0404090434
DETROIT FREE PRESS
040409
Friday, April 09, 2004
METRO FINAL
1A
Photo ROMAIN BLANQUART/Detroit Free Press
Despite the Tigers' 10 straight losing seasons, fans like Rob Kai of
Dearborn, left, and Joe (Crazy Joe) Indecki of Hamtramck find plenty of
reasons to celebrate -- and believe -- on Opening Day at Comerica Park. The
Tigers won, 10-6. MORE COVERAGE IN SPORTS, PAGE 1D.
With the Tigers down, 3-0. Alex Sanchez, right, homered, then celebrated with
Carlos Guillen.
Fans James Wade of Detroit, from left, Nick Baltzoglou of Madison Heights,
Kyle Goetschel of Dayton, Ohio, and Michael La Londe of Northville cheer the
Tigers on in the fifth inning.
MITCH ALBOM Free Press columnist
DETROIT 10, MINNESOTA 6
Copyright (c) 2004, Detroit Free Press
THE ROAR OF '04
ON OPENING DAY, THE NEW, 4-0 TIGERS HAVE FANS CHEERING FOR ALL THE RIGHT
REASONS
The last time baseball was played at Comerica Park, the crowd was on its feet
for the final out. Six months later, Thursday afternoon, as shadows fell on a
misty Opening Day, the scene repeated itself, with fans once more on their
feet as the Tigers left the field.
There is only one difference between the ovations, but it is all the
difference in the world.
The last time was pity. This time was praise.
"Happy? This is the happiest I've been since I've been playing for this
organization," said longtime Tiger Bobby Higginson, who knocked in four runs
in a 10-6 victory in the home opener, which improved Detroit to 4-0 for the
young season. "I know it's early. But I truly believe we have a chance to do
good things."
Higginson, of all people, knows the loftiness of that sentence. He was part of
the lowly group that got that standing ovation last September, the season
finale, when a Tigers victory only spared them a tie for the most losses in
the modern history of baseball. That was different. That was embarrassing.
That was your parents clapping as you stumbled across the potato sack race
dead last and full of mud.
This was something else. This was a packed stadium in which the people stayed
not from ghoulish voyeurism but from -- remember this word, Tigers watchers?
-- fandom.
That's right. Fandom. Fans rooting for the newly acquired superstar, Ivan
(Pudge) Rodriguez, who singled twice and threw out two runners. Fans rooting
for the newly acquired shortstop-second base combo of Carlos Guillen and
Fernando Vina, who scored four runs between them. Fans rooting for stubborn
stalwarts like Higginson, who has taken the brunt of criticism during the lean
and ugly years because, well, mostly because he was here.
Fandom. You want to know the real snapshot of this Opening Day? It wasn't the
10 runs or the 14 hits for the home team. It was the crowded downtown streets
at the end of the game. Heck, Opening Day is always crowded at the beginning.
That's easy. But in recent years, it has been a ghost town by the ninth
inning.
Not Thursday. On Thursday, people stayed to watch the game. They stayed to see
a winning streak -- yes, a winning streak -- extended. They stayed to see the
best start in nearly 20 years. And while no one is predicting a championship
-- or anything close -- there is a tangible stir in the crowd.
It's like finding out Elvis isn't so fat anymore, and he can still sing.
The fun of fandom.
The past is in the past
"Today was a great day to see the kind of support we can have if we perform,"
Higginson said. "Last year, it was such a long, terrible, miserable season,
that you didn't even want to think about baseball during the off-season. But
then we saw some of the moves the team made, how they were getting guys in
here who could play. And then the whole Pudge thing, and, well, it really
started getting exciting."
That excitement is swelling. This may not be a playoff team, it may not even
be a contending team, but it is also not your recent Tigers collection of
cast-offs and passers-through. Consider Rodriguez, who came over from the
World Series champion Florida Marlins. Or Guillen, who came over from Seattle,
where the Mariners regularly compete in the playoffs. Or Vina, who saw his
Octobers with the St. Louis Cardinals.
These are not men who figure baseball is something you do between April and
September. These are men who look to the rafters and expect to see pennants.
"I know nobody expects us to do anything because of all that's happened here
in the last few years," Vina said. "But hey, we weren't here the last few
years. I don't even know about that stuff."
And Tigers fans don't want to rehash it. Wouldn't we all be just as happy to
pretend the last decade was some deep space trip, where they put you in
suspended animation until you wake up in a new universe, one where winning is
actually, you know, part of the equation?
"The fans in this town deserve to see quality baseball," Higginson said. "And
I think they got it this year."
A good day for baseball
If he's right, it would be nice for Higginson, 33, to be a part of that. He
has been up and down, it's true, and he gets paid a lot of money, yes, and he
has said some things over the years that he probably regrets, but then again,
he was like the poor guy at the carnival who gets doused in the water every
time someone throws a ball. It may be your job, but after a while, it gets
kind of annoying.
"Don't get me wrong," he said, "I'm playing a game I love. But at times when
you're on a team that's losing 100 games year in and year out, and the finger
is getting pointed pretty much at you, it gets a little tiring. You know, you
can put Alex Rodriguez on a team -- heck, they did it in Texas, and they still
lost 100 games (actually, 91) -- it doesn't matter, one player doesn't make a
team. You need 25 guys pulling together.
"I took a lot of heat for the way the team was playing and it used to wear on
me. But now I just want to be one of the 25 guys. . . . And these new guys are
going to find out that this is a great sports town. This is a sleeper town."
A sleeper town that is waking up to familiar sounds, wood on horsehide, cheers
in the ninth, upbeat voices from a hometown clubhouse.
As manager Alan Trammell darted out from the dugout before the game Thursday,
he spotted some familiar faces and bellowed "Goooood morning!" Then he looked
to the skies, smiled and said, "Not a bad day, huh?"
Perfect record? Four straight victories? New guys happy to be here, old guys
happy to have them?
Not a bad day. Not bad at all.
Contact MITCH ALBOM at 313-223-4581 or albom@freepress.com. Catch "The Mitch
Albom Show" 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760). Also catch "Monday Sports
Albom" 7-8 p.m. Mondays on WJR. To read recent columns by Albom, go to
www.freep.com/index/albom.
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