The Perfect Business Trip

Congratulations on your perfectly executed business trip! And a TV celebrity to boot!

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I'm finally getting a new work PC! My current T30 was acquired in 2002, so it's now four years old! By technology standards, that's ancient. The new one is a T60 professional with every imaginable fancy do-dad. Unfortunately, getting a new PC means having to install all the non-standard software.

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The weather here in Tucson has turned glorious: highs in the low 90's, bright and sunny. There's a hint of autumn in the air ... in a sort of hot desert sort of way.

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It is for reasons you allude that we are instructed by the Lord to place our hope in things above. I'm sure I've mentioned before what I was once told: there are two primary emotions -- hope and fear. In the absence of hope, fear prevails. Fear eats at a man's soul, which is why for all history man has sought a place to pin their hopes.

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The Detroit Tigers baseball team has clinched a spot in the playoffs ... the first time in 18 years. I recall vividly their victory in the 1968 World Series when I was but a young lad of just 9 years old.

The Tigers were playing the St. Louis Cardinals. The Tigers Denny McLain, a pitcher who won 31 games in the regular season -- something that has not been repeated since. The Cardinals' ace pitcher was Bob Gibson, who had won 22 games with 13 "shut-outs," which were games in which the opponents scored no runs.

The series meant a lot to the city of Detroit because the year before was the infamous race riots of 1967. With little else to unite around, the city focused on their baseball team.

Denny McLain did not fare well early in the series, and the Tigers found themselves down 3 games to 1 in a 7 game series. That meant the Tigers had to win three straight to take the series; something that had never been done before.

The tension was more than this 9 year old boy could stand.

Then an unlikely hero stepped foward -- Mickey Lolich, a left-handed pitcher known for having a bit of a belly. He pitched and won games 5 and 7, with McLain pitching a victory in game 6. The Tigers won the seventh and deciding game in St. Louis.

I couldn't watch the final game ... it was too much for me. So I went to the local playground and nervously killed time, hoping against hope that the Tigers would win. Then I heard someone run out of their house, yelling "The Tigers won! The Tigers won!"

The city of Detroit went crazy.

But peacefully -- no fires, no riots ... just a million people joyously celebrating their team's victory.

That's my childhood memory of the Detroit Tigers.

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I also vividly recall being 10, and thinking that was the perfect age to be.