>>Now, you see, here is an all-American thread (till now). Where have all the Americans gone? Why, here!<<

Brits have baseball too. Cricket and stoolball are forms of baseball. In Ireland they play rounders--that's a form of baseball and is how the game was played in America when it was still called town-ball. When I was a kid, we played baseball in the yard by hitting the runner with the ball--the natural way to play when you don't have a full team. Americans also played one-hole cat and two-hole cat. All these were called "base-ball" in older writings. I understand baseball is perhaps more a girl's sport in the UK although there's certainly quite a number of women's baseball and softball teams in America also. Nor is it unusual for women and men to play on the same teams. In fact, the women's softball pitchers can crank 'em up at around 100 mph (161 kph).

That said, congrats to the Tigers!! American League champions! A hell of a walk-off homer by Magglio Ordonez did the trick. He absolutely crushed it. Now onto the World Series. First game won't be before Wednesday and may not get underway until Saturday so the Tiges can rest up. Let Casey and Zumaya get 100%. I think Shelton is eligible for the roster but maybe not. He'll add some punch to the lineup if he can get in.

Looks like St. Louis will win Game 2. I don't really want to face Pujols and this Taguchi guy is having too much of this postseason magic mojo thing going. That could interfere with the Tigers' mojo so here's hoping the Mets ultimately win the series and exhaust themselves in the process.

The Tigers have won 7 postseason games in a row--the last 6 being by 3 runs or more--believe it or not, that's a record. No other team in major league history has done that. I can see that World Series trophy coming to Detroit already. Ahhhhh!!