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ATLANTA -- The Detroit Tigers needed a lot of things to go right on the final day of the regular season.Nothing did.So its wait `til next year for the Tigers, who were eliminated from the wild card Sunday with a 1-0 loss to the Atlanta Braves in the final game at Turner Field.Julio Teheran matched a career high with 12 strikeouts, and Freddie Freeman drove in the lone run with a first-inning sacrifice fly off Justin Verlander. Detroit missed the playoffs for the second year in a row after four straight postseason appearances that included a trip to the World Series in 2012.When you start spring training, your goal is to get to the postseason, said Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, whose team won 12 more games than a year ago. We didnt, so were very disappointed.Detroit needed to win, hope that either Baltimore or Toronto lost, and then win a makeup game against Cleveland on Monday in order to force a tiebreaker for an AL wild card.I would not have enjoyed the travel, Ausmus said, but I would have relished traveling.Detroit lost its second straight against the last-place Braves. With a runner aboard in the ninth, Justin Upton was called out on strikes to end the game.It didnt matter, anyway, as both the Orioles and the Blue Jays won.We were dead in the water in a lot of peoples minds, Ausmus said. The guys played hard and continued to play hard all the way through the last game.Atlanta was never a playoff contender but is feeling a lot better about its prospects heading to SunTrust Park. After an 18-46 start that included the firing of manager Fredi Gonzalez, the Braves went 50-47 the rest of the way under interim manager Brian Snitker, who might have done enough to keep the job in 2017.We feel really good walking out of here, Snitker said. I dont know how we could end the season any better to build momentum for next year.Clearly inspired by the Turner Field finale, Teheran (7-10) went seven innings, giving up three hits and a walk before a sellout crowd of 51,220 that included former President Jimmy Carter and Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, who threw out ceremonial first pitches in unison.When Teheran took the mound, he did a pretty good impression of those three in their prime.The emotions I was feeling on the mound were unbelievable, Teheran said. Everybody was excited. Im glad that I had my stuff. It couldnt be any better than that.Verlander (16-9) allowed six hits in seven innings, walked one intentionally and struck out eight. Most days, it would have been good enough to win. But one run was all the Braves needed.Ender Inciarte led off the Atlanta first with a single to left center, and raced around to third when Adonis Garcia followed with another hit. Freeman brought home the run by flying out to center.I was just a little out of sync there to start the game, Verlander said. I settled down from there but too little, too late at that point. Who would have known that?Atlanta had a chance to pad its lead in the sixth. Garcia started things with a single, stole second and made it to third on an errant throw by catcher James McCann.Verlander buckled down, getting Freeman on an infield pop and striking out Matt Kemp. After Nick Markakis was intentionally walked, Verlander fanned Tyler Flowers to end the inning.The Tigers only real threat off Teheran came in the second, when J.D. Martinez singled and Nick Castellanos walked with one out. McCann struck out and Jose Iglesias popped out to the shortstop.Jim Johnson, who agreed to a two-year contract extension before the game, worked around a hit in the ninth for his 20th save in 23 chances.Then it was on to a postgame ceremony that included the removal of home plate, which was taken by Hank Aaron and team chairman Terry McGuirk on a police-escorted ride to SunTrust Park.Thats the way we all wanted to finish and close this book, Teheran said. Im proud of myself and the job that I did.BIG CROWDThe third sellout of the season at Turner Field pushed the season attendance to 2,020,914, ensuring the Braves drew at least 2 million fans in each of their 20 seasons at the ballpark.Still, it was their second-lowest season attendance at the Ted (the team drew 2,001,392 a year ago) and a far cry from the first season in 1997, when Atlanta attracted 3,464,488 for an NL East-winning team.TRAINING ROOMDetroit OF Ty Collins tripped on a sprinkler head during batting practice Saturday, leaving him with a sprained ankle. He didnt play in the season finale.UP NEXTThe Tigers open the 2017 season at the Chicago White Sox on April 3.The Braves also begin next season April 3, facing the Mets in New York. The first