Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 17, 1984 I F in 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. , I I I I I All] I I' &I* i I I " U ll'i, I k" i i?. Lite Beer from Miller 14.99 MEN'S BUTTON FLY JEANS Soft, ready to wear, preshrunk jeans in, aJi men's waist sizes 28-38. Regularly 26.99. 19.99 DENIM JACKETS Select from regular and long styles of ® 100% cotton denim. Regularly 39.99 to 41.99. PRICES GOOD THRU SUNDAY, OCT. 21, 1984 VISA@ & MASTER CARD® $1O OFF I 3-o I I LI