Anybody that follows my blog knows that I breath, eat, bleed baseball, and for anyone who bleeds baseball they also bleed for their teams, especially when their teams go to the playoffs. I am a fan of both the Detroit Tigers and Atlanta Braves, if I was to absolutely choose one, I would have to definitely lean towards my home state Tigers. I still love the Braves, but the love is different, I loved the 90's Braves in which had all the great pitching led by Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.
The great thing about Baseball is that it comes to an end in my favorite time of year, in the month of October. I love the autumn, and so does my wife. We enjoy Autumn in the same way as others enjoy summer vacation. We love all the leaves changing, the cooler, more comfortable temps & we both love Halloween. Another reason I love autumn, is that my Birthday falls on October 28th.
It was the time of year, as a kid where we enjoy October Baseball, while the NFL is just getting underway, we get a few little games of baseball done outside before it got too cold, and we would also play football. There was always something beautiful about the smell of burning leaves, and that crisp breeze -- getting out of school and hanging with your friends, then when it got dark (which came early), it was dinner & time to do the homework. But there was something always magical for that time of year.
My first memories of October playoffs, of course was the 1984 World Series. In those days, my dad was have the TV on, and there was Al Kaline & George Kell doing the television work. If we won the Tiger's head burst through the logo and roared, when they lost he meowed like a kitten and had a thermometer in his mouth & a bag sitting on top of hit. Sometimes it roared while biting on a bat, and sometimes in special circumstances like playing the Blue Jays, there would be Blue bird feathers floating around, yep... the Tiger had a snack. It was pretty cool to know that my dad graduated high school with Kirk Gibson of the 84' Tigers, one of my elementary classmates' mothers happened to be a cousin to another Michigan native in Dave Rozema. I will have to talk more of my dad knowing Gibby in the near future, but for now back to baseball memories.
Though the 84' season was something to cherish, the first real post-season in which I absolutely fell in love with the game and have been hooked since, was the epic 1986 World Series. It had everything, many colorful characters (and nicknames.. Oil Can, Mookie), many young studs (Strawberry, Clemens, Gooden) and just so much drama -- Hello Game 6! I remember watching that inning unfold thinking.. you can't write this stuff, not to mention the brilliance of Vin Scully. From then on, I was hooked, I would go in my backyard, at times all by myself reenacting actual plays, or making up scenarios of me growing up to be some up-and-coming baseball hero, with me voicing over the plays in my Scully or Bob Costas voice. Sometimes I would have the theme of "This Week in Baseball" on repeat, bouncing around in the background of my head while throwing the ball up to myself.
1987 would cement my love for baseball with the Tigers' wonderful run to catch the Blue Jays. I remember we had to go to my Aunt's and on the way back we listened to Ernie Harwell breaking down one of the games where we gained another game on them, and my getting excited. Talking about the young guys who helped our vets doing the impossible, a division that looked like the Jays. My dad talking about the brilliance of us acquiring Doyle Alexander. Alexander will go down as one of the most intriguing trade acquisitions in MLB history for both good and bad reasons -- the good, he set an impressive 9-0 record with a 1.53 ERA in 11 starts; the bad? He was acquired from the Atlanta Braves, in exchange we would send Detroit-Native John Smoltz in the deal. We were 3 1/2 games out by the end of the day on Sept 26th, losing three straight to the Blue Jays, the Jays have now won 11 of their last 13 as well.
But tomorrow is another day, and on that day we won a 13 inning game against the Jays to pull within 2 1/2. The next series we split 2-2 with the Orioles, while the Jays got swept by the Brewers in three games -- the Jays were 1 1/2 up and with Detroits 4th-game victory over Baltimore, Tigers pulled within a game now. The schedule had the Jays coming to Detroit for the last three remaining games of the season, Tigers edged the Jays in a night game with 4-3 victory (Alexander getting win #9 & a save to Henneman), we were tied in first, with two games remaining. I remember the excitement at school, and the talk on the playground, even the teachers were thrilled. The next game we would win in extras (12 innings) 3-2, with the win going to Henneman, the loss to Musselman. The last game of the season, the teachers brought the TV into the classroom, Larry Herndon hit a solo HR, the only run in the game. Frank Tanana pitched a complete-game shutout & it was off to the playoffs, I would remember the heartache that would follow when we lost to Minnesota. The "under-dog" Minnesota Twins won the A.L. West with only 85 wins-- their 85 wins would be the lowest total of regular season wins for a World Championship (the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals would break that record with 83 wins). The lowest total for a World Series contender belongs to the 1973 New York Mets, if you were all wondering. Another note on the Twins, they back-pedaled into the playoffs losing five straight & according to Baseball Reference.com, their Pythagorean Record was that of a 79-83 team. I do remember the heartache of 1987, but I also remember the thrill of catching Toronto that season, and thinking how we came so close.
Little did I know at the time it would be another 19 years until my Tigers ever return to the post-season & another five years until a division title (24 years between division titles) -- So in some ways I can relate to the Pittsburgh Pirates' fans. The 2013 Tigers team would make it three-straight division titles for the first time in their entire (long) franchise history.
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