game at SunTrust Park is set for April 14 against the San Diego Padres. Cheap Balenciaga Shoes Online . -- Vincent Lecavalier got everything but the desired result in his return to Tampa Bay. Wholesale Balenciaga China . On Tuesday, Ottawa placed forward Cory Conacher and defenceman Joe Corvo on waivers as trade rumours swirl around the Senators. http://www.balenciagacheap.com/ . While hell be dialed in to that tournament on a course he loves, you can forgive him if his eyes glance down the calendar just a bit, towards April. Wholesale Balenciaga Shoes .com) - Christian Ponder will get another chance to prove himself for the Minnesota Vikings, with head coach Leslie Frazier announcing Wednesday that the struggling quarterback will start this weekends game against the Green Bay Packers. Discount Balenciaga Shoes . Traditional contenders Brazil, Greece and Turkey drew the other three spots to complete the 24-team field for this summers tournament in Spain, basketball governing body FIBA announced Saturday at its meeting in Barcelona. Dallas Kilponen will be watching?Cubs postseason games as?he has watched every other game this season, and the season before that, and the one before that.Alone.Hell probably warm up for the game by hooking his computer up to his big-screen TV and playing the Katie Day video We Got the Fire, the Cubs postseason hype song, because it gives him goosebumps. Hell wear his Ernie Banks T-shirt or his 1915 replica jersey, the 80s throwback or the standard home and away. If hes in the right mood, itll be the Cubs party shirt, the one with hot dogs and logos from different eras that his wife, remarkably, loves. Hell definitely have on his new 39/30 fitted classic C cap. And hell be holding his good luck game ball from the Cubs-Phillies game in 2010, when?Chicago won?12-6 with 16 hits.Hell check the weather forecast and get nervous if its chilly because of how he thinks it might have affected the Cubs in the NLCS against the Mets last year. Then hell tweet a little and maybe read some of his favorite Cubs bloggers.He might call up to his wife, Fiona, who will be supportive but will make her own plans for the day. She will leave him alone on the couch, where the 51-year-old from Sydney, Australia, will hold down his city and, for all intents and purposes, his continent as the biggest Cubs fan Down Under.Theres another guy in Melbourne, a one-and-a-half-hour plane ride away,?with whom Kilponen exchanges the occasional tweet. He thinks theres another in Wollongong, a 90-minute drive from Sydney. Once, Kilponen craved?Cubs fellowship so badly that he put out the word on social media and on the Ivy Envy podcast for a meet-up at the Forresters, a Sydney pub where you can have a beer at 10 in the morning and watch live American sports. He offered free hamburgers and hot dogs.No one replied.And so the father of two channels Ernie and watches the beloved by himself on his MLB package. He listens to Pat and Ron, Len and J.D. And he lives for his frequent trips to Chicago, the first in 2006, his first major league game, when the Earths rotation paused for just a second and the sports photographer who spent 24 years with the Sydney Morning Herald knew one thing for sure.I was so filled with emotion when I walked on those grounds, he said, I was like, Oh my God. This is my team. Id always known about the Cubs and how desperate their lot was to win the World Series, but when I went to Wrigley, it was so physically overwhelming to stand there and look at the ivy and see the scoreboard. I was transported to another time and almost instantly connected.People talk about it being spiritual and magical. For me, it was like seeing the light.Kilponen played baseball in elementary school, taught by a gym teacher who loved the game and started a league, and Kilponen played until he began working as a professional photographer.Theres a long history of baseball in Australia, dating to the 1850s, when American gold miners first brought the game there. But it was cricket that became the nations summer sport, while baseball, even with its Australian Baseball League, jointly owned by Major League Baseball, was delegated to minor sports status among Australian fans.For Kilponen, Australians love of the underdog only cemented his devotion to the Cubs. It so resonated with me, he said. Why wouldnt you root for the Cubs?He wants to make one thing clear, and that is although he respects the lifetime bond most Cubs fans have with their team and acknowledges that is not him, he will not cop to the bandwagon label.Theyve been pretty awful for my 10 years, he said of his relationship with the team. I remember when they were playing the Marlins, and I