After starting off the regular season strong, the Detroit Tigers lost the wind from their sails in the last couple of months of the season, eventually losing the A.L. Central crown to the Minnesota Twins.  But you know what they say about the postseason - it’s a new season all over again and no one has been better than the Detroit Tigers in this “second” season.  And now, they’re on their way to the biggest series in baseball - The World Series.

The Tigers completed a American League Championship series sweep over the Oakland Athletics, winning Game Four in Detroit 6-3 on a three-run homerun by OF Magglio Ordonez in the bottom of the ninth with two outs off of A’s closer, Huston Street.  It was Ordonez’s second homer of the game, who signed with Tigers a couple of seasons ago under some scrutiny due to a lingering and potentially career-ending back injury.  However, no matter what happens now, the deal was a good one.

The last time the Tigers were in the World Series was in 1984 when they won the title with such Tigers luminaries and legends such as Alan Tramell, the previous manager to Jim Leyland and manager of the 2003 team that went 43-119, Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson, Jack Morris, and Lance Parrish.

The Tigers wait for the National League champion between the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets to improve on their seven-game winning streak, beating the much-hyped and even more expensive New York Yankees in Games Two through Four in the A.L.D.S. and, of course, the A’s.  Game Four of the N.L.C.S. will be played today and it could be awhile before the Tigers take the field again.

They have to hope that the magic is still waiting for them when they do.