Fairweather fan

Sure, I may be a fairweather fan but that won't stop me from enjoying this playoff run the Detroit Tigers are having. The game at Comerica Park when the Tigers beat the Yankees, ESPN brought Ernie Harwell into the booth and interviewed him for an inning. After talking to him for a while they actually let Ernie call an inning. Since I left Michigan in 1986 I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard Ernie Harwell call a baseball game. It was such a nostaligic moment. I was beaming like a little kid when the Tiger pitcher struck out a Yankee hitter on a called third strike and Ernie said, "He stood there like the house by the side of the road." Amazing. The voice of my childhood returns for a 30 minutes and makes my week with one of his trademark sayings. Another nice moment was when the Tiger pitcher threw a real nice strike that the hitter watched go by and Ernie got excited and called it a strike before the umpire did. It's such a different experience to watch a baseball game when the announcer is pulling for the same team you are.

I think I learned a lesson during this playoff season. I am surprised by how much I am rooting for the Tigers. I am really pulling for this team. I've tried to change affiliations. I even tried to switch to the Cubs and I was very familiar with the Cubs team when they made that playoff run a few years back and I was pulling for them but I didn't have near the emotional involvement that I have had with this Tiger team. It's not even the players so much, it's just comforting to see people chearing for players wearing that Olde English "D." I was indoctrinated early and I am going to have to accept that I am a Tigers fan whether I want to be or not.