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DAVID F. SHERMAN Managing Editor

+ WHY DETROIT? - If you see me wearing a Detroit Tigers baseball cap this week, don't you dare say I am hopping on the bandwagon for the most surprising team in the American League this year, and hosts for the first two games of this year's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.

I have been a Tigers fan since I was 7 years old and that was in 1962, thank you. Most of the reason why revolved around my favorite player, Rocky Colavito, who wore the olde English "D" from 1960-63. He is best remembered for two stints with the Cleveland Indians and for finishing his career with the New York Yankees, in the city where he was born.

I wanted to copy "The Rock" and wear a uniform just like his, but there was no Internet. So my mother carefully cut out iron-on material to create that trademark "D" that still appears on Detroit's classy home uniforms. That's the first thing I think of whenever I see it.

I sent away for the team's yearbooks in 1962 and 1963, memorizing facts and figures and becoming acquainted with a team that never quite surpassed the success or the prominence of the Yankees during the same era.

At about the same time, the Gillette razor people offered a promotion that no kid could refuse. A paperback book filled with baseball trivia and information was free with the purchase of one of its newest, double-edge models. I was at least a decade away from having any reason to own a razor, but I convinced my father to buy it for me just so I could have the book.

Doubleheaders were televised each weekend, and we got a good dose of the Yankees from summer into autumn. While I cheered for Mickey Mantle, it was a special day when the Tigers were the opposition.

Our family made two trips to see games at Tiger Stadium (built in 1912) the year it closed (1999). My son and I were honored to be at the first game at new Comerica Park the following spring.

Old Tiger Stadium still stands rusting and silent, and many fans in town last weekend for the first World Series game in Detroit since 1984 surely made the pilgrimage to see it one more time. Tentative plans call for it to be partially demolished next spring.

The term "World Series" still rekindles memories of afternoon games from my youth. The Yankees, Giants and Dodgers were larger than life at a time when we were grateful to have three channels on our black and white set. Those are things you never forget.

I can remember many of those World Series games because they were still being played when I got home from school. Today, thousands of kids grow up without ever seeing one because they are played at night to satisfy the financial interests of television networks.

So last Saturday evening, with the temperature at about 50 degrees, I saw my first World Series game in person, and it was in the very city that once seemed so far away. It was a great experience and despite the fact the Tigers lost, they rallied to win game two on Sunday. It just might be a seven-game series.

Plenty of Western New York fans can say they have seen a World Series game, possibly in Toronto, Pittsburgh, Cleveland or even New York. For many, it was probably a trip back in time to when players' uniform numbers were more important than their bank accounts. At least they were to me.