Hosting the World Series, more opinions
posted in Random, World Series, link roundup |Lynn Henning waxed poetically over what he believes baseball means to Detroit. I have found myself increasingly amazed at just how much the Tigers winning seems to mean. Whenever a team gets good, fans flock to it, and just kinda go ga-ga and live for the moment. I’m sure we all remember how few of us lived and died on pitches in 2003, or countless other years before my time with bad plotlines and awful teams. (My Tigers memories more or less start with a Matt Nokes baseball card, and I don’t know why, then skip to Cecil Fielder’s run to 51). But what seems to be going on with the Tigers, I say seems to because I’m not in the Metro area to know, sounds it has really transcended. Anyway, on to Mr. Henning:
Baseball’s grip on Detroit is at once historical and, perhaps, even spiritual. The Tigers are a blue-blood professional sports franchise with a lineage so hoary that Detroit ranks as a charter member of Major League Baseball. The game might have been only a few decades old when big-league baseball arrived in 1901, but the city was 200 years old and was rife with the threads of immigration and industry that would make baseball a rich presence in the city’s and state’s tapestry.
I can’t speak for the rest. I just wasn’t around for them. And I surely enjoyed the Pistons championships. But this Tigers team just seems to put a spell on you unlike other franchises from other sports. While maybe the 1984 or 1968 or some other clubs might have been better — who knows — this 2006 team truly became something special. This is going to be the team I look back and remember years and years from now. That’s probably true for most people under 30 who never knew the past eras by anything but name and reputation. It’s just the way they persevere, they soar, they stumble, they take flight again, and they share it all along the way. They’re giving back so much. It’s really a great relationship. That’s what makes them so special. Henning:
An old baseball town rediscovered its soul in 2006. Detroit and the Tigers and all those who attached themselves to the fate of a 105-year-old big-league team have created a glow so warm and so wide that, once again, America is left to ponder how it is that baseball can create merriment on the unique level experienced this month in the Motor City.
I don’t know if there is such thing as a once-in-a-lifetime team, but these Tigers are surely a first-in-a-lifetime team for many of us.
But of course, lots of people are saying it’s deeper than that. I also found myself nodding along with an article by LZ Granderson who wrote on ESPN’s Page 2.
No, it’s easy to make fun of Detroit when all you hear about is violence and poverty. And it’s true, the city’s hurting. Nearly a third of the families are living below the poverty line and over 70,000 people are unemployed. Last year, the average U.S. home sold for $167,500. In Detroit? $88,300.
But there’s more to a city than numbers and glitz. There’s a soul. …
Sure, the Pistons have been one of the best teams in basketball the past four years, but the truth is they don’t actually play in Detroit. They’re in Auburn Hills, about 30 minutes north of downtown. If you can afford the ticket, you still need a car that can make the trip and gas to get there. The Red Wings? A great team but not a sport that’s been embraced by those who live in the city. The Lions? Forgetaboutit. …
Yeah, it’s been tough, but I, like so many, am proud to be made in Detroit.
I said I wouldn’t make any of those crazy connections like “The Tigers are Detroit.” I write about sports for a living. I think there’s got to be that separation. There are sports, and there are things that really matter in life, and sometimes people get confused about what’s really important. But dang if it doesn’t seem more and more to me that I might be wrong on this. Maybe it’s okay if it does mean a little bit more to us than just a baseball connection.
I’m a guy who proudly wore a Tigers cap just because that Olde English D stands for Detroit, and it’s always nice to have it around. Maybe the Tigers, win or lose, have that extra something.
A few days ago, wearing my D-cap at the mall, I was asked, “I always see you wearing that Tigers hat. Are you from Detroit or something?” Strange question, maybe, because with all the winning the Tigers have been doing, I wouldn’t really have connected the two. Maybe the Tigers haven’t broken through to the general audience up here yet. I don’t know. But it gave me a bit of pride.
I nod. “Yeah, I’m from Detroit.”
I’m from the city. My parents are from the city. Their parents were from the city, even if they didn’t start off there. And the Tigers were there for all three generations of us.
Maybe it’s okay if the Tigers mean something more.
Sphere It
Thanks for this — I found myself nodding in agreement as I read it. More so than any other local team, I identify the Tigers with the actual city of Detroit.
Oh God, I never wanted to hear the word hoary again, not after the 2005 NBA Finals. But I agree, this World Series run is almost transcendental. All the championships have been special (the last Red Wings one felt a little hollow, but even that was great). But this permeates everything and, win or lose, this Detroit Tigers team is the most memorable one I’ve been apart of along with the 97 Wolverines.
The ‘84 Tigers are my “once-in-a-lifetime” team, mostly because I was just shy of my eleventh birthday when they won Game 5, and that’s pretty much the perfect age for hero worship. But this team is making me feel like that eleven year-old kid again, and that, to steal the cliche, is priceless.