was sitting in the bleachers with my mates drinking beer, and Carlos Marmol threw 14 balls in a row to lose. My heart sunk. ... Ive seen a lot of heartbreak.He has also seen some wins close-up. Im very proud of my 9-3 record, he said with a laugh. I feel like Im their good luck charm.A few years ago, after listening to the Ivy Envy podcast, Kilponen emailed the hosts to let them know they had a fan in Australia, and they struck up a friendship. The hosts invited him to voice an intro for the show inviting fans from all over the world to listen in.This summer, Kilponen mett one of the hosts, Corey Fineran, in Chicago, and the two arranged to go to some games together.dddddddddddd Fineran, a 39-year-old from Galesburg, Illinois, whose day job is writing curriculum for special education students, had to drop something off in the Cubs front office and invited Kilponen to come along. The Cubs and specifically communications manager Kevin Saghy were so charmed by the affable Aussie that they loaded him with souvenirs and credentialed him to shoot a game with the Cubs staff photographer.Kevin gave him a W flag [the Cubs victory flag flown at Wrigley Field after every home win], and Dallas was getting choked up, Fineran said. For me, like so many Cubs fans, it was my grandparents who are gone now who turned me onto the team, and situations like this year has me thinking about them. But I really enjoyed seeing that reaction from Dallas because it was so pure to know it was coming from his love of the team and the city and not because it reminded him of a family member.Seeing Kilponen enraptured with Wrigley, singing during the seventh-inning stretch, cheering on the team, made him remember how special a place it is.After going there so many times, you lose that childlike enthusiasm, but with him, it was so authentic, and it really impacted me, Fineran said. He took me back to that time seeing Wrigley for the first time.Dallas wife, Fiona, confesses to hating sports, but when your husband makes you take his picture in front of an ivy-covered wall while on vacation in Italy because it looks just like Wrigley, you realize he has another love in his life.Fiona has been to two games, the first in rain and the second in full-blown Chicago August heat.It really, truly is a religious experience with him, she said. That first time when it was raining, he was upset I hadnt enjoyed the experience because to him, the weather and conditions meant nothing. His attitude was, What? Youre not enjoying this? Were at the Cubs game.Kilponen is enthralled, among other things, by the way the light filters through the lower and upper deck. Theres just something about that place that gets me every time.Ive covered Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games and Rugby World Cups, so Ive seen big moments, and I dont get overwhelmed that easily, he said. I think I was just blown away by the sheer beauty of that field. I was 40 the first time I saw it. And its that classic thing we love about baseball, and I love that about Americans connection with fathers and sons and grandfathers.But I just walked in and felt this warm connection between the field and the fans, and it was everything about baseball that I love encapsulated.Fiona said if the Cubs make it to the Series, she would sanction a trip to Chicago. If he got a ticket, he would be there in a heartbeat, and I wouldnt begrudge that at all, she said. But he would just be pleased [for the team] to get to that point.A ticket might not be necessary.Id be straight to the airport and straight up there, he said. Even if I could just hang out in Wrigleyville. ... Im telling a lot of people who know nothing about baseball, Get ready. Youre going to see this on the news in Australia because it will be one of the biggest sports stories in?history. I think theyre kind of interested. Its not hard to sell people on an underdog story like this one.Of course, theres a chance Dallas Kilponen will do the same thing he did that night when he invited Cubs fans to a party and no one came.I ended up watching at home and screaming alone in my living room when the Cubs beat the Cardinals, he said. Its weird that I cant celebrate with anyone. I want to go out to a bar with a couple thousand people and spray beer all over each other.Instead, with a full day still ahead of him after most games end and with a full head of energy, hell try to dissect things with a friend who doesnt much care that he loves Joe Maddon because he doesnt muck around.Then Kilponen will do what any self-respecting Cubs fan in Sydney, Australia, does when he doesnt want to drink with the flies (thats Aussie for alone).I just go for a surf instead. ' ' '