My 5 year old son is a huge Tiger fan. We’d been watching the game Saturday night and he’d wandered into the other room to help his sister with something after Oakland’s half of the 9th. When Craig Monroe and Placido Polanco both singled bringing up Magglio Ordonez (that’s his Tiger) I called to him. He came into the room and I said to him, “I think you might want to be watching right now.”

I reset the situation and he said, “this is kind of scary.” By scary I think he meant nerve-wracking, but he’s 5 and I figured it was close enough and simply agreed.

He picked up his rally towel he’d gotten the previous night and started waving it. Moments later Ordonez connected and sent the ball high into the chilly night. I of course jumped up off the couch and had my hands raised in the air as the ball nestled into the crowd. I looked over at my son and he was expressionless. I yelled, “Can you believe Magglio did it?” He put his head down, incapable of speaking as tears started streaming down his cheeks.

To say that I was able to maintain my compsure would be a lie. I misted up just as much as he did. (heck, the screen is getting a little blurry as I write this) My 3 year old daughter came running in to join the celebration. We all were hugging in the middle of the room as we watched Monroe, Polanco, and Ordonez circle the bases and launch into celebration.

I was happy for the Tigers. I was happy for my son. Mostly I was thrilled that he understood just how big the moment was, even if he couldn’t fully process it or voice it.

Here are some celebration miscellaney…

First, Joey C found this YouTube video of the celebration. It was somebody with a camcorder recording the TV broadcast so the quality isn’t the best, but you definitely get the gist of what’s going on.

You can download the whole game 4 for free from MLB.com. Or if you prefer, for $0.99 you can get 4:48 of bliss that includes the last out and celebration.

Buster Olney called it “perhaps the greatest team celebration you will ever see.” While Jerry Green said it brought back memories of the 1968 party that spilled from the clubhouse to the Lindell AC.

Some may have been put off by the celebration, but The Bleacher Guy explains that those who didn’t appreciate the celebration didn’t experience the depths of despair this team had encountered.

Finally, Peter Gammons weighs in. It’s premium content, but I’ll excerpt the sweetest stuff below:

Those were the Tigers of 1984, of Alan Trammell and Jack Morris, Sparky Anderson and Kirk Gibson, and they may or may not have meant more to the city’s psyche than the Tigers of 1968. Yankees or no Yankees, these 2006 Tigers are summed up by manager Jim Leyland’s simple phrase, “We showed we belong,” which may not sound like much in New York or Boston or Chicago, but to a franchise that hadn’t had a winning season since 1993 in a town where baseball not only mattered but was Cobb, Gehringer, Kaline, Lolich, et al — lords and masters — just to “belong” with the Yankees is a measure of the self-respect that somehow got lost.

So to hear the chants for Kenny Rogers, the 23rd winningest left-hander in history yet an abused postseason figure, was a wonderful thing. To watch the standing ovations for Craig Monroe, Todd Jones and Carlos Guillen made them all the stars that went on top, and, best of all, seeing Leyland carried off the field like Knute Rockne made the weekend.

Tonight was simply an amazing experience at Comerica Park. I eagerly waited for this game all day and arrived when the gates opened. And even though I had prepped myself, I still couldn’t believe I was watching a playoff game in Detroit. I also couldn’t believe the choice seat I had 3 seats in from where the wall starts to rise along the left field line. It was a great spot for seeing Polanco’s double land fair, only to be called foul (really, what else is the left field umpire looking for?)

I want to paint the scene of what happened immediately following the game. The crowd was on their feet for the entire bottom of the 9th inning so when Jonesy fanned Matsui to end the game, it couldn’t conceivably get any louder. So the fans cheered some more, and then everyone just kind of stood there looking at the field. Nobody really moved at all. I can only imagine what might happen should the Tigers clinch tomorrow.

When people finally did start making their ways to the exits, everyone was high fiving. Again, I mean everyone. People were high fiving up the aisles. They were high fiving in the concourse. They were high fiving in the street and on the sidewalk outside the stadium. And it wasn’t just drunk frat guy with his buddies and anyone else who might join in. These were all strangers. They were young and old. They were guys and girls. They were black and white. It was just amazing that you would end up high fiving every 10th person you saw and say a simple “Go Tigers.”

I know that a winning baseball team has served as a unifier in this city in the past. And I don’t mean to compare people simply being excited to what happened in the aftermath of the 1967 riots. But tonight was certainly special in more ways than one.

The Tigers announced that The Four Tops will be performing the National Anthem prior to game 3. Other stuff of note is that Al Kaline will throw out the first pitch, Ernie Harwell will be in the house on ESPN and WXYT, and the Joint Services Color Guard from Selfridge Air National Guard Base will present the colors. Here’s hoping for a fly-over also. I’m a sucker for the fly-over.

For those of you heading down, gates will open at 6pm.