HAVE I WATCHED ENOUGH SPORTS?

I remember attending my first Detroit Tiger game in the early 1950's. In the mid 1950's I went to my first Detroit Lions game. Both the Tigers and the Lions played at Briggs Stadium at the time. The name was changed to Tiger Stadium in the early 1960's. Bobby Layne a very popular player in the 1950's was the Lion's quarterback. Most home games were not shown on local T.V. in those days. The theory was if you showed the game on television people would not buy tickets and go to the stadium to see a game. That idea remained in place for many years.

The first World Series that the Tigers played in during my life was in 1968. The games were still played in the afternoon. Many men took the afternoon off to attend the games. Take a look at pictures of the fans at the games and you will see most men wearing short sleeve white shirts and ties. The Tigers won the series.

The first Super Bowl was played in 1967. The Detroit Lions have never played in the Super Bowl. They won the N.F.L. championship in 1957. That was the pre-Super Bowl era. During the late 1950's and throughout the 1960's I would go to afternoon Detroit Tiger games by bus with a friend. In the mid 1960's I began buying a season ticket to the Detroit Lions games with a friend. Six games played at home at seven dollars per game. I was a season ticket holder for forty-two dollars a year. {about $420.00 a year in today's dollars.} Bleacher seat tickets for Tiger games were seventy-five cents. I believe I have seen every Super Bowl game on television since 1967. When we were married and had our own home, we had our share of Super Bowl parties.

I was never much of a hockey fan. Watched and attended very few games!

I liked the Detroit Pistons. In the 1950's a friend in elementary school whose father was a sportswriter for the Detroit Free Press took me to a Detroit Pistons game. This was still at the long-gone Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Pistons later moved to the new Cobo Hall downtown. I saw a few games at that stadium.

Bill Davidson a very successful Detroit businessman bought the Detroit Pistons. and moved them to the new Pontiac Silver Dome. The lions had also moved to the Silver Dome. The Pistons became a better team and more popular as time went on. Mr. Davidson went on to build The Palace of Auburn Hills a great new facility and new home of the Pistons. They would win back-to -back championships in 1989 and 1990. The head coach was Chuck Daly during that era. They won another championship under head coach Larry Brown in the early 2000's. I attended many of the Piston games during that period and watched many games on television. Mr. Davidson passed away in 2009. His family chose to sell the team and the Palace. The new owners chose to move the team downtown. They demolished the Palace although it was one of the greatest venues in the world. They thought better use could be made of the land. I do not have much interest in the Piston's anymore.

The Detroit Tigers just finished the season. I probably watched all or part of every game on television this year. They got off to a very good start this year. They were in first place by a wide margin going into the all-star break. Everyone thought reaching the playoffs was guaranteed and playing in the world series was very possible. The team got off to a slow start after the all-star game, but most fans thought that it was temporary. It was not. The second half of the year was tough. The lead they held kept slipping away. With days left in the regular season they found themselves tied for first place. In the end they managed to make it to a wild card spot. They had to win two out of three games. They managed to do it. Now they were in A.L.D.S. They next step was to win three out of five games to move on. The series was tied two games each. The last game was played in Seattle last Friday night. It would be a late start because of the time difference. The pitching was excellent. The hitting was not. The game went into extra innings. They played fifteen innings. The game ended around mid-night It took around five hours to play. The Tigers lost. I watched every inning of that game. It was agonizing and a disappointment.

I tried to watch the Detroit Lions play on Sunday Night Football. The Lions seem to have a good team, but they lost the game. I suddenly felt a little weary of watching sports. By the way I think they have a very good coach, but I also got weary of him appearing in several of the many commercials on Sunday night.

Maybe I have watched enough sports for a while!

WRITTEN BY

RON TURETT