Maggs!
DETROIT -- The roar started slowly.
But it grew fast. It moved rapdily in various directions across Comerica Park, though some fans stood for a second, silent and unbelieving.
After 13 losing seasons and an uncertain finish to this one, the Tigers had won. They won it with one swing. They won the game, they won the American League Pennant, and they won a berth in the World Series just three years after they finished a season after losing 119 games.
In the game Saturday, they fell behind, 3-0, then clawed their way back for nine innings, tying the score in the sixth and then winning it in the ninth, 6-3, when Magglio Ordonez hammered a pitch from Huston Street, Oakland's best reliever, into the left-field stands.
That ignited the roar.
Two were out already in ninth, but Craig Monroe and Placido Polanco singled, putting runners at first and second, and setting the stage for Ordonez. He beat Oakland closer Huston Street, last year's rookie of the year.
Ordonez's blow came 22 years to the day, almost to the hour, after the Tigers beat the San Diego Padres to win the World Series in 1984.
And it came after a surprising -- is it too sappy to say magical? -- season in which the Tigers surprised all of baseball by having the best record in both leagues for most of the year.
The World Series starts next Saturday night.
Get ready to roar.
By BILL McGRAW