Baseball In The D

Part 2: Here Come The Tigers

The Tigers had been a mediocre team for so long up to 2006, and since then, they’ve been a whole new ball club, and thus, my passion for baseball began.

It was October 14th, 2006. I was only about 9 years old, almost 10 at the time. My family and I were at a motel in Arcadia, Michigan, and we were coming back for dinner after walking down the sandy shore of Lake Michigan. My dad knew that game 4 of the ALCS (American League Championship Series) was on that night, so we decided to watch that. I started liking baseball around that time, but I wasn't big on it. But this game was exciting. This was the first time the Tigers had made the playoffs since 1987. They came in as the Wild Card, meaning they were the best second place team record-wise in the American League. It was definitely a start, considering their long playoff drought. The Tigers had gone through and defeated the New York Yankees 3 games to 1 in the ALDS (American League Division Series), and then won the first 3 of the ALCS against the Oakland Athletics. That’s when things got exciting.

It was all tied up in the bottom of the 9th, 3-3. If they scored, they would make it to the world series for the first time in 22 years. Despite a tied score, the A’s brought in the closer Huston Street. First up was Marcus Thames, pinch hitting for Ramon Santiago. He flies out. I’m just crossing my fingers, hoping we can score. Then Curtis Granderson comes up to plate, but he lines out to right field. With two outs, it seemed likely that they would go into extra innings. But you couldn’t count out these Tigers. 

With back-to-back singles by Craig Monroe and Placido Polanco, they finally had something cooking. Then Magglio Ordoñez came up to plate. This was the moment of the game, considering that he had a homer earlier in the game. First pitch was a ball. The crowd was going wild, and I was too, hoping that Magglio could do something. The next pitch, he takes a swing, and he blasted that ball deep to left field, Jay Payton going back, at the track, at the wall, GONE! The crowd went crazy, my family went crazy, and the Tigers went crazy. A three-run homer finally sent them to the World Series, and thus, brought me to liking baseball. It was the probably the most amazing ending to a game I’ve ever seen, even to this day. 

Despite the fact that they were on fire going in to the World Series, they weren’t so hot when they got there. They lost Game 1 to the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-2. But in Game 2, Kenny Rogers pitched very well for the Tigers, and they won 3-1. Unfortunately, that’s all they had left. From then on, pitching, hitting, and defense were a problem for them, as they eventually lost the World Series in Game 5, 4-2. I was obviously very disappointed about that. However, I was excited for their next season. Since they had finally made it to the postseason that year, who knew how well they would play in 2007, and the next season, and the season after that, and so on. 

Now that it’s 2014, I know how their seasons have been, and I will analyze how their seasons were from 2007 to now.

Works Cited

“Tigers Postseason Results.” 27 Mar. 2014. http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/det/history/postseason_results.jsp

“Game HQ.” 14 Oct. 2006. http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/playbyplay?gameId=261014106

Leach, Matthew. 22 Oct. 2006. “Rookie Reyes Delivers Game 1 Victory.” http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061021&content_id=1720173&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl