By The Heckler
Baseball Big Mouth baseball news 

Surreal. Absolutely surreal. The Heckler, for maybe the first time in his life, sits here at his keyboard . . . silenced. Stunned. The Detroit Tigers are off to the World Series. There, I’ve typed it. But it still sounds funny, no? The Detroit Tigers are off to the World Series. Say it out loud and come back to this column. Try it . . . done yet? I though so. Your mouth is agape, just like mine – right? Wow. You, too?! Well, believe it gang. It has happened. It is real. It is now. Magglio Ordóñez, he of the much-ballyhooed $15 million per year contract, unloaded on a Huston Street fastball in the bottom of the ninth inning – rocketing the pitch high and deep into Comerica Park’s leftfield stands, and along with it, the Tigers into their first World Series since 1984. Yes sir, Kool-Aid and cornbread for everyone tonight. AL pennant? Check. World Series title? Next up.

Unlike the recent championship runs of fellow Detroit sports teams such as the Red Wings and Pistons, this Tigers’ run is so much more unique. Oh, to have plunked down a few bucks on this squad while in Vegas back in November. Surely, The Heckler would be picking out a big screen television right about now. But alas, I – like the rest of the baseball world – had no idea what lay ahead for this Jim Leyland-led group. On that fact, at least I had company. But who knew? Who knew? Who knew Justin Verlander would come up to the big league with a little over a year of minor league ball – and go on to win 17 games in the regular season, not to mention another won in the playoffs, thus far. Who thought Joel Zumaya would come on so fiercely, ripping through radar guns across Major League parks from April on through October. Who had Kenny Rogers pegged as such a stand-up guy, not to mention gutty veteran leader all too-willing to pass on his experience to the younger Tigers’ hurlers? Heck – who thought Rogers would turn into the Cobra that he did in the postseason, holding court in the Comerica Park snake pit through two dominating postseason starts against the Yankees and the Athletics? Who knew? Who knew?

Good pitching beats good hitting. It is an adage as old as the game. All year, the Tigers put up league-leading numbers – and no one paid them much mind. It’s the Tigers, after all. It is hard thing to simply whitewash years of ineptitude. And, oh – how inept they indeed were. But that was all behind them. This year started different and stayed that way . . . until August rolled around. The losses piled-up. Placido Polanco separated his shoulder. The pitching warbled, slightly. The hitting seemingly went on a cottage sojourn. Add-up a poor final quarter, and the bandwagon was pretty-much empty as the team limped into the playoffs, clinging to their Wild Card berth in sad consolation as the Minnesota Twins backed into the AL Central title. After their complete collapse against the Kansas City Royals – when even one win seemed like a insurmountable task, all that was needed to clinch their first division title since 1987 – they were written-off by most of the pundits. But not all. Somewhere, the heart of the Tiger was still beating. But facing the dreaded Evil Empire known as the New York Yankees – who knew, really? I’m sure the MLB offices had the requisite parting gifts already prepared for the Detroiters as they touched down at JFK, 25 care packages containing some souvenirs they could pass on to their children after their perceived three-and-out. A T-Shirt. A hat. Maybe a deck of playing cards with the ALDS logo. Little did they know it would be the Yankees being handed the home version of the 2006 MLB playoffs. All after four games. Who knew?

Quickly – the Athletics sure did. Two games down after a pair in their home park, Oakland at least mustered up a fight (unlike Steinbrenner’s boys) in the final game. In the end, however, it just made for a better script. Cue Mags. Cue the crowd. Cue cameras. Print it. The Detroit Tigers are off to the World Series. Who knew? Ask the Cardinals or Mets come two weeks from now. They will be able to tell the tale as well. Let’s be honest: can anyone beat this magical Tigers team this year? The Heckler would be even more stunned if that happened than he is today. Sitting here, typing these words, that one day I will read again and remember. The year the Tigers shocked everyone. The year they will go on to not only play in the Fall Classic, but capture it for all eternity. Who knew? Who cares. We all know now. The Detroit Tigers are World Series-bound.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 14th, 2006 at 8:06 pm and is filed under Baseball News and Views, Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.