New Era completely jinxed Tigers before heartbreaking ALDS elimination vs Mariners

Baseball is a sport based on superstitions. Don't step on the foul line. Don't talk to a pitcher while he's got a no-hitter going. The idiosyncratic rituals that hitters go through in the batter's box and pitchers on the mound. Unfortunately for the Detroit Tigers, the fine folks over at New Era didn't observe the same sort of superstitious anxiety and doomed the team in the process.

Merchandise manufacturers prepare postseason swag for each side of a matchup in order to be prepared for any outcome. The almighty dollar waits for no one, after all. However, they rarely promote that swag before the outcome is determined. Well, they're not supposed to, at least.

Ahead of the Tigers' winner-take-all matchup with the Seattle Mariners, New Era was already declaring victory for Detroit, sharing an image of a 2025 Detroit Tigers ALCS hat on Twitter with the captions, "built on grit" and "The Tigers claw their way into the ALCS  — get ready, Motown..." Oops.

New Era jinxes the Tigers with premature post of ALCS merch

Good to know they were confident in the Tigers. In a way, it made sense. Detroit had Tarik Skubal taking the mound in the must-win affair, giving the club as good a chance as any to advance.

Unfortunately, things didn't play out that way. Skubal was brilliant with 13 strikeouts in six innings of work, and the likes of Kerry Carpenter and Will Vest stepped up in the clutch, making it seem as if victory was in reach. However, after Kyle Finnegan gave up the lead in the bottom of the seventh, it became clear that the Tigers were in for a long night, one with an ultimately tragic end.

No, the Tigers will not be going to the ALCS. Instead, it's back to Detroit to lick their wounds and dissect exactly what went wrong in a season of extremely high highs and cavernous lows.

One thing that should be at the top of Scott Harris's offseason shopping list is a bona fide middle-of-the-order bat. As good as guys like Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson were at points this season, they came up short with the season on the line.

The heart of the lineup went a collective 0-23 with 10 strikeouts in the 15-inning affair. Bullpen help should be another top priority, as Tommy Kahnle coughed up the game in a meltdown that became far too common for him this season. Most of Harris's trade deadline "upgrades" were nowhere to be found, either.