Ahhh, some of the most beautiful words these ears have ever heard! And, when I hear Dan Dickerson say it, I get chills up and down my spine!Last night, the Detroit Tigers’ magical season continued with a sweep of the Oakland A’s to win the ALCS. They now will represent the American League in the World Series, which will start Saturday, Oct. 21. As has been the case all season, no one expected this, not in one hundred million years. And, because of this, all of it is so hard to digest. It’s like waiting for something you really want for years and years and years and then, all of a sudden, you get it. It’s hard to know how to react to it all. After watching the game itself, I spent the rest of the night watching and reading all the post-game stuff. Even though the Michigan at Penn State football game was on, I had a very difficult time tearing myself away from the thing I’ve been waiting for since 1984.
Once things really started to sink in, I shed my fair share of tears. I started thinking about what baseball has meant to me over the years. I also started thinking about what it means to the City of Detroit and, America, in general. I saw the following quote from Tigers’ closer Todd Jones and I started crying all over again:
“This city, this region, this state really needs this. A lot of people are out of work. A lot of people are hurting. And for three hours every night in the summer, we were able to give them a lot of joy. I am real happy for the city and real happy for the Tigers.”
I guess it reminded me of when I was younger and my parents had some very tough financial times (usually caused by General Motors) but they always made sure we had what we needed. And, my Dad made sure we got to a Tigers’ game once a year – the only sporting events my sisters and I ever attended as kids. I then saw this picture of Todd Jones, just sitting on the mound taking it all in LONG after the game had ended.
What a great photo!
All this got me thinking of James Earl Jones’ character, Terence Mann, in "Field of Dreams" and his speech about baseball.
And then, this speech made me think about the end of that same movie. It made me think of the movie moment that makes me cry no matter what. When Kevin Costner’s character, Ray Kinsella, is given the opportunity to finally play catch with his father.
Baseball, what can I say. I love it. Every April, you get a fresh start and then you play 162 games to determine your worth. You play every night, during the cool spring nights and the hot summer nights and the crisp fall evenings. The season starts as the days are beginning to get longer and then continues into the summer, during those beautiful nights under those picturesque sunsets – sunsets that don’t even start until 9 p.m. As September arrives, the days get shorter AND cooler. The smell of the playoffs is in the air, along with the smell of burning leaves and the smell of the furnace the first time you turn it on. This game turns grown men into ecstatic little boys, causing them to jump up and down like five-year-olds who’ve ingested too much Halloween candy. And, it turns little boys into lifelong fans, with visions of their heroes burned in their memories forever. Even at my age, there are so many images from this Tigers’ playoff run that I will never forget!
I don’t know what else there is to say about baseball and my Detroit Tigers. The more I think about it, the more I can’t believe it. Before the Fall Classic begins on Saturday, the Tigers have some time off to let all of this sink in and so do the fans. And, I think that time will be valuable for all of us to truly understand all that they’ve accomplished over the last three years. And, in case there is such a thing as karma or destiny or whatever, here’s an interesting fact – the 2006 Tigers clinched the ALCS on the same date the 1984 Tigers won the World Series all those years ago!
