Detroit Tigers Baseball Team

The Detroit Tigers faxed a greeting to club President Bo Schembechler and his wife, Millie, as they celebrated a wedding anniversary at home Monday. It wasn't among the most sentimental messages the Schembechlers received. Owner Tom Monaghan, who is selling the team, notified the former University of Michigan football coach via the impersonal machine that he was being fired.

Thousands of fans crowded the San Francisco Civic Center plaza Sunday night to watch the Giants clinch the World Series on a hastily erected Jumbotron -- an undulating mass of happy humanity. "No way was I going to miss this," said Eric Reynolds, 42, of Walnut Creek. Reynolds was sitting in folding chairs with Shari Mofin, both bundled up against the chill of an October San Francisco night. "This is a great party. " About a mile away, on storied Nob Hill, a neighborhood bar called Zeki's was jammed and jumping.

With four teams impatiently waiting for answers, the Dodgers were still alive late Wednesday night in what had become a complicated search for a shortstop and a relief pitcher. During the course of a long day and night at the winter baseball meetings, the Oakland Athletics' Alfredo Griffin had seemed to supplant the New York Mets' Rafael Santana and the Toronto Blue Jays' Manny Lee as the shortstop that the Dodgers most covet, with the A's, Mets and Blue Jays all pursuing Bob Welch.

A World Series spent a few inches off the gloves of the Detroit Tigers is within the reach of the St. Louis Cardinals. On a Thursday night in which clouds gathered but did not open up, the Cardinals scored four two-out runs, played off three doubles from leadoff hitter David Eckstein, and defeated the Tigers, 5-4, at Busch Stadium. They lead the best-of-seven series, three games to one.

The image is burned into World Series lore, way up there with Carlton Fisk's home run, Don Larsen's perfect game and Willie Mays' wondrous catch. It is Kirk Gibson, limping to the plate on two bum legs, carrying a bat he called "Thumper," then yanking Dennis Eckersley's full-count slider into Dodger Stadium's right-field pavilion, pumping his fists as he hobbles around the bases to complete the Dodgers' stunning victory over the Oakland A's in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.

A tenacious player during his Hall of Fame career, Frank Robinson delivered a stinging message Thursday in his first action as baseball's new disciplinary czar over on-field behavior. He suspended 16 members of the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox for a total of 82 games and fined a total of 24 players, coaches and managers for their roles in last Saturday's brawl. It is believed to be the largest mass suspension and harshest penalties for a field incident in baseball history.

Six weeks ago, Robert Fick was in Lakeland, Fla., undergoing strenuous rehabilitation following surgery on his right shoulder. He hadn't played baseball since a short call-up to the Detroit Tigers last season. On Monday, Fick assumed a place in Tiger lore, hitting a grand slam in the eighth inning of the last game played in 87-year-old Tiger Stadium.

Among Bo Schembechler's souvenirs as the deposed president of the Detroit Tigers is a napkin that he says proves he had a 10-year agreement with club owner Tom Monaghan, who fired him by fax after 2 1/2 years Monday. The former University of Michigan football coach and athletic director never had a formal contract but said some figures were scribbled on a paper napkin over lunch. A deal was reached, Schembechler said, and the two shook hands.

Ernie Harwell has given thousands of Detroit fans countless hours of pleasure over the 32 years he has been the voice of the Tigers. Sunday, they gave a little of that love back. Harwell and his broadcasting sidekick Paul Carey were honored in a 15-minute ceremony before the Tigers' game with the Baltimore Orioles. This is the last season for them both. Harwell, 73, is being released by the Tigers and by their flagship radio station, WJR-AM. Carey, 63, will retire.

In the life of nearly every American boy, there comes a hot summer night when he dreams big. Sitting, perhaps, on a dark front porch with his closest friends, he says aloud what he would do if he had all the money in the world. A billion-zillion dollars at the very least. Buy some really incredible cars and impress everybody. Build a huge skyscraper--the biggest one around--that can be seen for miles.

