Monday, September 25, 2006 - Sports Monday - 3B SAPHOTO The Detroit Tigers clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 1987 with an 11-4 win at Kansas City. Playoff-bound inMotown KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The Detroit Tigers had a 220-bot- tle champagne celebration Sunday and they hope to have even a big- ger one later this week. The Tigers fought off their late- season slump and clinched their first playoff berth since 1987, scor- ing nine runs in the second inning Sunday and coasting to an 11-4 win over the Kansas City Royals. "I've been waiting for this," said Brandon Inge, who was given a champagne shampoo by team- mates. "You don't think about this in spring training, and then some- thing like this happens." Enjoying a turnaround season under new manager Jim Leyland, Detroit assured itself of no-worse than the AL wild-card berth and headed into the final week of the season with a 1 1/2-game lead in the AL Central. The Tigers, who regained the best record in Spikers: By Anthony Oliveira For the Daily The first loss is never easy, espe- cially when the crowd knows you should beat the opponent. After an undefeated non-confer- ence season, No. 19 Michigan suf- fered its first two losses of the season, IN AN both long and gut-wrenching five-game defeats. "It's a tough lesson to learn, los- ing, but you've got to do it some- time," junior captain Lyndsay Miller said. The Big Ten opener against Indi- ana started well for the Wolverines. Rolling through game one with an attacking percentage of 344, the Wolverines were in control. They continued their strong play early in game two, but after a couple of errors, Michigan allowed the Hoosiers to stay close. With the score 18-17 in Indiana's favor, the Wolverines played strong defense, diving all over the court and con- tinuing the longest rally of the night. The crowd grew hopeful, only to be downed by Hoosier sophomore Emily Zulauf's emphatic kill. Indi- ana used the momentum to connect on key blocks, and capitalized on Michigan's errors to take the game, 30-28. Committing 16 errors in game two alone, the Wolverines' mis- takes made it tough on themselves to win. They would win the third game quickly, but lost the lead late in game four. Michigan was unable to recuperate in game five giving Indiana the victory (30-22, 28-30, 30-20, 28-30, 12-15). "I thought we didn't play exactly terribly, but we just didn't play to get allthe grimy points,and go after the little stuff," senior Megan Bowman said. 'And we need to take care of the little things, otherwise we're not going to win many matches." Indiana head coach Katie Weis- miller agreed: "I think little things helped us out, and when it was tied, we won the next point, and that was the difference. When we needed a point, we were able to get it tonight" The stat sheet doesn't show these little things, proving that numbers aren't everything. The Wolverines outplayed the Hoosiers on defense with 86 digs, and tallied 77 kills on the attack. But Michigan also led in attack and service errors (52 to 40) with 10 attack errors com- ing in game four. "Looking at the box score, it con- rms that we didn't compete well tonight,' Michigan coach Mark Rosen said. "There were times when we played well. But you play well, you compete well are two dif- ferent things. I thought there were critical times in the match in three the major leagues at 94-62, went ahead early for the second straight day, following up on Saturday's 10-run first. "We want to send a message that we're not happy just going to the playoffs,' Tigers closer Todd Jones said. "We are trying to win our division" Craig Monroe hit a three-run homer that gave Justin Verlander (17-9) an 8-0 lead and chased starter Runelvys Hernandez (6- 10). Inge then homered on Todd Wellemeyer's first pitch. Detroit's last trip to the postsea- son was 19 years ago, when the Tigers won the AL East and lost to Minnesota 4-1 in the AL champi- onship series. "It is really overwhelming," said Tigers owner Michael hitch, who bought the team in 1992. "It is probably one of the highlights of my life. In the final outs, we were all holding our breath. After the final out, I did a lot of hugging. We had a bump in the road in late August, but that can be expected over a 162-game season. I never felt like it is not going to happen, but was concerned." Detroit spurted at the start of this season, taking sole possession of the division lead on May 21 and staying in first place ever since. The Tigers opened a season-high 10-game margin on Aug. 7, when they were a major league-best 76- 36, but then went 15-26 before arriving at Kansas City for the weekend series with their division lead down to a half-game over sec- ond-place Minnesota "The Tigers are solid all the way through," Royals interim manager Billy Doran said. "They don't have any holes. People who play them in the playoffs are going to have their hands full." Could Cosmos' magic work twice in a lifetime? Hard as it might be to believe, Americans like larity proved to be a blessing and a curse. soccer. The fame of the Cosmos' international all-star This summer 1 saw it in full effect. team caused other squads to bring in players of simi- At home, World Cup fever. At work, World Cup lar renown, even though they couldn't afford it. The fever. At school (so I hear), World Cup league expanded too quickly (it reached fever. a high of 24 teams) into many markets But even with all the hubbub, I think that probably didn't need a soccer team. it's safe to say that Major League Soc- And it bungled its exposure by signing cer won't be winning the ratings war a TV deal that resulted in ratings that anytime soon. would be dismal by today's networks' I've always been a big proponent of standards. the MLS, even though many people The MLS can - and appears to believe that an American soccer league have - learned from both the suc- will never catch on. cesses and the failures of the league. It What they forget, though, is that, also expanded too quickly, but recently for a short time, soccer and America JACK rectified it with some contraction. The connected in a perfect storm of TV deal it recently signed seems to be events. HERMAN beneficial. And a few owners with deep And it can happen again. TheSpcortslardrlay pockets are willing to build smaller soc- On Aug. 27, 1978, 73,064 people Column cer specific stadiums, a big advantage packed into Giants Stadium. It wasn't over the cavernous football-dedicated for a football game or a Bruce Springs- venues teams like Red Bull New York teen concert. Nope, thousands of fans came to cheer currently play in. on the hometown Cosmos, who celebrated a second But the key will lie with the stars. Yes, fans came straight North American Soccer League Soccer to see the game, but more so the personalities behind Bowl championship victory with a 3-1 win over the it. Tampa Bay Rowdies. They came to see Pel6, the world's most famous . ESPN2 recently debuted the documentary "Once athlete who had received an offer of millions of in a Lifetime," based on a book and released in dollars from the Cosmos - but only agreed to join theaters this summer, that highlighted the Cosmos' the team after Warner CEO Steve Ross enlisted popularity. