Welcome to the 2006 World Series. The last time the Tigers and Cardinals met in a Fall Classic, "blog" wasn’t even a word. Tiger Stadium is now replaced by beautiful Comerica Park, which will be the setting for Game 1 on Saturday night and Game 2 on Sunday. Busch Stadium is now replaced by beautiful new Busch Stadium, which will be the scene of Game 3 on Tuesday. The goal of this blog will be to take you behind the scenes in a different way than in previous World Series, with my notebook, a Canon Powershot A540 for pics, video uploads and a lot of friends.

To get it started, I just snagged the first official "Web Gem" of the World Series. Manager Jim Leyland has a good view of it, too. You won’t find this one anywhere else…

Just a bit on the chilly side for workout day this afternoon, but that’s to be expected and no one really cares. It’s the World Series. Last year, it was a crazy mix of cold and rain throughout Game 2 of the World Series at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, and it might as well have been St. Thomas.

Here’s your Game 1 starter for the Tigers. Rookie Justin Verlander told us during the first World Series interview-room session today that he found out about his assignment after the Cardinals finally beat the Mets in that NLCS Game 7 classic at Shea. When did he go to sleep? "I think like 2, 2:30," he said. "It’s not too bad. It’s kind of a regular schedule for me to go to bed that time and wake up at noon. But I really wanted to go to bed a little bit earlier, because I’m under the impression the night before is the most important night’s sleep. Especially when I found out they won, I went to bed and tried to go to sleep and that wouldn’t happen."

By the way, the headline on the front of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this morning was so good, it is worth noting here: "Yadi! Yadi! Yadi!"

Here’s Pudge showing up for batting practice. Three years ago, he and the Marlins shocked the Cubs at Wrigley and then laughed at the Yankees’ home-field advantage in the World Series. Now he and the Tigers have the home-field advantage. "Mr. [Michael] Illitch and Dave Dombrowski came to me and told me they were going to put together a winning team," Rodriguez recalls of his signing days. "It took time, but they didn’t lie to me. Here we are in the World Series."

The Hair. The Homer. Magglio Ordonez. . . .

Some of the hottest seats in baseball. . ..

This worker was busy affixing street-lamp signs outside the ballpark. The NFL’s Lions have a long way to go to help this slogan, but the Tigers are working on that one now. . .

The Cardinals are here now, more to follow from the National League champs.