| 2006 American League Championship Series | ||||||||||
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| Dates | October 10–14 | |||||||||
| MVP | Plácido Polanco (Detroit) | |||||||||
| Umpires | Jerry Crawford Hunter Wendelstedt Derryl Cousins Chuck Meriwether Gary Cederstrom Mike Reilly | |||||||||
| Broadcast | ||||||||||
| Television | Fox (United States) MLB International (International) | |||||||||
| TV announcers | Thom Brennaman, Steve Lyons (Games 1–3)†, José Mota (Game 4), Lou Piniella and Chris Myers (Fox) † Lyons was dismissed by Fox after Game 3, for comments which the network deemed insensitive to Piniella's Spanish background.[1] Dave O'Brien and Rick Sutcliffe (MLB International) | |||||||||
| Radio | ESPN | |||||||||
| Radio announcers | Jon Miller and Joe Morgan | |||||||||
| Streaming | ||||||||||
| ALDS |
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The 2006 American League Championship Series (ALCS), the second round of the 2006 American League playoffs, began on October 10 and ended on October 14. The wild card Detroit Tigers swept the West Division champion Oakland Athletics 4 games to none to advance to the 2006 World Series, and became the fourth AL team to win 10 pennants, joining the New York Yankees (39), the Athletics (15), and the Boston Red Sox (11). Magglio Ordóñez's game-winning walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 4 sealed the pennant for the Tigers. This ALCS marked the 5th different AL pennant winner in as many years (following 2005 with the White Sox, 2004 with the Red Sox, 2003 with the Yankees, and 2002 with the Angels).
The Athletics defeated the Minnesota Twins 3 games to none in the AL Division Series, and the Tigers defeated the Yankees 3 games to 1. The Tigers faced the National League champions St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, but lost in five games. The Athletics had home-field advantage (despite the Tigers having a better regular season record) as the wild card team defers home field advantage in the LCS regardless of regular season record.
The Athletics were seeking their first AL pennant since 1990, while the Tigers captured the league title for the first time since their win in the 1984 World Series. The series was a rematch of the 1972 American League Championship Series (then a best-of-five series), in which Oakland defeated Detroit in 5 games. 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. It was the second consecutive ALCS without the Yankees and Red Sox.
- ^ FOX dismisses Lyons for racially insensitive comment, Associated Press. October 14, 2006.