It’s a Detroit Thing. “Opening Day”, April 3, 2026, was the seventh game of the 2026 MLB season, yet the Lodge Freeway was jammed on Good Friday at 11 in the morning like money was being given away downtown. Grand Circus Park was filled with fans by 9am. Parking started at $30 six blocks from the ballpark. Bars were full. Restaurants were getting full. The Tigers just got swept by the Diamondbacks and fans were behaving like they were World Series Champs.
Only in Detroit is the first home game of the season a day where people call in sick, take vacation and pay premium prices for standing room only tickets to see a team that had lost four of its first six games.
45,008 was the official attendance number for “Opening Day”. 73 degrees and no rain (best weather in 30 years).
The game lasted two hours and thirty-one glorious minutes. New Tiger pitcher Framber Valdez made good on his new multi-million-dollar contract with a win. 3 hits over six innings.
Baez, Dingler (422’ HR), and Greene drove in the 4 runs that won the game. The bullpen, Vest, Finnegan, and Holton held the St. Louis Cardinals scoreless.
Tiger baseball at its best. Fathers, sons, grandsons, babies, fans in crazy costumes, a shirt sleeve crowd in what is usually a cold stadium. Bottom line, the tradition continues from what started at Michigan and Trumbull to the not so new Comerica Park.
Brandon Inge delivered the first pitch to “his” catcher Justin Verlander. The moment that it was announced that Inge was throwing out the first pitch saw the crowd erupt and stand up, when the announcement that Justin Verlander was the catcher was pure magic. Detroit felt “at home”.
A few moments later rookie Kevin McGonigle ran onto the field as the leadoff batter for the day
McGonigle at 5’9” tall is a stick of dynamite and may prove to be a youthful star for the Tigers
