Reply #9: I was a young bleacher-bum at Briggs Stadium.

[TahitiNut]

I kept box scores and the whole nine yards. When I was lucky, I could afford a seat in the upper deck along the third base line (better than the first base line, for me.) I followed Yost, Kaline, Cash, Maxwell, Freehan, Colavito, McAuliffe, Bertoia, Foytack, Boros, Kuehn, Fernandez, Horton, Aguirre, McLain, and company for years. Then, as soon as I get drafted ... and when I was trapped in Viet Nam In-Country Training in the boonies of Texas ... they go to the Series! (Bums!) They couldn't even do it when I was able to hop a plane, let alone be in town. Then, a couple of strikes and a new stadium (on the taxpayer dime and destroying two neighborhoods), I get jaundiced.

Living in smaller towns with AA and AAA farm teams was a Godsend. That's how baseball got fun again, for me. I like the game. Sitting in the sun. The sense of community. Multi-million dollar salaries, politics, sky-boxes and $5 hot dogs ruins it. Seats so narrow my thigh has imprints of my pocket change screws it up. Hot dogs at farm club ball parks are $0.50 to $1 ... and taste better.

Not a single player on the Tiger roster was even alive when I was a bleacher bum. Kids.