You know we’re getting into the heart of April in this part of the country when buds start appearing on some of the trees, you see young people milling about in promwear on Fridays and Saturdays, the post office gets busy with people filing their taxes in the last week to do so, and, of course, the Detroit Tigers are mathematically eliminated from the pennant race. Seriously, I don’t know what’s caused the Tigers to have this startling of a collapse in the early part of the year, but it is disconcerting to say the least. Things have to turn around at some point — right? — but all those early-season hopes of another playoff run have been fairly well dashed already. I expect Jim Leyland will last until the end of the season, but I doubt his contract will be renewed after the season is over. Is it too much to ask for that the Tigers bring Kirk Gibson back and make him the skipper like they should have done back in the Trammell era?

Of course with the Stanley Cup playoffs going on right now, I can’t really care that much about baseball. I only wish I could be more confident about the Red Wings’ chances given their propensity to choke in the first round when they win the Presidents’ Trophy. Nashville was probably the best first-round opponent the Red Wings could have drawn simply because it will cut down on travel so much, but Nashville is due to finally win a playoff series here. If the Red Wings can win the series in short order and get more of their players more time to recover from the injuries they received this season, then maybe they’ve got a shot, but the Western Conference is just a huge mess these days with eight teams seemingly equally capable of making it to the finals. I’m going to say that the Red Wings make it to the finals this year, but I’m predicting they lose to Montreal there for two reasons. For one thing, I’ve been clamoring for an all-Original Six final for some time here, and of course there’s the whole "be careful what you wish for" thing going on there. Secondly, for whatever reason (and I really can’t think of a good one right now), the Canadiens’ fans’ chants are really getting on my nerves these days. I’d like to see the Red Wings get their eleventh cup this year, but I don’t feel like there’s a good chance of it happening.

As far as other sports go, I’m even less interested in basketball now than I can remember being before, and of course the Bengals’ continued problems with Chad Johnson and players getting in trouble with the law make it hard to care much about football. I am looking forward to the NFL Draft like I do every year — even if I don’t follow college sports at all I just enjoy the "chess game" aspect of the draft — but I have no choice now but to pin a lot of my hopes on the Red Wings, hopes that I somehow doubt they’ll be able to fulfill.