If there is one thing Mario Impemba remembers from when he was a student at MSU, it was getting together with friends to watch the 1984 Detroit Tigers sail through the playoffs and win the World Series.
He remembers the charge in the air and the excitement when former Spartan and Tiger great Kirk Gibson hit a three-run home run to clinch the game and the championship for the Tigers.
He remembers coming together with friends, decked out in Tigers garb, huddled around a TV and riding on every moment.
“One of the things that we did throughout the playoff run was get a bunch of friends, colleagues and classmates together and get in a dorm room, or we’d gather in a bar somewhere with our Tigers gear on and we’d celebrate the Tigers’ run,” Impemba said. “That was the best way to do it.”
Now, Impemba is the Tigers’ television broadcaster on FOX Sports Detroit, and this year, the Tigers are in the World Series for the second time in six years and take on the San Francisco Giants beginning tonight at 8 p.m.
The Giants might be the hottest team in baseball right now.
They’ve won six-straight elimination games and came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.
Impemba said this team has the same buzz as the team, and campus, from 1984.
“Baseball is such a big part of this city that it gives the town a chance to shine on the national stage,” he said.
Championship run
The Detroit Tigers had to rally to beat the Chicago White Sox in the division standings to make it into this year’s playoffs, but once they were in, they rolled as they beat the Oakland Athletics in five games and swept the New York Yankees to win the American League pennant.
Dan Dickerson, the Tigers’ radio announcer, said one of the reasons this team turned it around at the end of the season is the good mix of personalities in the clubhouse.
Dickerson also has ties to MSU.
He is married to L.A. Dickerson, a specialist in MSU’s School of Journalism.
He said the big names such as third baseman and Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera, and prize free agent signing and first baseman Prince Fielder are going to get hits, but this postseason has been about the unsung heroes, such as Johnny Peralta, Delmon Young and Don Kelly.
He also said the fans add to the thrill of the championship run.
“I met someone the other day who went with her dad,” Dickerson said. “He said at the end of the night: ‘This is crazy, I’m an 80-year-old man waving a rally towel.’ You don’t get that with many other sports. She was taking her dad to the game, (and) they were having a blast and a night to remember, and that’s what I love about baseball.”
In the outfield
Regarded as one of the best turfgrass programs in the country, MSU graduates are head groundskeepers for both teams in this year’s World Series.
Heather Nabozny, head groundskeeper for the Tigers, graduated in 1993, and Greg Elliott, head groundskeeper for the Giants, in 2002.
Crop and soil sciences professor David Gilstrap worked with both students during their time at MSU and said he has been dreaming of this ever since Elliott got the job with the Giants five years ago.
“This is the first time that the groundskeepers from each team came from the same university,” Gilstrap said. “It’s the only time in history that it could happen so far. We’re the only university that has more than one head groundskeeper in the big leagues.”
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Both have been to the World Series, but only Elliott has won, in 2010. Nabozny became the first woman to be a head groundskeeper when, in 1999, she was put in charge of the last season at the old Tiger Stadium.
Gilstrap said that even though their teams might be opponents, the groundskeeping teams remain friends.
“They’re a tight-knit club,” Gilstrap said. “They’re not in opposition to each other; they very much help each other.”
Economic impact
In East Lansing, several businesses are preparing for more people to watch the game at their establishments.
Aaron Weiner, general manager at Buffalo Wild Wings, 360 Albert Ave., said the restaurant is preparing with more staff and more product, but it’s not really comparable to a Saturday when MSU has a home game.
“A football Saturday is an all-day event with a hundred thousand extra people coming to town, so it’s quite different than a baseball game that’s on TV,” Weiner said. “We expect to be full. The Tigers being in the World Series doesn’t cause us to change our business much.”
More than helping economically, Impemba said the social impact of the team making the World Series helps Detroit’s image and gives it a chance to shine on the national stage.
“It’ll give people an opportunity to feel good about their city,” he said. “That’s what sports (are).”
Uniting generations
Although he is a fairly new fan, kinesiology senior Geoff Kirklin is excited to see the Tigers get back to the championship, and is optimistic about the outcome.
“I wasn’t really a huge baseball fan until right before the first time they went, and it was just tough to see them lose back in 2006,” Kirklin said. “They’ve been kind of disappointing the last couple years and have slowly built back up to be a better team.”
MSU head baseball coach Jake Boss Jr. said Detroit’s season is exciting for the region.
“I think any time that you have a local team that is playing for the world championship, it’s obviously something that doesn’t happen every day,” Boss said. “To be one of the two teams left on a world stage is something that is pretty special.”
Dickerson said there was a period in the Tigers’ history where many younger students might have lost interest, because of years of mediocrity, but this year, that enthusiasm seems to be coming back.
“I think this age group, energized like they are by baseball, (is) really cool and I love to see it,” he said. “For a long time, you wondered if you lost a generation, a 10-20 year gap, because (the Tigers) weren’t very good for so long. Starting in 2006, you could tell they still had that loyal following among college-aged students.”
A memorable series
The last time the Tigers won the pennant was in 2006 on a dramatic home run in game four of the American League Championship Series by then-outfielder Magglio Ordóñez before falling to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series in five games.
Before that, the last championship the team won was in 1984, as so many people still remember.
If there was one message that Boss, Impemba and Dickerson had for MSU students along with fans and members of the community, it’s for them to take in the moment, because there is no telling when the Tigers will be back to the World Series.
“They were criticized for underperforming, and now they’re performing at the highest level possible,” Dickerson said. “Appreciate it and enjoy it, and I think Tiger fans really have done that this postseason; they’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”
