The Blog for the Sports Gamer

No, not me. Definitely not me. But evidently that does describe Tigers owner Mike Illitch these days. And who could blame him? Bob Wojonowski of the Detroit News put up an excellent column today, in which he interviewed the oft-maligned owner. (And hey, when your team is the losingest in baseball over a ten year span, you’re going to be maligned.) Anyway, it’s really good stuff and worth a look. Here’s the usual snippet:

Luck helps, absolutely. And no one will forgive 12 ugly years for one special season. But there is joy in Tigertown, and the 76-year-old owner who spent much of his fortune and his reputation chasing it, doesn’t mind being seen again.

Near the end of the interview, I asked Ilitch what it’s like in public these days. Slowly, he grinned. He told a quick story of taking his wife and daughter to the airport Thursday morning. He said he handed the luggage to a baggage handler, and when the worker recognized him, she threw her arms out and hugged him, squeezing hard.

“It almost welled my eyes up,” Ilitch said as he almost welled up again, right there in his office. “But that’s the town we are. Growing up, we were so infatuated with baseball, that was our life. Everybody used to sit at the kitchen table and talk baseball. The Tigers were ingrained in everyone’s lives.”

They’re ingrained now, undoing some pain by doing so well. Technically, the Tigers haven’t accomplished anything major yet, except maybe one thing. By winning, by stirring a city, by reinvigorating veteran players and one persistent owner, they’re reminding everyone why it used to hurt so badly, and now feels so good.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 23rd, 2006 at 9:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.