Confession: I'm the Reason the Tigers Haven't Won!

Well, it’s getting to be that time of year again!  The baseballs are almost ripe for picking.  They’ve been growing in Florida for almost six weeks now, and they’ll be ready for picking with the nice BALMY WEATHER on April 5th, here in Detroit.  (Did you hear that, Mother Nature?  “Balmy”, please.)

Opening Day Baseball is almost here!  Yes, the “turtle’s voice” is about to be heard (I still miss Ernie Harwell) and baseball is about to begin again.  And with that beginning, I have a confession to make:

It’s all my fault that the Tigers have not won a World Series since 1984.

Yes, I believe I am to blame.  Let me explain...

Up until last year I had a tradition of going to the Tigers’ Opening Day game since I was a kid back in 1978.  I was the one who started the first “Go!  Bird!  Go!” chant that year in the lower deck bleachers.  Thirty-Four Opening Days.

Religiously, I would attend.  My employers just started assuming that I wouldn’t be at work that day.  When I wasn’t allowed to take the day off one year, some of my friends actually thought that was the reason I quit a few months later.  (That was back at ED's Computer Company and their boot-camp days, that are hopefully looong gone.)  That particular year, I had to limit myself to an extended lunch and saw only two innings.

Hmm, the more I think about it, yeah maybe that was the reason to quit, after all!

Anyway, 34 Opening Days.  Missing only one year, otherwise it would’ve been a consecutive streak.  That one year?  Wanna guess?  Yep, 1984.  The year the Tigers won it all.  I could truly say that any year I missed an Opening Day in the last 35 years, the Tigers have won the World Series.

Obviously it's been me.  If I go to Opening Day, we lose in October.  For many years that was weighing on me.  I would cheer my team until the bitter end.  But every season that we didn’t win, I’d look back to that April, and then toward to the next, with trepidation.

So, last year, I took a gamble and did NOT get tickets.  For one thing, the way they do it now, it’s virtually impossible to get them when they go on sale on-line, even if you log into their “virtual waiting room” a half hour early!  Stupid computers.  Also, I’m not willing to give up a full pay-check to afford scalper prices!

Opening Day 2012 arrived and I simply met a friend near the park and walked around to soak up the atmosphere.  I was outside the fence when the game started, I looked away and didn’t see Justin Verlander’s first pitch.  That would be enough, right?  Surely we had it locked up now.  Order the champagne!  Call the Parade Company!  So, I peeked through the fence and saw some of the action from the first inning.  I think that was the deal-breaker.  I screwed up.

What ended up happening?  We went to the World Series, but lost to the Giants. 

Staying outside the park on Opening Day got us to the Fall Classic, but that peek inside caused the Giant’s sweep.  There is no other explanation.  Superstition?  I don't think so.  I'm sure Jim Leyland will back me up on this one.

Yes, I’m afraid I have to stay away this year.  I’ll walk around a little bit, but once it comes close to game time, I’ll bail and head back to work. 

When we win it all this year, I don’t expect the Tigers to vote me a World Series share of the year-end bonus or anything, I understand that.  But a World Series ring would be nice, size 10 please.  Thank you.

GO TIGERS!!!

      -- Tim Reinman