Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 17, 1984
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Foul fans? Media muffs coverage
ET'S GET something straight right who claim to be sports journalists, lash Michigan's football victory over Ohio because of the Tigers. Tiger Stadium is
J now - the Spring, Summer and into the city and its populace. All over State, one unfortunate coed suffered a a great place to take in a ball game
all of 1984 was the most glorious time the country, columnists sent to cover broken neck in the on-field melee. (although Wrigley Field it is not).
the history of the City of Detroit. the glamor and excitement of the Fall And remember all those poor, drunk Detroit's fans are good baseball fans,
Thanks to the Detroit Tigers, who Classic, file stories that depict a city of fans who had bloody, battered faces af- certainly no worse than anywhere else,
fb al t his slobs and degenerates. ter battling with Ann Arbor's finest? San Diego included.
NU
91
THE SPORTING VIEWS
.... ......
ne
Series victory . ..
dominated the game o ase
season like no other franchise, the
metropolitan and suburban areas of the
Our nation's sportswriters ask them-
selves and their loyal readers: "What
kind of fans would burn a police car or
trash a city bus or beat up a
policeman?" They answer their
questions by making a mockery of
Detroit's sports fans. Detroiter's are
labeled as unfit to support a world
champion. Detroiter's are disgraceful,
they are representative of everything
Fine, fans are jerks, cities are not.
The Tigers were awesome in '84.
They went 35-5 to open the season and
won a total of 104 regular season
games. Then they destroyed the Kansas
City Royals in the play-offs and romped
past the San Diego Padres in the Series.
And what will the people outside of
Detroit remember? - the stories of
violence and drunken mobs, roaming
ByDougeB. Lec
Sparkv
... one of a kind
city came alive.
Last Sunday night was the
culmination, 51,901 thrilled-out-of-their
pants fans witnessed the 8-4 victory that
gave the Tigers the 81st World Series
championship.
So what do the overwhelming
majority of our nation's sportswriters
write about? They write about the
pathetic aftermath - the party, the
celebration; the hooliganism, the
rowdiness, the destruction, the violence
and the ugliness.
The bombastic (great word) idiots.
sports fans should not be like.
Why do our nation's sportswriters in-
sist on taking such a common occuran-
ce and attempt to make an entire city
look bad?
Fans all over our fair land are jerks
- New York City, Boston, Chicago,
Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Columbus
and especially Champaign. Whether
it's sad or not, fans running out of con-
trol at the conclusion of the World
Series are common place.
Were the fans that much worse last
Sunday night when 34 Detroiter's were
arrested and one man shot to death?
Well, refresh your memory. Last
year during the celebration following
the streets looking to destroy.
How bad was the riot last Sunday? It
took the massive total of 30 sanitation
workers to work overtime to have the
mess cleaned up by dawn. Yes, I'm
being sarcastic.
If you really want someone to blame,
blame the city of Detroit itself, blame
Mayor Coleman Young. Crowd control
is a technique requiring efficiency.
More organized police officers on the
scene could have prevented what tran-
spired. You can't label a city as unwor-
thy because a bunch of joyous fans get a
little carried away.
Enough said about such a lame issue.
Detroit blossomed into a beautiful place
One man is going unnoticed who
should be the center of attention -
Tiger manager, Sparky Anderson.
Sparky is the only manager in the
history of America's pastime to
manage World Series champions in
both leagues.
Tiger fans and Detroit's consistently
inaccurate sports media have looked
upon Anderson as a dummy since he
arrived in 1979 after being dumped by
the Cincinnati Reds.
For the record, it was Anderson and
definitely not general manager Jim
Campbell, who built the current Tiger
team into the force that it now is.
Sparky should be hailed as a hero, if
for no other reason that he promised a
championship team when he arrived in
'79 and the man delivered. Trammell,
Whitaker, Gibson, Parrish, Morris,
Petry, Hernandez, Lopez and Wilcox
are products of Sparky Anderson. This
team was Anderson's team. He called
all the shots and they all panned out.
Sparky Anderson is a credit to the
city of Detroit.
Hail to the victors.
Sand a million Sellecks
By PHIL NUSSEL
The hoopla and hysteria of a Tiger World championship will continue for
months to come. Yea, right, everyone knows that. Winning the World Series
was the greatest thing to happen to Detroit since 1968. Yea, right, we know.
that. Tiger fans are the best fans in the world. This may be so, considering
their loyalty over several slim seasons.
But, being a loyal fan for so many years, there is one thing about Tiger
fans, and I guess about most sports fans, that really bothers me - why do
these people only wear their teams' hats during a winning season? Unless a
fan always wears one of these hats through thick and thin, he or she should
not don one of them just because the team is winning. This is a sure sign of a
fair-weather fan.
I have discussed this with some long-time Tiger loyalists and they all
agree that wearing a Tiger Hat is a sure giveaway of a fair weather fan.
A true fan will not wear one of these hats unless he has worn one all the
time.
Tom Selleck is one example. Starring in the hit television series "Magnum'
P.I.," Selleck wore his Tiger hat even when the team suffered from_
mediocrity. As far as I'm concerned, Selleck can wear his hat 24 hours a day.
He is a true, loyal fan.
Now with the Tigers' popularity and
Selleck's good looks, every guy with a dark
mustache wears sunglasses, a Hawaiian
shirt, and a Tiger hat. They all want to be
cool. Bunk, they're fair weather fans.
The Tiger hat syndrome has become an
epidemic, especially now that the team
has proven themselves invincible. At
Game Four of the World Series, I waited in
line for a hot dog and counted the number
of people wearing hats that walked by. In a
little over two minutes, I counted 50 people
wearing hats. I wonder if these loyal fans
were wearing these hats a few years ago?
It would be unfair to say these things just
about Tiger fans. Every winning team- at-
tracts thousands of fair weather fans.
People simply like to be identified with a
winner. As I said earlier, Detroit fans Selleck
probably have more loyalty than most cit-
ies. They have proven that by supporting so many losers over the years.
To be sure, though, Detroit still has many fair weather fans. I really
believe that if the Tigers take a dive into tle cellar over the next few years,
those Tiger hats will all find their way to the back closet hat racks. Look at
those fantastic Milwaukee Brewer fans, both of them. All those Brewer hats
they wore so proudly in 1982 are collecting dust.
Hat trends like this can even fluctuate over a matter of days. Remember
all those Chicago Cubs hats people were wearing two weeks ago?
The point is, Tiger hat wearers, your hats better stay on. You have now
committed yourself to the Tigers and ten years from now when they are bat-
tling Cleveland for last place, those hats still should be there.
Someday'when everybody is talking about how Doug Baker is the only
Tiger who can hit, I hope you are still wearing your hats.
I do not own a Tiger hat. Nor do I own a single Tiger souvenir. Most true
Tiger fans I know don't own any of this stuff either. The true fan only needs
to show his ticket stubs, his game programs, or his Tiger baseball cards
from glorious seasons like 1977, to prove their loyalty.
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