bless you boys.

In a strange twist of fate, Jesse and I ended up being at the ALCS game 4 with cousinSethy and his mom. Not only were we all at the game, they were in our section. We were able to talk the two guys sitting in front of Jesse and I into switching seats with cousinSethy and mamaBurger so they got to sit with us. Amazing how that all works out.

Yesterday I wrote the most amazing blog about this game. But then it disappeared. Damn you blogger!! So I'll try to recreate some of the amazingness but I'm sure I will disappoint you all.

Here is a photo of the field before the game started.

The Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit sang the National Anthem and it was absolutely beautiful. I do not especially enjoy our National Anthem but when they sang it, it brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't believe they were kids!

I don't know who came up with the "Who's Your Tiger?" marketing idea but they are an absolute genius. Before the game Jesse and I both chose Magglio Ordonez to be our Tiger. Apparently Jesse and I are also absolute geniuses.

But more on that in a second.

The game was fun to watch. Jesse and I sat next to a dude who used to play for the Toledo Mudhens (the Tigers Triple-A team) and he had also played for the Lansing Lugnuts. He was really nice and friendly and hot. He and his wife hadn't been able to get tickets next to each other so she was sitting somewhere else in our section. Eventually she came and joined us since we were way more fun than whoever she was sitting next to.

As for the actual baseball, the Detroit pitching wasn't as lights-out as it has been in the previous post season games. Bonderman did just fine but we were really concerned when Grilli came in and threw 13 balls in a row to load the bases with walks. Luckily Wilfredo Ledezma came in to save the day. Oakland had to bring in their closer, Huston Street, in the 7th inning. We felt like it was the right move for Macha to make since this game had such high stakes. However, by the bottom of the 9th, it was clear Street stayed in too long. Craig Monroe and Placido Polanco managed to get on base. With 2 outs, Magglio Ordonez came up to the plate. When he hit the ball it felt like it was moving in slow motion. The crowd was silent as I watched the ball sail out of left field for the second time that night. I'm not sure if it was really silent or if I just couldn't hear anything. Then I went crazy. The guy sitting in front of us turned to hug me and accidentally (?) groped my boobies (although with all the layers I was wearing he didn't get much of a feel) and I didn't care. I hugged him. I hugged his wife. I hugged my husband. I hugged cousinSethy and mamaBurger. I high-fived hands that were coming from everywhere. I fought back tears but when I saw the tears in cousinSethy's and mamaBurger's eyes I didn't care to fight them back anymore. We screamed we jumped up and down. We believed.


Who's your tiger? Magglio was my Tiger. I had never seen a walk-off homerun live before. Earlier in the season I had tickets to a game where Carlos Guillen had hit one. I didn't go to that game because I was sick. I wasn't sick on Saturday night.

Here is the field during the presentation of the American League Championship trophy and the MVP award to Placido Polanco. Speaking of Placido, have you ever seen such sheer joy in a player as he ran around those bases? Watching highlights of him running and jumping and cheering while wearing that stupid headwarmer thing brings tears to my eyes almost every time.


After the game we walked around downtown for a little while just celebrating and high-fiveing everyone in sight. It was a peaceful celebration with everyone focusing on this amazing team.

Seth called Sunday afternoon and all he said was, "we were there."

Yes, we were.