【新聞】Tigers sweep A's, reach World Series

看板DET_Tigers作者pennymarcus (De-troit Basketball)時間18年前 (2006/10/16 19:45)推噓3(3推 0噓 3→)

留言6則, 3人參與討論串1/1

這篇新聞的作者是MITCH ALBOM 他是底特律自由報的體育專欄作家同時也是「最後十四堂星期二的課」的作者他的文筆真的不錯只是這篇文章寫得很長很長罷了文中算是表達出老虎隊今非昔比的驚喜 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- MITCH ALBOM: Magg-ical! Tigers sweep A's, reach World Series October 15, 2006 BY MITCH ALBOM It felt, from the dawn, like a day of destiny. People sipped their morning coffee thinking baseball, and they dressed in layers thinking baseball, and they came to the stadium on this autumn afternoon thinking baseball, baseball, baseball. It was football chilly, but the ball and the bat ruled the day, in a way the ball and bat have not ruled this city in more than 20 years. It felt enlarged, this particular Saturday in October, like something big was going to happen. And sure enough, after a shaky start and a three-run deficit and a bases-loaded blown opportunity and a bases-loaded narrow escape, sure enough, after almost every chance imaginable and the score still tied, 3-3, here came the bottom of the ninth, two outs, two on -- I mean, come on, is this perfect or what? -- and here came your something big, folks, here came Magglio Ordonez, one of those free agents who a few years back might never have signed with the Tigers, and he smoked an 1-0 pitch so high and so far into Comerica Park's leftfield seats that he had time to watch, walk, raise a fist, then raise another fist, then run the bases pointing a new direction for this new era of Detroit baseball. A team that three years ago suffered a classic fall is now going to the Fall Classic. Today, the league. Tomorrow, the world. "When the ball went up I just went numb, tears came to my eyes," said Marcus Thames, who surged onto the field with his teammates to wait for Ordonez, one big, crazy family welcoming a brother home. "You couldn't hear anything. The fans went wild. They've been waiting such a long time. ... I feel like I'm dreaming" Dreaming? Join the club. The World Series? The Tigers are going to the World Series? Hadn't we given up on that phrase? Hadn't that become a subset of words permanently associated with the past, like "horse and buggy," like "five and dime"? Tigers and World Series? The Tigers are going to the World Series? Yes. And not with Gibson and Trammell. Not with McLain and Lolich. With Polanco and Inge and Pudge and Kenny and Verlander and Maggs and Jonesy and Zoom and Guillen and Granderson and Monroe and the White Wizard, Jim Leyland. "Not too bad, huh?" Leyland said after the 6-3 clincher, champagne glasses and family members all over his clubhouse office. "From 71 wins to American League champions?" Not bad at all. The Tigers swept Oakland four straight, they have won their last six games by at least three runs (which had never happened in playoff history) and there is a banner with this one, oh, yes, something tangible to mark this season of seasons. The Tigers finally are champions of something beyond most of our imaginations: They own the American League. They will hoist at least one flag next spring. And having snagged one, they will go for two. Today, the league, Tomorrow, the world. The most dramatic of finishes What a finish. What theatre. As Ordonez circled the bases, and the fountains exploded and the scoreboard flashed "World Series Bound!", the Tigers flew like magnets to home plate. The coaches chugged after them. The pitchers came racing out of the bullpen as if it were on fire. And they all waited for Ordonez to reach them, to officially touch the rubber that lay in the middle of that maddeningly happy huddle, to officially send them to a place this franchise hasn't seen in 22 years. "You can't hear anything, everyone yelling at top of their lungs, your adrenaline is going," third baseman Brandon Inge said. "It's such a hair-raising experience. You know you just accomplished something that is nearly impossible to accomplish." How did they pull it off? On Saturday, it was every little thing. It was Inge beating out a ground ball, racing to second when the throw went awry and scoring two batters later. It was Curtis Granderson stretching a single into a double with smoking speed, then scoring from second on Craig Monroe's double. It was Jamie Walker coming on in the seventh and ending a threat by getting Mark Kotsay to strike out. But it wasn't just what they did, it was what they survived. They survived an early 3-0 deficit. They survived Oakland pitcher Dan Haren's masterful control in the opening innings. They survived so many blown chances, none worse than the bases-loaded at-bat by Carlos