I was in high school the last time the Tigers played postseason baseball at Comerica Park, and that was all I could think about yesterday: my teenage self, and the fact that her life had taken a much different shape from the one she wanted or imagined. But I also thought, as we munched on our concession stand cider and donuts in the upper deck on a gorgeous, cloudless day, that it wasn’t such a bad thing. My younger brother and I remembered the last time he came to the ballpark with me, in oppressive early August heat. The Tigers blew the game in the top of the ninth and fell to 53-60. But here we were, a couple months later, skipping school and work to watch playoff baseball. Surprises can be so good.
STAR OF THE GAME: I think the sportswriter schlock is true—that this team is hero-less, that everyone has stepped up to make this playoff run possible. But I also think it is true that the team has a heart and soul and he is Matt Vierling.
CLOWN OF THE GAME: I like how much this Tigers team—all the pinch-hitting, the matchup hunting—forces me to think about baseball, the actual strategy of it. And I like how much they force opposing managers to manage. Stephen Vogt burning a starter and pinch-hitting for one of his better hitters so early in the game made me feel like we’d already won.
-Maitreyi Anantharaman
