We wrote this before the Cardinals completely dismantled the Tigers in the World Series. It was one of the few times we were right about something, so we’re compelled to share it. This was published Oct. 23, 2006:

Mark Twain, or Samuel Clemens if you prefer, once said, “Whenever
you find yourself on the side of majority, it is time to pause and
reflect.” Surely Twain, one of America’s most beloved writers and social satirists, would be heartened to know that nearly 100 years after his death those words can be applied to the 2006 World Series.

The majority opinion in this case was that the Tigers would humiliate the Cardinals to the point that a docu-drama about the fragile relationship between Tony La Russa and Scott Rolen would have made for better TV than the pounding set to transpire on the diamond.

And, frankly, that was a warning. Too many people thought this was going to be too easy. With the way folks were gushing about the Motor City club, it’s surprising nobody predicted the Tigers in three.

This writer — a fancy and theoretically less intrusive way of saying “I” that several friends like to laugh at — fell squarely into the trap by twice this week making the prediction in print that the Tigers would handle either the Cardinals or Mets with ease. The word “sweep” was never written, but it was thought and implied.

By Saturday morning, however, serious doubts had crept in, and they were initiated by a recollection of that Twain quote. Now, there is no statistical proof that at least 150,000,001 people in this country liked the Tigers in a cakewalk, but we’re (this writer and possibly Twain) not talking about majority in the strict sense of the word. Think of it more in a “popular opinion” sense.

That’s the same popular opinion that once held that the world is flat and told us that tight-rolling our jeans was the way to go. It starts with a few people saying or doing it, then everybody buying into it, and crucial facts getting bypassed along the way — the world is round, tight-rolling jeans makes 95 percent of us look less attractive and these Tigers are not the 1927 Yankees. They are not even the 2005 White Sox.

Sometimes popular opinion points to a favorite, and logic backs up the premise. If, for instance, the Vikings were scheduled to play the Star Tribune sports staff instead of the New England Patriots next Monday, you could make a logic-based prediction of the outcome (though it would be interesting to see the point spread).

And sure, there are valid reasons to think the Tigers are the better team on paper, including the two big ones of lineup depth and pitching depth. And yes, the American League is much better than the National League. And, of course, Detroit could still very easily take this series. But to paraphrase another great American social satirist, Denny Green, in our rush to crown the Tigers, we forgot that they are, at times, who we thought they were: A team that lost 31 of its final 50 regular-season games, including three at home to the Royals in the final weekend.

Thus it came as no surprise that, after a series of curious events that caused this writer to fall asleep without knowing so much as the score of Game 1 Saturday night, he awoke to find the Cardinals had won, and won handily.

In fact, the entire premise for this commentary was determined while lying in bed Sunday morning and would have had to be completely scrapped had it been discovered that Detroit took Game 1.

That’s the absolute truth. But even if you don’t believe this writer, you best believe Twain whenever you find yourself in the unquestioning majority.

Discussion questions:

1) What was one time you absolutely nailed a prediction that was a minority opinion.

2) How awesome are the guest posts from the commenters?

3) What did we miss?

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