How can you not be romantic about baseball?
– Billy Beane Moneyball
I know a lot of you probably get sick of hearing me gush about the game of baseball, but here I go again…
Saturday night, I attended a baseball game at Detroit’s Comerica Park. Before the game, the Tigers were honoring Jim Leyland, their manager from 2006 through 2015. Leyland was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame last week tonight, the Tigers paid tribute to Leeland by retiring his number.
It’s interesting to know that of the 346 people currently in shrine in the baseball Hall of Fame, only 23 of them are managers. But the Detroit Tigers were fortunate enough to have two of those managers. I have been lucky enough to see both of those managers run the Tigers during my lifetime.
Leyland may not be the winningest manager in the history of the Tigers organization, but he guided the team to two World Series appearances, 3 American League Central division titles, multiple scion awards, multiple MVP awards, and he also had the only player in the last 50 years to achieve baseball’s “Triple Crown” Miguel Cabrera. Simply put, Jim Leyland guided the Detroit Tigers through their greatest sustained run of excellence in the 123 of the franchise
There was a pregame ceremony honoring Leyland. Several former players as well as members of his coaching, staff and baseball executives were on hand for the event. A few speeches were made. Couple of fancy gifts were given to Leyland from the organization, and his number was placed upon the centerfield wall, along with other Tiger legends.
By all accounts that I’ve ever heard, Jim Leyland is a really down-to-earth, dude. I used to hear stories about one of the local bars that he would frequent while he was managing for the tigers. He just sat at the bar like anyone else and drink his beer.
Fans never had a bad thing to say about him. In fact, I remember hearing a story about how he drove back to his hometown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to attend the 2006 All-Star game with a few of his buddies. He could’ve probably serve as a coach for the American League All-Star team. Instead, he sat in the upper deck with some normal guys and enjoy the game like a fan
I bought one ticket for the game last night and chose to go just on the strength of the number retirement ceremony. I went to the game alone. I know but for a lot of people, not having anyone to go with would stop them from doing stuff. But the fact of the matter is, I’m 50 years old, I’m single. I see my children for less than 50% of the time. To make matters worse, I’m at a stage of my life where I don’t really have a hell of a lot of friends. If I waited around for people to go with me to do stuff, I would miss out on so many things. And I wasn’t going to miss this “retirement ceremony”.
As for the game itself, it started as an old-fashioned “pitchers’ duel”. In fact, tiger pictures were throwing a combined no-hitter going into the fourth inning. For a short time, I thought I was about to witness my first ever no-hitter in person.
The Tigers ended up winning the game 6–5. They came from behind to retake the lead on three separate occasions, including the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 11th inning.
This is all well and good, but for me, attending a baseball game in person is about so much more than just the actual game. I am coming to the best of my knowledge, third generation Detroit Tigers fan. My grandfather was a Tigers fan. My father was a tiger fan. I am a tiger fan. And by the grace of God, at least one of my two boys will be a tiger fan as well. The game and this team is pretty hardwired into my DNA at this point.
It was a hot summer evening. Gametime temperature hit 91°. Fans were guzzling, beer, water, sodas, and eating all kinds of concession foods from hotdogs to Italian sausages.
The Tigers tend to play a lot of music during their games. They also have a lot of graphics on their Jumbotron, encouraging fans to make noise. In between innings, cameras will shift to fans all over the stadium. People want to be seen on the big screen. Everybody is there to have a good time. Unless your team is as historically bad as the 2024 White Sox are turning out to be.
During the last few games I’ve attended in person, I’ve described Comerica Park, on my social media account as “my favorite place on earth”. Given where I’m at in my life right now, that is not an exaggeration.
Ultimately the tigers won the game on a walk off bass hit in the bottom of the 11th inning. I know that some of you were probably probably not sports fans. in fact, I’m sure a few of you reading this down your nose at sporting events and sports fans. But when you’re leaving a game, and your home team has won – in particularly dramatic fashion as we had tonight, you exit the stadium with upwards of 30,000 other fans who are all in a good mood. It’s an amazing feeling when there’s just that much happiness in one place at one time.
It’s hard for me to articulate the sensation of spontaneously erupting into cheers, fist- bumping, high-fiving, screaming your lungs off with a person who is sitting in front of you, or next to you, or behind you. These are people who I’ve never known in my life, never seen in my life In all likelihood, I will never talk to or see these people again. But during that one game, on that one night, you share a bond with a total stranger.
When I got home from the game Saturday night, my feet were sore. I was sweaty, probably a little bit dehydrated from drinking too much alcohol and not enough water. My ears were a little sore and my throat was a little bit worse from screaming. I felt like I was 20 again, just getting home from an all day music festival. I know that’s a big part of it with me and baseball. The game makes me feel young. i’m exhausted. I’m ready to crash.
And I loved every second of it.
Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, comment and r subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:
Rebuilding Rob 
Leave a reply to rebuilding rob Cancel reply