The Detroit Tigers are a great old franchise that always seems to turn up with a good team every five to ten years. Here are their previous appearances in the ALCS, with years where they won the pennant marked in bold:
1972, 1984, 1987, 2006
They are managed by the legendary Jim Leyland. Leyland is making his sixth trip to an LCS with his third different franchise. He is an excellent manager, as he showed against the Yankees. The Tigers also have Justin Verlander, who went 24-5 this year, and they have a bunch of unknown guys who got really hot down the stretch. This is usually a winning formula for post-season success.
The Texas Rangers are an awful franchise that entered the league when Bob Short, one of the worst owners in baseball history, took the beloved Washington Senators from our Nation's Capital and shipped them to Dallas after the 1972 season. Possibly as a result of their wicked origins, the Rangers have had little success over the last 40 years. Their only appearance in the ALCS came last year, when they beat the Yankees to win their only pennant. They were then wiped out by the Giants in five games. But the Rangers, who I expected to fold this year without the services of Cliff Lee, have proven themselves to be a very resilient team, and they easily swept aside the Angels (in the regular season) and the Rays (in the first round of the playoffs) to give themselves a chance for their second consecutive pennant. No team has won the AL in consecutive years since the Yankees took four pennants in a row from 1998 to 2001, so this would be a great accomplishment.
I have no idea who will win this series, so I will simply report it as it happens.
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