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to convince the If you didn't know it before, the movie made one Brazilian government to ask Pele to play. thing clear: These guys were big. They came to see Chinaglia, a spectacular goal- The team's owners, Warner Communications, scorer that everyone loved to hate. One of the few put plenty of resources (including tons of money) willing to actually criticize Pee, Chinaglia once behind them. During the season, people couldn't summed up his popularity by telling reporter David get enough of them. Offseason, the team flew first Hirshey, "If a dog chokes on a bone around here, class all over the world playing the finest clubs they blame Chinaglia." across the globe. They came to see Beckenbauer, a World Cup Pele made more than a $1 million per season at champion whose play on defense earned him the a time when baseball legend Hank Aaron pulled nickname "Der Kaiser." down $200,000 - one of the highest totals in Even today this remains the case. To open up Major League Baseball. Cosmos players often left Lincoln Financial Field - now the home of the games with a girl on each arm. They spent many Philadelphia Eagles - organizers brought in FC a late night during the week partying at Studio Barcelona and Manchester United. Giants Stadium 54, where the mere mention you were with them often enjoys big crowds when huge European clubs got you past the bouncer and to the team's always- play exhibition matches there. reserved table. And, finally, the MLS seems to get this. They were the talk of New York City. Rumors have flown recently about a number of But much like the MLS, the Cosmos were noth- aging stars to America. The MLS has brought them ing particularly special leading up to those magi- in the past - but Lothar Matthaus, Luis Hernandez cal years. For the first four years of its existence, and Roberto Donadoni don't quite compare to David the Cosmos never had an average attendance of Beckham, Luis Figo and Ronaldo. more than 6,000 fans. Before moving to Giants I'm sure they'd make for a good Daily News cover Stadium, they played on a field on Randall's or two and even lead SportsCenter here or there. Island that needed to be painted green for Pe6's People would certainly go to watch them, and soccer first appearance. might be back in United States. But then things changed. The Cosmos pulled in a Sure it seems a little far-fetched. collection of the greatest soccer players from all over But maybe, just maybe, it can happen twice in a the world including PelE, Franz Beckenbauer and lifetime. Giorgio Chinaglia. Attendance at Cosmos' games shot up to 47,856 in 1978 - a year after PelE retired. - Herman can be reached at But as shown in "Once in a Lifetime," the popu- jaherman@umich.edu. squander a pair Outside-hitter Erin Penn's efforts weren't enough to keep he Wolverines from dropping two matches at home this weekend, their first losses of the season. or four different situations where we didn't compete well and take care of opportunities we had." Indiana's blocking exploited the one-dimensional Michigan offense. With the majority of kills going to Miller and junior Katie Bruzdzin- ski, the Hoosiers (1-1 Big Ten, 10-4 overall) were able to predict where the next attack was heading. Com- bined with the Wolverines' poor offensive attack in the fourth and fifth games (.094 and .077 respec- tively), their 14-game winning streak came to an end. The weekend didn't get any easi- er as No. 11 Purdue rolled into town Saturday night. The Wolverines couldn't hold on to a four-point lead in game five and allowed the Lady Boilermakers to go on a 10-1 run to close out the heart-breaking loss (30-25, 26-30, 26-30,30-26, 10-15). "You know, it hurts," Rosen said. "You put it all out there. The girls put it out there tonight. It hurts." With an electric crowd behind them, the energetic Wolverines again came out strong. The defense won game one, limiting Purdue's attack percentage to -.020. The offense was more diversified with Miller, sophomore Beth Karpiak and fifth-year senior captain Erin Penn all recording more than fifteen kills. Karpiak was most efficient, recording a career-high 17 kills in 29 attempts. Purdue (2-0, 12-1) had complete performances from the entire team, using thirteen players in the contest. During the 10-1 Boilermaker run, freshman Carrie Gurnell gave three crushing blows to the Michigan defense to seal the win. Overall, the numbers stack up evenly. From attacks, services and points, neither team had much of an advantage. But Michigan mustered a mere .042 attack percentage in the final game, its worst performance since Sept. 2 against Iowa State. The team knows these derail- ments can't happen if they want to wits. "I was really happy with the way we played, but we've got to close games out;' Rosen said. "There's no moral victory in 'We played bet- ter than last night. We were close.' We're here to win games, and we didn't do that." Taking these games as learning opportunities, the Wolverines (0-2, 13-2) will look to improve on their slow start. During Rosen's tenure as head coach, Michigan has been unable to take both matches of the Big Ten opening weekend. Karpiak put it simply: "We're going to get better." At McKinsey & Company, we're at the center of the most challenging issues that businesses face. We hire people with diverse backgrounds and expose them to a variety of clients and business issues unparalleled elsewhere. So, no matter what you've studied, if you are driven by intellectual curiosity, energized by teamwork, or a leader looking to develop lifelong skills, then we'd like to meet you! Attention Graduating Seniors & 1-year M 3ters: Come learn more about McKinsey when we visit campus this fall Dates for 2006 Presentation: Thursday, September 28 Michigan Union-Pendelton Room 6:00 p.m. All majors welcome Thursday, October 12 Apply online at www.mckinsey.com/usschools Resume Submission Deadline: www.mcklnsey.com/usschools 5An equalopportunityeployer i i