New Blog Location

Well, after about a month, I have decided to officially move my blog away from WordPress. I had become tired of their service and after I could no longer recover my log-in and password information (despite many attempts to use their "lost password" service), I decided it was time to make a switch. Blogger looks like it will be a much better option for me. It even has a way to customize templates with ease, which is something I look forward to using very much. I will adjust all of the links to the various sites where I have the blog linked so it will take you to this location. All of my existing blogs will be archived on WordPress, so those will still be available to read from. In the meantime, here is a blog that I wrote just a few days ago that I posted on myspace (since I could not access my account on WordPress) about my beloved baseball team, the Detroit Tigers, and their success during the 2006 season. This particular blog was written prior to last night's amazing 4-3 victory over the New York Yankees in the ALDS playoffs. I was hoping for one win; and I got it! Nothing makes me prouder than to see the team I root for win against the hated Yankees. Enjoy, and I look forward to writing to you more here on Blogger. :)

10-4-06:
It's not often that I write about sports in my blog; that is unless one of my favorite teams just so happens to be doing well. Such is the case with the Detroit Tigers. I have been a life-long fan of the club and I can remember many fond memories of listening to legendary radio broadcaster Ernie Harwell calling the games when I was younger. However, I can never remember a Tigers' team playing in the playoffs. I recall a few good seasons when the team actually got above the .500 mark; but that was in the early 1990's. I was five years old when the Tigers last were in the playoffs, that being 1987. I have no recollection whatsoever of that year and the Tigers' achievements. So needless to say, after 19 years of baseball futility, it's actually nice to see my team playing well into October.

My parents had a tremendous love for the team back when I was little. They always had the games on the television, always listened to the games on the radio whenever we weren't near a television, and we always kept track of the team. Every summer for awhile, we managed to watch them play in Milwaukee against the Brewers. That was where we saw them play the most; as Detroit was just a bit too far away, as was the case with Minneapolis. However, we did take a trip down to Tiger Stadium and watch the Tigers play. I can remember the moment as my dad pulled up near the stadium in Detroit and seeing this gigantic while building rise up to the sky. We had to go over a busy Detroit freeway in a pedestrian overpass and we could see many different buildings from that vantage point. As we neared the stadium, one of the ticket vendors told my dad he couldn't bring his movie camera into the stadium, so he had to go back to the car and drop it off; then meet us back in front of the stadium. I remember the festivities outside of the stadium; and it was just like a party atmosphere. Once we entered the inside of the building, it had this distinct smell that is hard to describe. You had to be there in order to know what I mean. It was a mix of hotdogs and old building smell ... anyways, it was very unique and indescribable. As we walked through the corridor in the interior of the stadium, it had this hallow sound and TV monitors echoed the pre-game festivities that were taking place prior to the game. Once we found where we were going to sit, I remember walking uphill to our seats and then I saw it ... the bright green, well manicured grass that the Tigers played on. It was perfect in every sense of the word. I remember being in complete awe as I gazed around the field, noting every significant feature of the stadium that I remember seeing on television and now being able to witness in person. It was truly stunning and one memory that I will never forget. Now that the Tigers no longer play in Tiger Stadium and with it scheduled to be demolished, it's even more special to me. We never did make it back to Detroit since that one visit to Tiger Stadium, but we're hoping to see Comerica Park one day.

One of my fondest memories of old Milwaukee County Stadium was when Cecil Fielder, one of the Tigers all-star players back in the late 1980's and early 90's, blasted a homerun out to left field. It wasn't your ordinary run-of-the-mill homerun that landed in the seats. No, it went over the seats, over the left field wall of the stadium, and into the parking lot! That was an incredible moment. I can always recall many Tiger fans in attendance at the games in Milwaukee, so we never felt left out there. I remember the old-style scoreboard that they used as well as this old freakish-looking tower out into right-center field (I think). And of course, how can you forget Bernie the Brewer going down the slide whenever the Brewers hit a homerun (not a good thing for the Tigers, mind you). We haven't been back to Milwaukee since the new stadium was built, and it makes it even more difficult now that the Brewers play in the National League. They were once American League rivals of the Tigers for many years.

It has been a long time since I've been able to enjoy a Tigers team with the success the 2006 club has had. There have been many 100+ loss seasons that were hard to take. Many of those seasons I did not really follow the team that closely. The games would be on the television, but I always remember telling myself "ah well, another loss today," and then promptly changing the channel. That certainly was not the case this year. Many-a-nights I was glued to the TV watching the team win game after game, some of them more dramatically that the others. The end of the season was a bit of a disappointment, especially after they gave up the division crown to the Twins on the very last day of the season. But nontheless, this was something I hadn't seen the Tigers do in a very long time - in fact, not since I was a boy. So no matter their downfalls and their expected first round departure in the playoffs (to the mighty Yankees), I am still proud of the team and excited what lies ahead. Heck, it was 19 years in the making.