is Athens and who is Sparta but I hope one of them wins it all.  Is St. Louis in the playoffs, I could have said all the same things about St. Louis.  America is strong when our manufacturing hubs are strong.  It is has been great not just to see a team I rooted for since I was a little kid winning but also to see glimmers of a resurgent working class empire.

It's hard to field a competitive professional sports team in a city where the regional economy is struggling.  We all support our local teams, but when most of the city can't afford the ticket price, the ticket prices drop, the money for player salary drops and the team is less competitive.  But here are these two teams in these two "rust belt" cities that said they wanted it and here we are.

Let's Go!


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