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Willie Horton (Photo by John Rice)
Tigers great Willie Horton, 74, who played for the team from 1963-74, offered very kind and affectionate words for club owner Mike Ilitch, who died in February at age 87.
"He’s more than a boss to me,” Horton said, George Sipple writes in the Detroit Free Press "“This whole month is going to be tough on me. I have a routine I used to do every year. I used to walk from Warren through the business section. In the community and around the park.”
Horton, who has been the team's executive advisor and special assistant since January 2002, said he would talk to ushers, other ballpark workers and members of the community and then tell Ilitch what he discovered.
“I’ve been doing that for 14 years I guess,” Horton tells the Freep.
“I had to talk myself into coming today,” Horton says of the home opener. “The boss was more than a boss to me. He was more of a father. I looked up to him. I learned so much from him.
