Party time!
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BY DREW SHARP
DETROIT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
September 25, 2006
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It had been so long.
The Tigers had forgotten the taste of that interesting union of champagne and sweat. Their fans had forgotten the joy of watching a locker-room celebration.
So as grown men frolicked like little boys in a damp and delirious clubhouse, and as the FSN cameras beamed it all back to Detroit, Mike Ilitch and Jim Leyland ducked inside the manager's office with a bottle of Taittinger. Two men known more for the force of their actions than for the volume of their words succumbed to the magnitude of this occasion.
Tom Hanks was wrong. There is crying in baseball.
Getting the team of his childhood to the playoffs for the first time in 19 years hit closer to Ilitch's heart than any of his three Stanley Cups. Getting the team of his dreams to the playoffs after a six-year absence from the major leagues left Leyland too emotional to speak.
The Tigers emphatically earned their place in the American League playoffs Sunday afternoon with an 11-4 victory over Kansas City. The Tigers still might win the Central Division -- they lead the Twins by 1 1/2 games with six left in the season, all at Comerica Park -- but there's no way that celebration could match Sunday's spontaneous, cathartic release. Detroit officially waved good-bye to nearly two decades of ineptitude on the field and irrelevance to a generation of fans.
The impact of this day proved more personal than anyone could imagine.
Leyland, now 61 and in his first year as Tigers manager, could barely convey his appreciation without choking up.
"I can't tell you how happy I am," he said. "This was a dream for me to manage the Tigers someday. It took me a long time and to be involved with this I'm very thankful to God for all the blessings and the opportunity to manage this team and return to this organization."
He excused himself. Sensitivity contradicts the gruff persona he ably has cultivated throughout his long career, but it's that genuine connection to his emotions that resonated with this team mixed with young players and veterans.
Ilitch, now 77, sat alone in the manager's office, his Tigers jacket drenched from flying bubbly and an unopened bottle of champagne at his feet. And he just stared into space, framing a mental picture of the long, grueling road of 14 years of ownership with hardly a crumb of gratification.
"This one is harder to comprehend," he said. "This is my sport. This is what I dreamed of as a kid when I went to Tiger Stadium and when I played minor-league ball with them."
He obviously appreciates the championship excellence of his Red Wings, but he told me "this is more special because it gets me right in the gut."
"Deep down," he said, "I'm a baseball guy."
Pudge Rodriguez, the catcher whom many thought Ilitch foolishly pursued in 2004, briefly left the revelry in the clubhouse to thank Ilitch for "keeping his promise."
"He told me when he signed me that he was going to bring the right people in to make this happen," Rodriguez said. "And I never doubted his word. I just wanted to thank him for bringing me here."
Todd Jones, the big closer, interrupted a briefing Ilitch later had with reporters.
"Come here and give me a hug," Jones said, practically swallowing Ilitch in his grasp, thanking him for bringing him "back home" this season.
The emotions were sincere and etched all over Ilitch's face.
"It's true," he said. "This really is more personal. You have no idea what this means for me to give winning baseball back to the great people of Detroit. They really deserve this."
On the ride to Kauffman Stadium, Ilitch had an interesting conversation with his limousine driver. The man grew up in Kansas City, and Ilitch asked him if the city had difficulty convincing its kids to stay in the area.
The driver told Ilitch that they didn't leave Kansas City because it had sports teams.
"That got me thinking," Ilitch said. "It reminded me that sports teams do have an impact and an effect on a city. And it made me feel even better because I know that it picks up our community and does wonders for everybody's confidence."
In the ninth inning, when rookie Andrew Miller got two strikes with two outs on Kansas City's Angel Sanchez, Ilitch stood in his suite and pressed his hands against the glass. And when Sanchez whiffed, closing the door on history, Ilitch wrapped his arms around president and general manager Dave Dombrowski, the man he tapped five years ago for a reclamation project that even Ilitch conceded was rife with doubts.
The vindication felt as sweet as the champagne cascading from his brow. Ilitch has been unfairly branded as more of a hockey patron than a baseball man, the Wings commanding the brunt of his emotional and financial commitment. He now has witnessed an urban renewal more spiritual, the reconstruction of a passion for baseball that was long dormant.
Ronald Reagan was in the final stages of his presidency when the Tigers last tasted the playoffs. Since 1987, of the continuous 13 AL franchises, only the Tigers and Royals had failed to make the playoffs. In 2003, the Tigers lost 119 games, barely avoiding the modern record.
"I wasn't here three years ago," centerfielder Curtis Granderson said, "so I could understand why we got some guys here who were just ready to bust."
Leyland still isn't a fan of the champagne ritual. He said the stuff burned his eyes and tasted like crap, but he certainly would find a way to tolerate a few more bubbly baths as Detroiters happily embrace October baseball again -- at long last.
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