Damn Tigers

I have been a Detroit Tigers baseball fan since I was five years old. My father used to take me and my brother to a couple of games a year. The rest of the season, I'd follow the team through the media, especially the radio (announced by that elegant gentleman, Ernie Harwell). Al Kaline, the Hall of Fame right fielder, was my boyhood sports hero and I thrilled to his leading the team to a 1968 World Series victory. As a teenager in 1984, I got a similar charge with another Tiger team, led to the championship by Alan Trammell.

Trammell and Kaline were players and people of a kind. They were good, consistent, soft spoken, hard working, straight arrow athletes who led by example. They both played for Detroit their entire careers. Their combination of skill, character and longevity endeared them to many of us around here.

After Trammell retired in 1996, the Tigers slowly went downhill. Their nadir was in 2003, when they finished the season with an ignominious 43 - 119. I seldom went to games. Then, on a whim, I decided to see the team late in the 2005 season. They had just brought up a young center fielder from the Toledo Mud Hens AAA team named Curtis Granderson. "Who the heck is Curtis Granderson?" I asked someone, wondering when Detroit would get some real players. As if he heard me, he hit a home run and made a couple of fine plays in the field. "Hmm," I thought and made a mental note about him.

The next year, Granderson was our starting center fielder. He was fast, great in the field and sprayed hits at the plate. Along with a sprinkling of young players and veterans, he did the improbable and made it to the World Series.

In the next couple of years, Granderson continued to perform on the field. He also impressed off the diamond, traveling the world as an ambassador for Major League Baseball. He became known for his community work, for which he earned an award from his peers this year. Unlike many major league ball players, he not only finished college but excelled academically, earning two degrees. I began to feel as though Kaline and Trammell finally had a successor.

Then, today, I learned that the Tigers had traded Granderson to the New York Yankees. The team was trying to lessen its payroll and Granderson was one of the few Tiger players any team was interested in.

While I understand that baseball is a business, I am saddened by this trade. In a world of change, constancy is welcome. I was looking forward to seeing Curtis through the ups and downs of his career, handling adversity with his usual determination. To me, he was the symbol of not only what a Tiger should be but what an athlete should be.

So, congratulations, New York. You got a wonderful player and man (think Derek Jeter or Bernie Williams). He'll make you proud always. Treat him well.

Thank you, Curtis, for all you've done for your team and this town. May your career and life be long and fruitful. I will continue to follow you and wish you all the best.

As for you, Tigers, you have upset me and many other fans. You signed a bunch of expensive free agents and had to let the face of our franchise go to balance your accounts. Don't let that happen again. Remember that we don't just root for the uniforms but the people inside them.