Rick's Blog: #TigerFest

Changes in the CoPa Squad

I had never been to #TigerFest before. I had visited the Tigers caravan in the past — in Traverse City, Mt. Pleasant, etc., but had never gone to Comerica for the big festival. Chris Brown asked me if I wanted to go this year … and I said, "Yes."

Joe Nathan will be a shut down closer. Finally.

I didn't know what to expect. Lori decided that she would let Courtney use her ticket, so we headed to the park Saturday morning. The first part of the walk was nice, but once we got a block or two from the park it started to blizzard. You could barely see anything. At least some of the event would be in doors and behind the scenes.

Brown and I checking out a pitcher named Verlander. He's had a pretty good run the past eight years.

Some of the highlights included visiting the Champions Club, seeing the administrative offices, and visiting the clubhouse. Not one to like to wait in lines, we decided we would try to position ourselves so we could meet the players and coaches during their transitions from place to place. That actually worked really well.

We also found out that the Tigers on Twitter was having a contest. If you were one of the first five people to a certain spot, you could spend time in the Tigers Social Media Clubhouse. Now, give me a bit of a competition and I say we have a bargain.

So Close

We just missed the Social Media Clubhouse at one point. We found the backdoor to the Customer Relations room but didn't know if we could use it. I asked an employee and she said it wasn't available. We went running away — then she yelled, "Hey, it's propped. You can use it." We ran back and went through the secret door. And we were too late. If we had just done it in the first place, we'd have won. I was bummed because I like to win.

Finally, a Victory

Later, they posted that there was one more chance. We went running to make it to the carousal. I mean running. If this had been in my school, I would have yelled at myself to slow down. But neither of the ushers we ran by stopped us. And we made it. Court, Chris, Kendra and I made it. We were in. Or so we thought.

The "Dude," as we'll call him, picked Court, me, and Kendra — but Kendra didn't have a Twitter so she was unable to go. Chris was the logical pick. But, the Dude picked someone else. A guy who looked like a Joel Zumaya wanna be.

So, Court and I headed to the clubhouse. We got to hang out with Austin Jackson, Torii Hunter, Rick Porcello, and Victor Martinez. We even talked Victor into having some fun. A photo of Martinez and Courtney ended up as the main pic on an article written by Lynn Henning.

We were in the room for quite a while. We took part in a few Skype calls with Hunter and some of the other players. Some of the guys played ping pong or video games. They posed for pictures and were willing to BS with everyone. All of the players are saying the right things about the upcoming season. They were all approachable and fun to be around. They seem excited for the upcoming season.