LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) – After months of confusion, changed plans and anticipation, the Detroit Tigers took the field at Tigertown for its 86th spring training season in the city of Lakeland.
The game ended in a 6-6 tie against the Philadelphia Phillies.
“Luckily baseball made the right choice and the players made the right choice and we’re all here. Otherwise, I don’t know what we’d have to look forward to in spring. Baseball is America,” said Frank Giardini.
Giardini is a Phillies fan who came to Florida hoping to see his team play in Clearwater.
He was able to squeeze in the opening day game in Lakeland against the Tigers before his flight early Saturday morning.
“I’m glad this game showed up on Friday or else I wouldn’t have catched any baseball this week,” he said.
Spring training games and regular season opening day were postponed as Major League Baseball owners and players battled over contract negotiations.
Players were locked out for several months. Late last week, the two sides made a deal and an abbreviated spring training season was announced.
Tigertown will host 10 home games.
For local restaurant owner Delicia “Dee” Ebare, it’s better than no games at all.
“It’s been a rollercoaster not knowing for sure what’s gonna happen and missing all of our ball people,” she said.
Her restaurant gets a 25-30 percent boost from visiting Detroit Tiger fans, including Sally and Dwight Brown.
“I didn’t think we were gonna get any ball games in and I was wondering if I would care about going to games when it ended but we’re excited,” Dwight Brown said.
They spent two hours in line Monday getting their tickets ready.
Michigan’s Greg Weatherbee and his wife chose Lakeland to retire for half the year because of Tigertown.
“Last year we came and we couldn’t get a game because of the virus and then this year I thought, great, now we’re not gonna get another game this year but we did,” Weatherbee said.
A typical spring training season generates $55M for the local economy and the city of Lakeland cashes in on parking fees.
For Lakeland Mayor Bill Mutz, every game in this truncated season is a win.
“Baseball is incredibly important to Lakeland. The economic impact here is very strong. Of course, this is our 86th year of our relationship with the Tigers, being their home spring training [city],” said the mayor.