The Dog Days of Summer Could Lead to the Fall Like None Other!

"The Tigers have tradition and Sparky's main ambition is to get 'em to the Classic in the Fall ..."

The Kreiner boys were live and in color the night the Tigers clinched the AL in '06.

It's been 30 years. Maybe more. I'm a die–hard Tiger fan. No question about it. Before people think of me as an educator, as a principal, as a teacher, as a friend, as anything ... they think of me as a Tiger fan. I guess it's been that way for a long time. When you're in fifth grade and get your pitcher taken with a Tigers hat on ... you get the picture.

The run in 2006 was incredible. Several factors helped. The Tigers were terrible the year before. Not just one year before, either. For twelve years. In 2003, the Tigers had one of the worst seasons in the last ... well, a long time. My friends Ken, Steve, Dan, and I started the 2006 season off right. We flew to Kansas City and took in the season opener. We opened the season in Detroit a week later. Throughout the season, I saw about 15 games. It was a dream season.

As we stood 10 feet from the field and watched the players celebrate the American League Championship and screamed (I mean screamed!!!) "We're going to the World Series!!!" I turned to Ken and said, "We gotta enjoy this now because it could be another 20 years ..." my voice faded off, but he said, "I know!" The celebration was great. A group of us from mid–Michigan took it all in. Even the version of "Rock 'n' Roll" at Cheli's wasn't all that bad. Especially considering it was performed by none other than Detroit's own KID ROCK. (It really was a lousy version, as I stated to the guys right then and there. We had no idea it was Kid, but lookin' back ...)

"We're going to the World Series!!!"

2009 has been fun so far. The Tigers have held on to first place since May. They're playing good enough to get by, and the pitching has been top notch. We're waiting for more hitting, but maybe it'll come. I've taken in a few games so far, and I'll be going down for Saturday's Fox Game of the Week against the defending American League Champion Rays of Tampa. Well, St. Petersburg, if you want to get all official. It should be fun. We're going to head down Friday afternoon, so if we can get some decent seats for Friday night's game, maybe we'll take in a couple this week–end. I'll be honest with you, I'm fired up about the season.

If the boys can hang on to first place, get in the playoffs, and keep pitching how they've been pitching, we might be seeing another ... (words faded away ....)

In '84, they had to arrest a dude named Bubba. In '06, they posed with The Tuna Can.

Eat 'em up, Tigers!

That's Denny, Chris, Ken, and Dan during the CELEBRATION!