The 2006 American League Championship Series (ALCS) was the second round of the 2006 American League playoffs; it began on October 10 and ended on October 14. The Detroit Tigers defeated the Oakland Athletics four games to none to advance to the 2006 World Series, and became the fourth AL team to win ten pennants, joining the New York Yankees (39), Athletics (15) and Boston Red Sox (11). Magglio Ordóñez's game-winning walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 4 sealed the pennant for the Tigers. This ALCS marked the fifth different AL pennant winner in as many years (2006 Tigers, 2005 White Sox, 2004 Red Sox, 2003 Yankees, and 2002 Angels).
The Athletics had defeated the Minnesota Twins, three games to none, in AL Division Series, and the Tigers had defeated the Yankees, three games to one. The Tigers faced the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, but fell to them, four games to one. Oakland had home-field advantage (despite Detroit having a better record) because Oakland was a division champion, but they effectively lost the advantage by losing Games 1 and 2 at home. Detroit hosted Games 3 and 4.
The Athletics were seeking their first AL pennant since 1990, while the Tigers captured the league title for the first time since their 1984 World Series championship year. The series was a rematch of the 1972 American League Championship Series, in which Oakland defeated Detroit in five games (then a best-of-five series). Detroit manager Jim Leyland, who led the Florida Marlins to the 1997 World Series title, became the seventh manager in history to win pennants in both leagues.
Read more about 2006 American League Championship Series: Composite Box
Famous quotes containing the words american, league and/or series:
“Whatever else American thinkers do, they psychologize, often brilliantly. The trouble is that psychology only takes us so far. The new interest in families has its merits, but it will have done us all a disservice if it turns us away from public issues to private matters. A vision of things that has no room for the inner life is bankrupt, but a psychology without social analysis or politics is both powerless and very lonely.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)
“He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no harm shall touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth. For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 5:19-23.
“I thought I never wanted to be a father. A child seemed to be a series of limitations and responsibilities that offered no reward. But when I experienced the perfection of fatherhood, the rest of the world remade itself before my eyes.”
—Kent Nerburn (20th century)