Detroit Tigers are American League Champions...

I'm a teacher, but wait tables on the side to pay off those student loans and my silly car loan ($1400 to go!). I've worked at the same restuarant for three years, and they're incredibly flexible with me and all, but I was scheduled to work tonight and there wasn't anything I could do about it. So I missed tonight's game. I received no less than 8 messages between 7:52 and 8:01, though, from friends around the country who knew how much this meant to me. I just listened to them all, and just read through the whole game thread on the Detroit Tigers forum. Tears are in my eyes. I can't believe I missed the game - but I'm so happy they won. I'm now off to try to find a place on the Internet that can replay some parts of it.

I guess there's no way I can really figure out when the World Series games are, can I? Not until the NLCS series is over... I don't think I'd forgive myself if I missed another game like today.

At least I made some good money tonight. I'm suddenly broke after that trip to Philadelphia for training, which I had to pay for and be reimbursed for. That thousand bucks, coupled with the $1500 the BCPSS still owes me for my summer courses, is making the wallet pretty thin right now. I had to break into the summer savings already to pay rent this month.

American League champions.

Let that sink in a little.

For the 10th time in 106 seasons, the Detroit Tigers are American League champions.

However, over the last 60 seasons, the championships have been few and far between.

If you were born in 1946, you could legally buy a drink when the Tigers won the pennant in 1968, you were old enough to become President when they repeated in 1984 and are now closing in on retirement.

It's almost as if each generation of Detroiters has a different set of heroes. My grandfather saw Cobb and Crawford, my father speaks glowingly of Newhouser and Greenberg while I think of McAuliffe, Kaline, Horton, Cash and Freehan when the talk turns to great Tiger teams.

For others, Whitaker, Trammell, Gibson, Parrish, Morris and Hernandez represent their World Series memories.

And now the 2006 Tigers add their names to the legacy.

With few exceptions, every great player who wore the old English D has done so in the World Series. Whether it's the Georgia Peach, the Mechanical Man or Six, Detroit's finest have been in the national spotlight at some point during their careers.

The torch known as the Detroit Tigers burned brightly in 1907, 1908 and 1909, then flickered for 25 years before being ignited again in 1934, 1935, 1940 and 1945. After 23 years of hiding, the light shone again in 1968. Another 16 years passed before the light returned. And tonight, after the torch was nearly dropped and the flame extinguished after 22 agonizingly frustrating seasons, the torch is held high -- and the light shines over us.

Now it's players like Granderson, Monroe, Polanco, Ordonez, Guillen, Rodriguez and Inge and pitchers like Robertson, Verlander, Rogers, Bonderman, Zumaya, Rodney and Jones who will add their names to Detroit's World Series history.

Carry the torch proudly and confidently, gentlemen. You've earned it.