A Tiger Fan Gone Astray?

Brother Dave (L) and the writer watching one leave the field at CoPa during the last year the Tigers made the playoffs

Loyalty runs deep for Tiger fans, but it ain't always easy

By Ken DeLaat

No Way!
Seriously, there is  no way I should be writing about the Tigers heading to Houston to take part in the Playoffs. I have been a Tiger fan for more than a smattering of decades witnessing the good, the bad and the ugly (and man there was some truly ugly) and this team tops them all. 

Sure, the comeback in the 68 Series was dramatic as was the Gibson home run off Gossage to ice it in ‘84 but I haven’t seen anything like what this collection of young, unproven, players mingled in with other parts of the puzzle rescued from the scrap heap have done. 

This wasn’t a comeback. It was a resurrection. They were tossing dirt in this team as late as mid August. They were sellers at the trade deadline. They were down to 2 (really 1 ½) starting pitchers as relievers logged innings in sets of 2 or 3. Many averages hovered or sank below the Mendoza line and injuries took out their best power hitters for extended periods of time. Springtime hopefuls had been banished to the minors after horrendous starts at the plate, only to return and make a huge impact.And they charged back taking series after series and muscling their way into a 3 game shootout with the Stro’s (nee Colt 45’s).
You cannot make this stuff up.

And of course, it’s gotta be Houston. The team my (much) older brother and longtime fellow member of the Bengal Brigade, swung some allegiance to after the Tig’s launched their latest and, of course, lengthy rebuild in ‘17.
“ I can’t do another rebuild,” he told me soon after the Tigers traded Verlander. Hence, as he was living in the Houston aream he began following the Astros. A team 5 years removed from the National League and about to win their first of 7 AL West titles over the next 8 years.

Now, I won’t say I didn’t label him a front runner for trading in the Olde English D for one of those funky Texas stars with a big old H in the middle. I admittedly ribbed him a bit for going to April games in 70 degree weather when we all know early season baseball involves the possibility of snow in real baseball towns. It was like he had betrayed the credo of the long suffering Tiger fans and traded in “Just wait til next year” for “Continue the dynasty” The once downtrodden Astros had become like the Yankees of the 50-60’s. And my brother was a fan? The horror!

You know, you can take the Tiger fan out of Michigan and stick him in a warm weather climate where a successful franchise that gets to go to the post season every year becomes his home team…
But it ain’t the same as the team you grew up with. The one you followed each year from the day pitchers and catchers reported to the final out that usually came in September. The team who doesn’t win often but when they do it is oh so sweet. You not only knew all the players you could recite their stats like cruising through the Pledge of Allegiance.

So tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday) he and I will once again see a game together like the old days. Instead of sharing a couple of box seats at Tiger Stadium or Comerica Park, he’ll be in Houston in front of his TV and I’ll be sitting way too close to mine. And there is no doubt in my mind who he’ll be rooting for.
Because my nephew Randy, pictured with us below, captured the above shot of him at a Houston game when the Boys from Big D were in town.
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Welcome back, brother. It’s like you never left.
And Go Tigers!!

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Rally caps 2014