A Look at the 2006 World Series in Advance

By Thomas Fischer
October 20, 2006

As the Detroit Tigers get ready to host game one of the 2006 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals one cannot help but ponder the past and think about all the things that had to go just right for each team to reach this point of the season. The Cards nearly blew their division lead over Houston on the final weekend but rather than the Cardinals being spectacular over the stretch the Astros simply ran out of gas. Likewise the Tigers came to the final weekend and did blow the division lead. Needing only one win in final three games they lost all three to a Royals team that hadn’t swept in Detroit since 1980.

Despite ‘backing in’ to the post season the much-improved Tigers faced the ugly giant having to travel to the Bronx to face the Yankees in the American League Division Series. After losing game one the Tigers rebounded and took the next three to advance to the ALCS against the Athletics. After sweeping Oakland, Detroit had to wait for five days to find out whom they would meet in the World Series.

The Cardinals nearly swept the Padres in their division series but needed four to take the wind out of the San Diego sails, and advance to the NLCS. The National League Championship Series was an interesting mix of rainouts and good pitching performances as well as great defense and big home runs. After seven grueling games St. Louis emerged victorious on the strength of a ninth inning homerun.

Mix in the rematch of the 1968 World Series which saw Tiger’s southpaw Mickey Lolich win three games, the friendly managerial rivalry between Mr. Leyland and Mr. LaRussa and some additional history and you have the making of a terrific series. The past two World Series have seen four game sweeps but something tells us this isn’t going to be like the past two World Series. This year there are no Sox going for their first World Championship since Woodrow Wilson was in office.

For the first time since 1984, when the Tigers last visited the World Series, there are two managers that have previously won a World Series in another league. In 1984 Sparky Anderson, managing the Tigers, had previously won the Series as skipper of the great 70’s Cincinnati Reds Dynasty. Facing the Tigers was Padres manager Dick Williams who had previously won a World Series as skipper of the 1972 Oakland A’s. This year manager Jim Leyland of the Tigers, who won the Series in 1997 with the Marlins, faces off with Tony LaRussa who previously won the World Series as manager of the A’s in 1989.

All this karma wrapped up combines to potentially lay the spread for a terrific series, if not in reality, at least from the perspective of history. One of these two skippers will become only the second manager in MLB history to win a series in each league. The other obviously was Sparky Anderson in 1984.

Here is some additional history to think about when watching this year’s World Series. In 1887 the National League’s Detroit Wolverines faced off against the American Association’s St. Louis Browns. The owners decided to play a best of 15 series and raise gate prices from 50 cents to a dollar. The Wolverines won 8 of the first 11 games to clinch the series but the two teams decided to continue playing the final four games. As a side note, Helen Dauvray, wife of New York Giants shortstop Monte Ward, decided a good way for her to plug her acting career would be to award the winner of the series a cup in her name. This became the first World Series trophy.

I am a lifelong Tiger fan, but as Tommy Lasorda says in the Fox commercials, I am a bigger fan of baseball. I want to see my Tigers win the series but I hope that it is a great series and one for the ages. It has been tiring seeing the four game sweeps as have happened the past two seasons. Even though the Marlins beat the Yankees in 2003 in six games and the Angels beat the Giants the year before that in seven games the last truly great series, in my humble opinion, was in 2001.

That series had emotions and ups and downs and all home field wins by the way. Going down to the ninth inning of game seven and a Gonzo single up the middle it was a great finish and a terrific series. One of the best I have ever witnessed. It made no difference to me who won that particular series, it was just a wonderfully entertaining one. Incidentally, to add one more bit of historical flavor, that Yankees-DBacks series was only the second seven game series in history where the home team won every game. The first time it was done was 1987 when the Minnesota Twins defeated the St. Louis Cardinals.