AL NOTEBOOK: DETROIT STARTING TO FEEL LIKE IT'S '84.

Byline: DOUG PADILLA  Staff Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- They are all talking about ``The Slide'' in Detroit, and for the first time in a long time the phrase is not being used to reference a free fall in the standings.

The Detroit Tigers are for real and proved it again this week by winning two of three from the defending champion Chicago White Sox. Memories of 1984, the last time the Tigers won the World Series, are alive and well.

In winning a hard- fought series finale Thursday, the Tigers were given a chance when Marcus Thames broke up a double play at second base with a hard slide into White Sox second baseman Tadahito Iguchi.

The double play would have ended the inning and left a runner stranded, but Thames' slide gave Chris Shelton a chance to come to the plate. Shelton delivered the winning run with a double to the gap in left-center.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen is known for lashing out at anybody who crosses his path, but he had nothing bad to say about the Tigers. Detroit headed into the weekend with a majors-best record of 64-31.

``That's the way to play the game,'' Guillen said.

With two of those White Sox-Tigers games on national television, both victories by the Tigers, people are finally getting a chance to see that the American League's surprise team just might have what it takes to make a long run into October.

``I hope (people) realize that this team's for real, and realize that we're going to be around,'' Shelton said. ``They'd better get used to watching, because we're going to be here until the end.''

It has been both the young and old who are getting it done in Detroit.

Kenny Rogers, at 41, pitched so well in the first half that he started in the All-Star Game. Rookie Justin Verlander (11-4, 2.83 ERA) has been just as impressive.

Detroit closer Todd Jones has posted 25 saves, but setup man Joel Zumaya, 21, is the closer of the future. In two innings against the White Sox on Thursday, the Comerica Park radar gun clocked 18 of Zumaya's 30 pitches in triple digits, including two at 102 mph.

Magglio Ordonez and Ivan Rodriguez are the steady veterans leading the offense, and Craig Monroe and Shelton have been huge this season.

Leading it all is stoic manager Jim Leyland, who has insisted all season that his team is the real deal.

``I'd say we put on a pretty good show,'' Leyland said with a rare smile.

Detroit is believing. The Tigers have averaged more than 29,000 per game, fifth in the American League. They already have exceeded their entire 2003 attendance.

On the way out: Expect Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons to be fired in the offseason, if not sooner. His admission that he challenged his own player, Shea Hillenbrand, to a fight is flat-out embarrassing regardless of what Hillenbrand, who was traded late Friday to the San Francisco Giants, did to provoke the behavior.

Fighting off both the NewYork Yankees and Boston Red Sox to get into the playoffs doesn't seem likely. The team will cite that as the reason Gibbons will be fired, but the Hillenbrand incident will have played a mighty role.

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