Guillen in the bottom of the seventh. There was only one out, the stadium was on its feet, and Guillen did the one thing you can't do when you're trying to capitalize on that: ground into a double play to end the inning. They survived that. They survived the next half-inning, when Jason Grilli, in a meltdown moment, walked three straight batters on 12 straight pitches. Three batters? Twelve pitches? Surely Oakland could take advantage of THAT, right? Wrong. Wil Ledezma came in and got Marco Scutaro to foul out to end the inning. (You could hear Grilli sigh halfway to Wisconsin.) The game stayed tied. At that point, it seemed the gods were simply horsing around, keeping it interesting, waiting until the perfect dramatic moment to bring a pennant to a pennant-starved city. It came just before eight o'clock, after three hours and 23 minutes of baseball, after two outs and extra innings looming, after Monroe cracked a single, and Placido Polanco -- the MVP of the American League Championship Series -- looped another single. Then Ordonez, who had a solo homer earlier in the game, stepped to the plate. Ordonez has been waiting to seize his promise since he arrived in 2005 and spent half his first year on the disabled list. He had solid numbers this season, but had not delivered often in these playoff situations. But the longer they play, the more the Tigers seem to be a team that takes turns with glory, the way kids take turns with the black crayon. "We know what kind of a hitter Magglio is," Polanco said. "It was just a matter of time before he hit one hard." Hard? Ordonez took his destiny pitch over the wall, 385 feet away, and took half this state with it. Today, the league. Tomorrow, the world. Saturday nights are all right "That was the way it had to end, didn't it?" someone asked closer Todd Jones on the field after the game. "I'd have taken a dribbler off the end of the bat," Jones said. "Any way to get in." All around him, Tigers players were hugging their families, hugging each other, waving to the fans, swaying to the celebratory music. Saturday night at the ballpark. We could get used to this. Last Saturday, Jeremy Bonderman threw a classic to beat the Yankees in the clinching game of that series. The night ended in champagne showers for everybody -- fans included. Now, one week later, same stadium, same starting pitcher, a bigger stake was on the line, the American League pennant. Yet here they were again, when the game was over, partying all over the outfield and infield. Yes, there is another series to go. Yes, soon enough, there will be questions about the Mets or the Cardinals. But stop and consider what the Tigers have done to this point. A team that no one expected to make the playoffs in spring training, broke from the gate and leaped into first place. They held it most of the season. Then, against everybody's favorite playoff roster, the Yankees, they dropped one game, before storming through the next three. Then, against Oakland, a team that swept its way into the ALCS, the Tigers won, 5-1; then, 8-5; then, 3-0; then ended it, 6-3. They won large and they won small. They won with timely hits -- and a classic walkoff home run -- but mostly they won with strong pitching. Three of the four starters got credited with victories, and Bonderman, after early jitters, pitched solid baseball to allow his teammates to catch back up. "Honestly, from where we've come, from 2003 to where we are right now, this is such a rewarding moment," said Inge, who was there for the year this team lost 119 games, an AL record. "If someone had told you back then that three years later you'd be American League champions, what would you have said?" someone asked. Inge imagined the moment, then said, "Yeah, right." And now, the World Series. It's almost too much to fathom, isn't it? One of those pinch-me things, except nobody wants to get pinched, because nobody wants to wake up. They have reached the Promised Land -- using one game more than the minimum required. The rest of the country may be scratching its head, double-checking the box scores. But here is the funny, glorious truth: A most unlikely team will represent the American League in the last step of the long, long, baseball journey. From a messy collection of table scraps, the Detroit Tigers have fashioned a seven-course meal, and they will sit down to it soon: It's called the World Series. It starts Saturday. That works by us. Saturdays in downtown Detroit are becoming a lot of fun around here. Today, the league. Tomorrow, the world. What, you think we're kidding? -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 61.229.120.210