Two Thoughts

1. My furnace is broken for the second time in a week. I came home on Friday to a rather cool apartment and promptly called my landlord, who said it wouldn't be fixed until Monday. I'm not sure what the actual temperature is in here because the thermometer on the thermostat is buried at 50. I'm currently wearing three layers and an arctic knit hat.

2. I'm a Tigers fan by birth and a Cardinals fan by indoctrination, and this was the first World Series in twenty years or so around which I scheduled my life. I remember bragging to my stepbrothers about that '84 squad that won the Series (Kirk Gibson remains my favorite player of all time – shares my birthday, wears #23, etc.) At some point in the '90s I stopped caring about baseball except in a vaguely social way particular to St. Louisians. If you've been to St. Louis in the summertime you probably know what I mean.

Now, my Tigers cap is my all-purpose cap for summer lounging and impromptu fishing expeditions, and after Ordonez's homer sent the Tigers to the Series for the first time in 22 years I almost cried. So I should have been rooting for the Tigers in this Series, but as the Series moved to St. Louis I found myself rooting for the Cards. I couldn't really figure out why I didn't want a replay of the '68 Series (the Tigers came back from 3-1 to beat the Cardinals) until a thought occurred to me Friday morning that should have been obvious all along. I was rooting for the Cards because of my dad.

He grew up in St. Louis and lives there now. He hadn't seen his team win a World Championship since 1982. Friday, Game 5, was his 65th birthday. When I talked to him shortly after the last out and the best (and last) baseball town in America was going completely nuts, he sounded happier than he has in years. The man got the kind of birthday gift that comes along once or twice in a lifetime and he sounded giddy – and my dad doesn't do giddy, thank you very much. Throughout the Series I had played along with the notion that I wanted the Tigers to win it all, and due to a wager I owe him a dinner at our favorite local restaurant here in the 5400 the next time he comes. That tab will be worth every cent.