Watch CBS News

Terry Foster: I Will See You Downtown For Opening Day

By Terry Foster
@TerryFoster971

This is one of my favorite weeks of the year leading up to one of my favorite days of the year.

Happy Opening Day week!

I will see you in Comerica Park Friday as the Tigers open their home season with a three-game series against the New York Yankees. I will see you at Grand Circus Park where 97.1 The Ticket will host its annual block party.

I will see you in some of the bars and restaurants downtown as I indulge in a beer or two along with burgers, hotdogs and whatever else passes through my system. It is a great sports holiday and few cities do it better than Detroit, although St. Louis and Boston are right there.

I will see you in one of the gift shops as I buy my traditional opening day Tigers hat.

I will see you along the outfield wall watching part of the game. I will be all over the place.

We will party all the way from centerfield at Comerica Park to Nemo's outside of old Tiger Stadium.

How crazy does it get? I once ended up in Windsor with Canadian Tiger fans who wanted to show me that they love Detroit sports as much as we do.

But getting back through Canadian customs after midnight was not fun. That won't happen this year.

Comerica Park is filled with fans. However, there are two to three times more people jamming downtown as early as 9 in the morning. It is great people watching theater and you get to meet a bunch of new Tiger friends. It is sort of like St. Patrick's Day with a baseball game smack in the middle of it.

Many of us have our favorite sports holidays and I am in the fortunate position to enjoy most of them. Recently Mike Valenti, our producer Mike Sullivan and I enjoyed the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament at the D Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. It is a blast and is one of those bucket list items I encourage people to enjoy.

Casinos from The Strip to downtown are filled with sports betters dressed as Spartans, Cyclones and Orangemen betting on their favorite teams and hunches. It is great for Vegas because the hotels are packed and they make money off people betting their heart and not with common sense.

You can bet if the Chippewas of Central Michigan ever make the tournament again I am betting the spread for them.

I am not a big gambler but placed one bet, won it, and was happy the rest of the weekend.

Many view Super Bowl Sunday as a huge national sports holiday. I won't argue that but I am more inclined to get pizza and wings and hang with the family at home. I no longer seek big house parties and sports bars because I love listening to the game and watching the commercials.

I hope to stumble into you Friday around Comerica Park. I will be the guy having way too much fun wearing my brand new Tigers cap.

(Foster can be reached at Terry.Foster@cbsradio.com)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.