Opening Day for the Detroit Tigers has become a sacred day in our house. Jordan introduced me to this special Detroit occasion 12 years ago and it has become one of our favorite traditions of the year.
Before you could browse and purchase tickets online, you had to actually go to the store or ticket window to pick your game and seats (do you remember?). We hadn’t even been dating very long at the time, yet I agreed to wait in line overnight outside Hockeytown Authentics in Troy, in the middle of winter. It’s amazing what you’ll do to impress someone…
These were the good ole days though, honestly. I don’t think I have any pictures to capture this moment (shocking, I know), but I remember it vividly. Jordan’s brother, Jason, joined us the second year and we had so much fun just hanging out and talking all. night. long. My parents dropped by in the middle of the night with pizza and hot chocolate and they were heroes. Tickets went on sale at 10am, so the shop workers let us in around 9:30am and got everything up and running. We always got our tickets and couldn’t wait for the day to arrive.
It wasn’t until we were married (4 years later) and living on the west side of the state, when we realized how much this tradition meant to us. Opening Day is always on a work day, so we had to decide if it was worth taking an extra day or two off to travel back “home” and attend. Without question it was!
Purchasing tickets became more readily available in an online format within a few years from the waiting-in-line-overnight-days, but it didn’t necessarily get easier. We would set up shop early in our family room on the day tickets were released, and have all iPads, laptops, and phones ready when the clock struck 10am and let us in from the virtual waiting room. It never failed, no matter how prepared we were, there would be some hiccup: tickets didn’t move to the cart, passwords didn’t work, old address, incorrect credit card on file. It is always so stressful, but the adrenaline of it is always, always worth it.
We’ve experienced rain, snow, sleet, and even the occasional sunshine on this day. We’ve gone downtown early and even stayed the night before or after the game to extend the experience. We’ve gone down and celebrated with family, friends, and occasionally, alone. It never seems to matter because this is our day.
Once we had Summer, we found ourselves evaluating the day again. Every scenario led us back to needing to go. Luckily, my mom (gamma), is always on Spring Break, and loves any reason to spend the day with Summer, so she has become our built-in babysitter for Opening Day. We take our family picture in our Tigers gear and head downtown like two crazy kids who have looked forward to this day since the last April in the D (which in some years is held in March). We have already decided that this day will be shared with Summer as well, but not any time soon.
This year was different, unfortunately. Due to the Coronavirus and our state-issued Stay Home, Stay Safe order, Opening Day was cancelled and postponed until further notice. To be honest, today was the first day of quarantine that we really felt the sadness. I think this was mostly because it truly felt like we were missing out – even though we weren’t missing anything at all. To make the best of it, we all put on our Tigers gear, put the replay of last year’s game on TV, and made a lunch consisting of chicken nuggets and French fries since that’s what we always eat at the ballpark. Summer had fun and we certainly avoided telling her where she was supposed to be today. It was a bummer, but we know this unofficial Opening Day will be an unforgettable one in its own right.
It gives us hope that we will still be able to attend this year and might even luck out with weather nicer than ever before. Until then, we’ll live in our baseball memories. Go Tigers!
The Rupkey Roost 