Milestone season leads to playoffs
It’s been five years since the Detroit Tigers made the postseason. It’s been 24 years since the Tigers have won a Division Championship. It’s been 77 years since the Tigers have had a 12-game winning streak.
The 2011 season has included all of these milestones, and it’s exciting for the fans who have been following the team.
There have been years when they’ve won it all. There have been years where the number of losses was far more than the number of wins, yet the one constant is the fans. They appeared at each game, dressed in blue and orange attire and prepared to cheer on their team no matter what happened on the field.
Jim Leyland, the Detroit Tigers manager, said “I can’t tell you how proud I am of you guys [the fans] and the loyalty that you’ve shown to us, and uh, I hope you’re proud of us tonight,” in his post game interview with Fox Sports Detroit after clinching the American League Central Division.
And on that night we were proud. Proud of the efforts of players like Justin Verlander, Victor Martinez, Miguel Cabrera and Jose Valverde who surprised us all season long. Proud of the trade deadline acquisitions like Doug Fister and Delmon Young who proved themselves to any skeptical fan.
Even though the players were celebrating on the East Coast with champagne and cigars, Tigers fans across the nation who managed to stay awake to see the victory celebrated in their own ways. Personally, I screamed and then cried.
This season has been exciting. A no-hitter, walk-off home runs and for the first time in five years, a World Series is within in reach.
In the same fashion as the season ended, the postseason has been just as exciting. In the first game, inclement weather halted play and possibly the best pitching match-up of the series, only to have the game restart the next night with two new pitchers.
The Tigers are currently tied in the first series with the Yankees 2-2 with one game left to play. Fister for Detroit will pitch against Ivan Nova for the Yankees in the final, do-or-die game of the series.
It appears that the “Bless You Boys” from 1984 are back and we’re on our way to the World Series.