The look on their face was worht the price of admission. They were truely dumbfounded like they could not believe what was happening. My wife then, without prompting from me, passed them back a napkin.

They looked at her and asked her what it was for, she told them to wipe their tears (I was so proud of her).

When the Gambler came out of the game in the 8th it was one of the best, if not the best, moment I ever witnessed at a ball game.

Let’s enjoy this guys.

-Sam

Take it to the wall, Go Tigers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x522JTGLzZg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Zkn86UMWc

I love this.

And WOW was he in controll tonite. The look of confusion on the Yank faces at the plate had me grinning the entire nite. I was shocked by how many fastballs Rogers was throwing, and apparently so was NY. Then once the boys from the Bronx thought they had him pegged for another heater, the changeup drops right out of the zone as they lunge limply at the pitch. Loved every minute of it!

Guillen continues to impress(MVP!). Granderson turning in some excellent pressure at bats. Polanco, Pudge, and Casey are doing their parts. Inge is the only Tiger who has not performed yet.

I’m gonna have to agree with the call on PPs LF line hit. definately hit chalk. And while the OF umpire was busy dodging the ball, the 3B upire was right on the line and signalled foul. Not sure how they BOTH managed to miss that call. Glad it didn’t matter. And we may have gotten away with one at 3B earlier with Pudge barely beatinig the throw from RF.

My only argument in the game was Jones in the 9th. With a 6 run lead, I’d rather have seen Ledezma(there were 2 lefties of the first 3 hitters in the 9th) or Grilli on the mound, and only keep Jones on alert. But with only 10 pitches from Jones, it’s not so bad.

And to keep my karma meter up, as much as I hate to admit it, that near DP that Granderson hit with Cano diving behind Second and blindly fliping to Jeter was very pretty. Better still that Grandy beat it out and later scored after that lucky pickoff turned stolen base.

But YOWZA! What a game! Bondo has got to hold on tomorrow! I don’t wanna have to take this back in the Bronx.

Don’t see many performances like that in your lifetime.

Wow

Loud cheers were heard throughout north Portland tonight, of course they were all from my house!

I had a door to door solicitor (for switching to clean energy sources) come to my door, I said I don’t know what you’re selling but you’re gonna have to make your pitch inside, the Tigers are winning and Kenny is throwing a gem! Once he saw the HD tv he stuck around for a little bit!

I was very young, and always completely credulous! Hearing Ernie tonight brought back great memories. “…Here’s the pitch…there’s a long fly ball! Deep left field! This one might be! IT IS! GONE!!!!”

God, I loved that guy!

That was the best pitching performance I have ever seen from Kenny Rogers! Living in the NY metropolitan area, and listening to Mike and Mad Dog program this afternoon, they both absolutley dismissed Rogers. And I quote, “…there is NO WAY Kenny Rogers will beat the Yankees. If the Yankees do get beat, the score will be 9-8, but Kenny Rogers is not capable of pitching to the Yankees…”

Congrats, Kenny. I’m happy for you. You make these pompus NY commentators look silly. I can’t wait to tune in tommorow and see how they spin this one….

By the way, I almost over being swept by the Royals. I know we have one, and probably two tough games left in this series. But the Tiger team that showed up tonight is the team I watched all year, pre Aug 7. I have no problem facing ANY TEAM if our pre Aug 7 Tigers show up to play.

Our bullpen is fresh. I say if Bonderman gets in trouble early (even in the first 3 innings) you yank him and use Ledezma. Lets not take any chances – if Bondy looks like he doesn’t have it lets not take a wait and see approach.

This series is far from over. If any team could win two straight to take the series – it would be the Yankees.

If we can stake Bonderman to an early lead and he is hitting his spots – oh man things would be looking good. Like I said, if he isn’t on, don’t waste time letting the Yankees put up a bunch of runs. Our bullpen is well rested and we have some guys who can eat up the middle innings.

Great, great, game.

In case anyone missed the ESPN telecast tonight, here is what you missed:

1. Kenny Rogers’ career postseason numbers are very bad.
2. Most of the Yankees have great career stats against Kenny Rogers.
3. Kenny Rogers has bad career stats against the Yankees. (Imagine that!)
4. Repeat 1, 2, and 3.

They kept showing these stats and Kenny kept mowing them down. He was great to watch. I’ve never seen him so fired up. The way he reacted to every ball and strike call (he wanted everything between the batters boxes to be called a strike), and the way he sprinted over to pick up Abreu’s foul bunt in the 8th. Just delightful to watch. I think I speak for the board when I say I really, really, really do not want to have to go back to New York for game 5. Let’s wrap it up tomorrow!!!!!

I do agree with the philosophy that the Yankees are more vulnerable in a 5 game series, and history proves that point. Since ’95, the Yanks are 7-4 (looking dangerously close to 7-5 by this time tomorrow) in the ALDS. But they are 6-1 in the ALCS. That’s a significant difference.

As to whether the Tigers preferred it this way….I’m not too sure of that.

Bottom line: Baseball is the only sport that is utterly unpredictable. Every team beats every other team. In fact, the team with the best record very rarely wins the World Series.

A lot of Yankee fans were relieved that they got the Tigers and not have to face the Twins. I told them all to be very careful what you wish for….