No, actually, today's Comerica highlight was the pre-game ceremony honoring Magglio Ordonez, who had announced his retirement from baseball.
In 2007, Magglio won the batting title with a .363 average, second in Tiger history to only Chas Gehringer's .371 in 1937.
On October 14, 2006 -- a postcard-perfect Indian Summer Saturday afternoon in Detroit -- his walkoff homer off Oakland's Huston Street put the Tigers in the World Series.
In and around those, every Tiger fan has a handful of Magglio Moments.
Mine is the entire second half of 2009. Maggs was hitting .260 at the All-Star break, and there was talk / fear of benching him to keep him from recording enough plate appearances to earn at $18 million option for 2010. But he hit .375 the rest of the way to finish at .310 and silence the naysayers who felt he was through.
I wrote, on another blog, that over the break he had gone to Florida and tracked down the legendary Fountain of Youth, and returned with enough precious fluid to get him through 2009 and into 2010, and for as long as he wanted to play.
June 26, 2010: he was hitting .303, still getting it done at age 37. Waved around third during another Tiger lost cause, injured ankle, out for the season. Right then, I sensed his career was over.
He came back for 2011 but wasn't the same, hitting only .255. That winter, he wasn't offered a contract for 2012.
He had a good run, though. Hit .307 in eight years with the White Sox, .312 in seven years with the Tigers. In 2016 he'll be eligible for the Hall of Fame, not a first-year guy but one who should get enough votes to stay on the writers' ballot for the full fifteen years.
Isn't that right, Maggie-o?
My queen also liked the hairdo.
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