My name is Skip.
I was born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in one its suburbs. When you are born here, you are born a Detroit Tiger’s fan. At least I was. Everything was about the Detroit Tigers from the moment I could comprehend the world around me.
Up until the early 1970′s, my grandparents lived a few blocks away from Tiger Stadium, on Perry Street. (The spot where their house once stood is now part of the Motor City Casino parking garage.) As a child, I would play around the stadium, and of course I went to my share of baseball games.
My grandfather, I called him Poppy, owned a parking lot next to his house where he would park cars for people attending Detroit Tiger’s baseball games. He was as big a Detroit Tiger’s fan as anyone I knew. I helped him often. I watched him as he talked to baseball fans while maintaining a keen eye on the cars. He wouldn’t go indoors until the last car pulled out of his lot.
Poppy would sit outdoors and listen to the baseball games on a small radio that he would set upon the sidewalk next to him.
He loved the Detroit Tigers.
My father did, too. Dad never missed a game. Baseball games and the Tigers have always been around me.
Without a doubt, Detroit Tiger’s baseball is in my blood.
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Baseball is a game of statistics. The game lives and thrives on them. Everyday statistics are used to provide a glimpse of a players performance, and ultimately their worth. Without a doubt, they are important to this game.
I enjoy reading articles and blogs that employ statistics to emphasize a point, or to predict the outcome of a particular series.
Although I will employ statistics in my posts, please don’t expect them to play a major role in what I have to say.
Like statistics, emotions are a part of the game of baseball.
It is impossible to strip away the thrill we experience when our team wins a close game. Or, the anger we feel toward a manager when a pitcher has been left in a game for one batter too many.
We revel in the feel-good stories of baseball, like when our team comes from a seven run deficit to win a game in extra innings. Also, we need to vent our frustration when a player botches a play that turns the tide in an important game.
Baseball is a game of statistics and predictions. It is a game of joy and pain. In baseball, you will find inspiration, and sometimes sadness, too.
What I will give you in these posts will be all of the above. You will get updated information about the Detroit Tigers, and stories about the team, and players, too.
I am not going to be excessively analytical, nor only mildly informative. I am going to reach for something in between, and in between your reading of other blogs and newspaper articles, I hope you find something here that you will like.
HARRY KATOPODIS
Harry Katopodis was an award-winning editor and webmaster for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). He won 41 journalism awards in 12 years. Katopodis received the highest award in the IAM on September 22, 2004, The Robert J. Kalaski Award for Distinguished and Effective Journalism.
In addition to his writing, Katopodis worked several years on radio and cable TV producing and co-hosting shows with Detroit Tigers Milt Wilcox, Dave Lapoint and Mike Henneman.
He is a high school journalism/newspaper teacher and a stringer reporter for The Oakland Press. He also does an education blog for The Oakland Press.
Harry’s knowledge and experience with baseball and the players promise to provide depth to DeeTown Tigers.
