I’m not sure when I started listening to the Detroit Tigers on the radio, but I do remember Al Kaline’s Opening Day game.
It was 1953, I was nine years old and Van Patrick was the play-by-play voice of the Tigers. My dad and I were stacking firewood on the back porch of our farmhouse and the radio was nearby. Each time Kaline came to bat, we took a break. Kaline was 18 years old and was an instant fan favorite.
These thoughts came back to me when I recently found a Detroit Tiger baseball bank I’ve had since age 12. Ten Tiger signatures were on the plastic ball, including those of Kaline, Ray Boone, Harvey Kuenn, Virgil Trucks, Charlie Maxwell, Earl Torgensen, Frank House, Bucky Harris, Bill Tuttle and Jim Brideweser. Kaline played 22 years for the team, until 1974.
In the bottom of a box of old photographs, I found a Tiger ticket stub from 1937. I wondered who paid $1.65 for this box seat back then. In 1937, the dearly departed Tiger Stadium was 25 years old. It was 11 years before the first night game would be played there, and one year before it was renamed Briggs Stadium, the name it kept until becoming Tiger Stadium in 1960.
My grandmother was also a fan. In those pre-television days at our home, she would stay close to her radio. She liked to root for Willie Horton, referring to him as “My Willie.”
In my lifetime, the Tigers were in three World Series. In 1945, they defeated the Chicago Cubs, and in 1968, the Tigers triumphed over the St. Louis Cardinals. I listened to this Series several time zones away from Michigan. I was in Korea, serving in the U. S. Army, 2nd Infantry Division.
For the 1984 Series, I was in attendance as the Tigers defeated the San Diego Padres in game five. My greatest memory of that game was Kirk Gibson hitting a three-run homer in the eighth inning off Rich “Goose” Gossage. Many highlight clips show Gibson running the bases pumping his fist in the air. What isn’t heard is the public address system broadcasting snippets of the Ghostbusters song and thousands of fans answering the question, 'Who you gonna call?' by yelling “Goose Busters.” After the game, we got out of the city before the ‘celebration’ riots took place.
Although the team faltered late in August and fell out of the playoff picture, the connection to the team of my youth won't be fading anytime soon. Go Tigers!
