Old Tiger Fans Never Die

DETROIT, September 17, 1968--Listen to the golden voice of Tiger announcer Ernie Harwell: "Don Wert singles, Kaline comes in to score, and it's all over.... The Tigers have just won their first pennant since nineteen hundred and forty-five. . . .The Tigers mob Don. . .Just listen to the bedlam here in Tiger Stadium...." That night, they danced in the streets of downtown Detroit.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., mid-July, 1980--The Tiger fan strains to pick up "the clear channel choice of radio station WJR 760, Detroit." The Bengals have just won their ninth in a row and have moved from fifth to second place in a matter of two weeks. Manager Sparky Anderson defiantly declares that if the Tigers are seven games out on July 20, they'll be in the thick of the race down to the wire.

DETROIT, September 24, 1980--The Bird gets bombed, giving up five walks and five runs in the first two-thirds of an inning. The Bengals are now 78-74, below .500 since the all-star break, and 20 games out of the running. The team ERA is 4.27. Somewhere in Detroit, a fan is weeping. Maybe it's Sparky.

"The incredible thing about the Tigers is that they get such amazing crowds no matter how well they do," says laid-back loyalist Shira Saperstein '82 of Detroit. "Once a Tigers' fan, always a Tigers' fan." fan."

Maybe that's why Bary Gottesman '82 of Birmingham, Mich., has been a Tiger loyalist for as long as he can remember. "I stood by them while they were really pathetic," he said, referring to the gory years of the early 70s. But this year, maybe because they seemed so close, his patience is running thinner than a French milkshake.

"I'm just very disappointed, a little agitated, a little upset, a little mad. . . .I think (general manager) Jim Campbell has been fooling himself too long. He has to go out and buy a pitching staff.

"Up until the All-Star break, they were playing good ball, but they fell apart after the break. Then their mediocre pitchers showed their true form."

Mark Voelpel '82, who has frequented the left-field grandstand of venerable Tiger Stadium for the better part of a decade, agrees with Gottesman. "I think they have a great line-up, but as has been proven many times in the American League, you can't win without a pitching staff. . . .I'm pretty skeptical at this point."

But Voelpel, an Eagle Scout and eternal optimist, still doesn't have it in him to give up yet. "They're a good young team, and they have a core of players that will be around for a long time. One of these years they're going to get some pitching. . . .I think they're going to be in the World Series within five years."

The tone of Voelpel's thoughts are fairly typical among the fans of Detroit, and poignantly express the eternal love affair between the team and its supporters, who regularly number well over 1.5 million a year.

This overwhelming support comes from memories of what the Tigers once were and from what is forever promised by the management to be "just around the corner." But just as importantly, the people of Detroit and the suburbs are excited about what the team is today.

Everyone remembers 1968, and most of over-40 Detroit remembers, at least vaguely, Hank Greenberg, Schoolboy Rowe and the class of '45. And everybody has heard Sparky Anderson's too-loud propaganda about the 90 wins in 1980 and the division title in '81. But the real action is now, as the Tigers finish out another long summer at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull.

Congressman Jim Blanchard (D-Mich.) is a real Detroiter. "It's a disappointing season, but they're a fun team to watch. I love them, they're big bats, big hitters, they swing away. . . .I'm a true believer."