Calendar boys

It has been said that baseball breaks your heart, and it’s designed to do so. The game begins in spring, when everything else renews again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings. And then, as soon as the chilly rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.

Ironically, this distressing analogy is attributed to A. Bartlett Giamatti, the actor Paul’s father and former commissioner of Major League Baseball, who served only five months in his term before dying of a heart attack.

This is the same man who refused to reinstate “Shoeless Joe” Jackson (the outfielder remembered for his association with the 1919 Black Sox Scandal World Series conspiracy) but then allowed Pete Rose to “voluntarily” withdraw from the game to avoid further punishment for his baseball betting escapades. (Rose died yesterday at 83.)

There’s no proof Shoeless Joe ever took a bribe, but he was banished from the game and excluded from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“It ain’t true, is it, Joe?” so the story goes of a child grabbing his idol’s coat sleeve outside a courthouse in 1920.

“Yes, kid, I’m afraid it is,” Jackson replied.

“Well, I’d never have thought it,” the boy sighed.

To this day, the Chicago White Sox scandal remains controversial, unlike the team’s worst-ever-in-the-history-of-modern-baseball 121-loss record this season. Ouch. That’s plain tragic.

The MLB record-breaking 4-1 loss was against the Detroit Tigers last Friday night at Comerica Park, where our Boys of Summer also just happened to clinch the American League Playoff berth in front of a sellout crowd – in September.

October baseball is back, baby! And it only took the Tigers 31 wins in 42 games — since August 11 – to lock up their spot. Talk about a miracle run.

OK, so when’s the last time your October calendar had Detroit Tigers ballgames on it? I’ll tell you: 10 years ago. It’s their first postseason trip since 2014.

This 2024 team is made up of such talented, hungry players. Most are only in their 20s. Heck, pitcher Jackson Jobe was born in 2002 and turned 22 on July 30. I have sweaters older than that.

So, how did these budding young Mr. Octobers spend the night before today’s big playoff game against the Houston Astros in Texas?

Some got haircuts. Some searched for dog sitters. Others paid rent that’s due this week in case they’re away longer than a few days.

“Los Tigres en fuego,” as our old Section 115 buddy Bob texted me last week. Loosely translated: “The Tigers are on fire!”

Former Tigers Manager Jim Leyland summed it up: “They’re playing like they don’t even know they’re in a race.”

The post season begins today, October 1, in Houston at 2:32 p.m. They’ll play again Wednesday, and then Thursday, if necessary.

First thing this morning I posted a new profile picture on my Facebook page that I display every fall. It says “My favorite color is October.”

It is. And if the baseball gods align, this year it will be my favorite month.

Let’s go, Tigers!