Oh My Stars and Garters!

One of my favorite childhood comic book characters - The Beast - once sang a song that I thought of so many times this year:

"Take me out to the ballgame, buy me a whole bunch of beer..."

Tonight, the baseball season ended 10 days too early for the Detroit Tigers. That said, I actually expected them to lose the other night. But they gave me - and the city of Detroit - hope.

And what more could you ask from these guys?

Sheryl is the reason for my renewed love of the game of baseball. It was in appreciation of her, mostly, but also in appreciation of the game, that I took Sheryl to Tigerfest back in January for her birthday.

God, the smile on her face... turns me to Jell-o every time I remember it.

This year, instead of going to Cooperstown for our anniversary, we bought a 28-game package.

We shivered through April and May games. But we saw Justin Verlander's first game at home after his no hitter in Toronto, and I happened to capture it in a photo - the Cleveland Indians were no-hit into 8 innings.

We enjoyed the summer warmth in late June, and grabbed a couple of batting practice balls during a game with the Twins.

Speaking of the Twins, we were at Delmon Young's first game as a Tiger - against the Twins. And, well, we were also at Jim Thome's 600th home run night. Same game?

Oh boy, we were at WAY TOO MANY of Brad Penny's SLLLLOOOOWWWLLLYY pitched games!

We attended Christmas in July with one of my college roommates, and I attended a May Yankees game with my other college roommate - who reminded me that his first game ever - in the early to mid 1970s - was Tigers v. Yankees at Tiger Stadium. How cool is that?

A few weeks after Phil Coke twisted his ankle and was out of the lineup, I was able to ask him how the ankle felt: "Good," he said, "Real good!" Sheryl got his autograph, and a few others after standing eye to eye with Magglio Ordonez, with nothing to be signed and nothing to sign it with. One of many, many laughs I had with my amazing wife at CoPa this year.

Sheryl went to her first opening day this year, and I was thrilled to be her date (despite the cold!). And a couple of short weeks ago, both of us - with my mom and Bill - went to our first playoff game. We had tickets to both game 7 of the ALCS (which was never going to happen at CoPa), and game 3 of the World Series... which was scheduled for next Saturday.

We took Sheryl's nephew, my nephew, and niece to games this summer, and I went to a game with my team at work.

Wow. Every game has a story!

Of the most memorable games this year was the one where we won the 50/50 raffle. We were blessed to win, and to be able to share our winnings with the CATCH, CLF, Gilda's Club, The Lake House, and Capuchin Soup Kitchen charities.

Wow, we had a blast this year!

Tonight, I saw Jim Leyland's post-game press conference. This season, people either loved or hated Jim. I understood all but one of his decisions - and that decision was Delmon Young's appearance in the post-season after he had hurt his oblique, and went 0-5 the game before.

But no matter how you felt about Leyland, you have to admit that he's a classy guy. And I will step up and admit that I am definitely on his side.

So to all the great memories of the season, and the hope and pride they gave the city of Detroit, I just want to say: Bless you boys... here comes winter, with the promise of another spring...