A Dying Fan From Montreal Tells Of His Love For The Tigers

Dear Mr. Dombrowski:

Thank you very much for arranging for me to get an autographed baseball from Justin Verlander. My friend Michael Farber had asked you to arrange for it. Such gestures are so kind. They’ve been happening quite a lot for me in recent months.

I’m a kid (well, 57 years old) from Windsor, across the river from Detroit. It’s amazing how much of an influence that city had on my upbringing. Detroit was Hudson’s at Christmas, to see Santa Claus; Woodward Ave.; the Ambassador Bridge and the Windsor/Detroit Tunnel; Gordie Howe and the Production Line at the Olympia; the Lions at Tiger Stadium.

But when I turned 6 years old, Detroit, for me, became the Tigers and Tiger Stadium.