Dodgers and Angels castoff Jeff Weaver will start tonight for the St. Louis Cardinals, his fifth of the playoffs. He is 2-2 with a 2.91 earned-run average in his previous four starts, including a five-inning loss against the Detroit Tigers in Game 2 of the World Series. Weaver gave up nine hits and three runs at Comerica Park, but Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa chose the veteran on regular rest over rookie Anthony Reyes.

It is one hour before the fourth game of the championship series in America's summer sport, and I am wearing long johns. It is the middle of one of the final and most important laps in a seven-month summer marathon, and I am wearing a wool sweater. It is the last crack of a summer bat, the last thwack of a summer glove, and I can't hear either because I am wearing a ski cap. It is the World Series, and I am freezing, and it's not the first time.

Tony La Russa watched a movie. He signed some baseballs. He visited with friends, who sat shoulder to shoulder on a couch in his office. Then he went home through a light drizzle, the same annoyance under which he arrived at Busch Stadium eight hours before, without any baseball in between. Jim Leyland, by his account, killed "a carton" of Marlboros. World Series Game 4 was postponed because of rain Wednesday night, the St. Louis Cardinals' third deferment of the postseason.

We forget. We see their loopy smiles and awkward fist pumps and awestruck embraces and we forget. Not every rookie can step onto a World Series stage for the first time and own it. Sometimes the throat dries and the lines disappear and the fear consumes. Sometimes, the stage owns him. Sometimes the lights swivel from a crowded on-field celebration to a solitary figure standing in front of a spartan locker, his eyes clouded, his giant tattooed left arm trembling with remorse.

By Tuesday, Kenny Rogers, St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa and the umpires had all offered their explanations as to how the yellowy-brown substance had stuck to the Detroit left-hander's thumb and how it was removed. The World Series was prepared to move on, at least until Rogers' next start, which is scheduled for Game 6, until Cardinals hitting coach Hal McRae jumped in with further indictment of the Tigers left-hander.

Undersold because of the league from which they hail, dismissed because of a pitching-staff collage that appeared slapped together, the St. Louis Cardinals were again the more poised, more efficient World Series team on Tuesday night. The Cardinals stood behind starting pitcher Chris Carpenter, pieced together a couple of rallies, watched the Detroit Tigers play themselves into trouble, and were 5-0 winners at Busch Stadium, taking a two-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven series.

These are the days of serenity for Frank Tanana. After more than 17 years in the major leagues--the past five with the Detroit Tigers--he is at peace with himself. The brash attitude, the drinking and the philandering--some of the things that characterized Tanana's seven somewhat stormy and mostly successful seasons with the Angels--are gone. Gone, too, is the fastball--the one that once was compared to Nolan Ryan's.

Theirs is a union of circumstance and fate, a marriage celebrated on a diamond instead of with one. To put in perspective the partnership of second baseman Lou Whitaker and shortstop Alan Trammell, consider this: The Detroit Tigers have had one double-play combination since the two were summoned from Montgomery, Ala., of the Southern League and made their major league debut in the second game of a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox on Sept. 9, 1977.

The Cardinals originally had intended to skip Anthony Reyes' Game 5 start and bring back Jeff Weaver, Chris Carpenter and Jeff Suppan -- all on three days' rest -- if the series went that far. Reyes, however, gave up two runs in eight innings in Game 1, and now Manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan are reassessing that strategy. While Reyes pitched effectively against the Tigers, Duncan suggested later that baseball serendipity helped as well.

Television ratings for this year's World Series games in Detroit dipped to a record low for the opener, then bounced back for Game 2. The St. Louis Cardinals' 7-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night received an 8.0 fast national rating and 15 share, Fox said Monday, down 16% from the previous record low for an opener, a 9.5 for last year's 5-3 Chicago White Sox victory over the Houston Astros. Detroit's 3-1 victory in Game 2 on Sunday night got an 11.5/18, up 4% from the 11.