Detroit — At a hot dog stand on a downtown street corner, just blocks from Comerica Park, Jeremy King reached into his wallet and pulled out two weathered ticket stubs.
The tickets are saved from two 1999 Detroit Tigers games against the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The text is barely legible now, seven years later, but King carries the stubs with him everywhere.
No one, he said, can understand just how excited he is that the Tigers are playing in the World Series — especially now that he was able to attend.
"You know how girls have life lists of things to do?" said King, a 1999 MSU alumnus who now lives south of Nashville in Spring Hill, Tenn. "The World Series was on my life list."
Downtown pulsed with people Saturday for Game 1 of the World Series. They lined the rooftop of Cheli's Chili Bar across the street from the ballpark, stood on ledges to peer into the stadium from outside the park's gates and poured into their seats hours before the first pitch was even thrown.
Some painted their faces to resemble tigers. Detroit police fastened fuzzy tiger tails to the backs of their motorcycles. At least two brave St. Louis faithfuls donned the Cardinals' signature red and white, which earned them prolonged glances and muttered comments from Detroit supporters.
It was easy to forget that this activity is atypical in a city where empty storefronts still linger downtown and the area is mostly vacant after business hours.
But on Saturday, when the lights burned late, the mob of navy and orange that coursed through the streets made it clear that the city's sports teams are the heart of Detroit.
"Even to the Lions, I'm faithful," said Lowell Winne Sr. of Fennville, who attended MSU from 1962?63. "This is great. This is the first time I've ever been to a World Series. I've been on cloud nine for two days."
Winne came to the game with his son, his grandson and his brother, Leslie Winne, of Atlanta. Leslie Winne, a 1975 MSU alumnus, had attended World Series games for the Atlanta Braves, but this was his first for the Tigers.
"I got distracted by the Braves, but I'm back now," Leslie Winne said. "It's wonderful, especially for a young team like this."
MSU students and alumni weren't hard to spot, despite the thousands of people downtown — their green clothing set them apart.
Tricia Tate, a 1997 MSU alumna, and three of her friends originally had tickets to the MSU football game against Northwestern and planned to drive to Evanston, Ill.
Those plans changed when they got hold of World Series tickets. The group had been in Detroit since 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
They watched their Spartans display the largest comeback in NCAA Division I-A football history while at Cheli's Chili Bar, then set up shop in the parking lot across from the main entrance of the ballpark — a stuffed tiger perched on top of a black Dodge Caliber, trunk propped open, a white MSU T-shirt draped over a chair to let passers-by identify their green-and-white affiliation.
Vern and Linda Barker, of Traverse City, drove to Detroit that morning, listening to the MSU football game on the radio. Vern Barker united his loyalties by wearing a green MSU sweatshirt and a navy baseball cap with the olde English "D."
He attended the 1968 World Series, also between Detroit and St. Louis. It's Linda Barker's first World Series.
"It just proves that any team can go from being one of the worst teams in baseball to one of the best," Vern Barker said.
A few hours before game time, a group of young men dragged a fabric cardinal down the street.
They had already hung it from a tiger statue outside Comerica Park, cheering as it swung back and forth.
History and political science junior Riley Markey walked in the rear of the group. He said downtown was livelier than it was when he visited in February for Super Bowl XL.
"I love it," said Markey, dressed in a green MSU T-shirt and wearing a Tigers baseball cap. "I've had this hat for, like, three years. I love the Tigers."
Raised in Sterling Heights, King, a 1999 MSU alumnus, was in elementary school during the Tigers' last World Series appearance in 1984. He was a season-ticket holder from 1999 until 2003, when he moved to Tennessee.
For King, seeing the city come together in support of the Tigers, especially after they spent years as one of baseball's most-losing teams, means that much more.
"It's truly a baseball town," he said. "It's always been a Tiger town. People talk Hockeytown, but it's a baseball town first."
And this World Series ticket won't be going in King's wallet the way the regular-season stubs did.
He's going to frame it.
