The most wonderful thing about Tigers
What kid who grew up in Michigan in the 1980s doesn't remember the '84 Tigers winning the World Series? The Tigers were all-consuming that year. Stereotypes about girls and sports aside, I remember being at a party with my girlfriends that summer and all the girls were showing off that they could identify the Tigers in a team photo and knew what position they played. The song "Bless You, Boys" got frequent airplay, praising the Tigers.
It's been sooo long since the Tigers have been any good. Back in 1997, a friend who did PR for the Tigers was certain they had the talent to have a great season. He was either dead wrong, or nine years early, because this year is certainly phenomenal.
When the Tigers squeaked into the playoffs, I thought it cruel and unusual punishment to have to play the Yankees in the first round. I hoped that my hometown team wouldn't embarrass themselves too much, so I wouldn't have to slink in shame around an office full of Yankees fans.
Then one of my coworkers, a diehard Yankees fan, issued a bet. If the Yankees won, I had to wear a Yankees hat to work. If the Tigers won -- fat chance, right? -- he'd wear a Tigers hat to work.
I don't have to tell you how that bet came out. Meet Eddie, AP paralegal and rabid Yankees fan.
Living in New York, where it seems mandatory that the Tigers make it to the playoffs and the Mets fans hate them for it, it's been a fun experience cheering for Detroit. We watched the first round games at bars around town, where Yankees fans might sneer a little but Mets fans would smile and high five us because any team that beats the Yankees is a friend of theirs, at least for now.
Here's us out with Jim and Courtney, the Michigan contingent cheering on our team from back home.
Now that the Tigers have crushed the mighty pinstripes, and have two games under their belt for the division championship, we had plans to go watch the game tomorrow evening with a bigger group of Michiganders. But Jim just emailed to say the game's been moved up to 4:30 p.m. Gotta run to find out what the heck's going on with our Friday night plans.
Bless you, boys!
posted by Colleen at
9:35 PM
3 Comments:
Did you see this headline in The Onion? George Steinbrenner Fires Tigers.
The Yankees fan I happen to live with is handling the loss quite well, I must say. It was the young arms, he said. Detroit has hot young pitching arms, and the Yankees bullpen is full of geezers. Good pitching beats good hitting. Mutter mutter mutter. He's now whole-heartedly rooting for the Mets.
I was just recycling our Sunday NY Times today and saw that the front-page photo showed Cory Lidle, walking off the mound. Very, very sad.
By
Anonymous, at 10/13/2006 9:04 AM
It's like 40 degrees with a 40 mph wind. There's a REASON we don't play baseball in October around here.
By
Anonymous, at 10/13/2006 1:05 PM
OK, I got through about 15 seconds of "Bless You Boys" but that was all I could take. I know I shouldn't talk since, a mere two years later, I was belting out "The Super Bowl Shuffle" with all my might. Maybe the lesson is that sports teams + pop music = eeeeeew.
By
Anonymous, at 10/14/2006 3:27 PM
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