Tigers, Cardinals set for 2006 World Series

The World Series match-up is set and it is a historical favourite. The St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers will meet to decide baseball’s top team for the third time in major league history.
The first two meetings are classics and with any luck this latest round in the Detroit/St. Louis World Series title fight will continue the magic.
The Cardinals and Tigers, two of the most traditional franchises in baseball history, split a pair of seven-game classics decades ago. St. Louis’ Gas House Gang got the best of Detroit in 1934, and Mickey Lolich pitched the Tigers to a comeback victory against Bob Gibson in ‘68.
This time, Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter, Kenny Rogers and Ivan Rodriguez will be some of the big names involved when the 2006 World Series begins Saturday night at Comerica Park in Detroit.
And the two intense managers, Tony La Russa of St. Louis and Detroit’s Jim Leyland, are old friends. Leyland spent five years scouting and working for La Russa and the Cardinals before returning to the bench this season.
Either La Russa or Leyland will join Sparky Anderson as the only manager to win the World Series in both leagues. La Russa did it with the Oakland A’s and Leyland with the Florida Marlins; Anderson did it with Cincinnati and Detroit.

Detroit won it all in ‘84, then became the losingest team in baseball over the past 13 seasons. The low point came in 2003, when the Tigers lost an AL-record 119 games.
But this season, the surprising Tigers captured their eighth pennant. And they have won seven straight games since losing their postseason opener to the Yankees.
The first World Series between St. Louis and Detroit was 72 years ago, and no two franchises have met twice in the Series over such a long span while representing the same cities. The Athletics and Giants had an 84-year span (1905-1989), but both teams moved during that time.