Detroit Tigers fans are ready for an “exciting” MLB playoff atmosphere

Lines formed around Comerica Park early Wednesday morning in anticipation of Detroit's biggest baseball game in the last decade.

And at 1 p.m., the gates finally opened to a sea of old English “D” hats and jerseys, ready for the Detroit Tigers’ first home playoff game since 2014: Game 3 of the ALDS against the Cleveland Guardians.

“It’s exciting,” season ticket holder Jim Graves, 61, told the Free Press. “We've been without playoff baseball here for many years, so it's nice that they've put together this winning streak to give the city something to be excited about. And now the excitement isn’t just felt by the Lions.”

Graves and his wife became full-time season ticket holders for the 2024 season and watched interest in the Tigers grow exponentially over the last two months as they began to click and made an improbable run in August and September to get into the playoffs MLB to sneak.

READ BEFORE THE MATCH: How Keider Montero went from the Tigers' playoff squad to becoming the starter for Game 3 of the ALDS

Like the rest of the Tigers fan base, Graves was just hoping for a strong finish to the season. He expects the atmosphere to improve after the sold-out regular season finals.

“Things have been going well for the last month and a half or so,” Graves said. “As good as it was all September and as good as it was when they beat the White Sox, I expect the atmosphere will be 10 times better today.”

That excitement extends to everyone who spent their summer working at Comerica Park. Beer salesman Darryl Gray, 35, was ready for a “beautiful” day at the stadium and believes in the Tigers' chances of keeping the run alive.

“I was here the whole season, the turnaround, everything,” Gray said. “I think they had a good chance of getting to the ship.”

Others return to the stadium after the run brought them back into their Tigers' die-hard fan base. Dave Reece, 74, didn't watch much of this season after his cable TV was canceled, but he followed the results and was intrigued again.

Reece, a fan since the 1960s, has attended Tigers' playoff games since the 1984 World Series and said he was ready for the “unexpected” to strike on Wednesday.

“A lot of chaos,” Reece told the Free Press. “A lot of exciting chaos. The fans will be great. Players will be fully charged. (They are) so young and exciting. I’m looking forward to everything.”

Reece wasn't wrong in his assessment of how the players felt in their first home playoff game. The Tigers' young core made no secret of their excitement about playing in front of a sellout crowd. The Tigers came to the stadium Wednesday morning eager to see the scene for themselves.

“An electric atmosphere,” said rookie Parker Meadows about his expectations. “I'll probably have goosebumps the whole game. I remember it happened when (Jackson) Jobe made his debut. The audience was sold out, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Riley Greene said he encountered much more traffic than normal on his way to Comerica and suspected he would be sharing the roads with the throngs of fans who arrived later.

“We’re all really excited to be home and we’re hearing all about it being a full house tonight, so we’re really excited to get started,” Greene said.

In four playoff games, the Tigers only had to deal with playing in front of opposing crowds. Manager AJ Hinch said the crowd behind them will be the new factor to contend with. And he realized that five hours before the first pitch, when he and the team arrived.

“The coolness of the air means it's not the middle of summer yet and from the first pitch this group of fans here in Detroit will be loud and on our side,” Hinch said before the game. “Our players are looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it because wearing the (old) English 'D', the white uniform, is something completely different – we're playing at home.”

“We have more than 40,000 fans screaming for us to do something positive. I mean, it’s October, can you get any better?”

The game is a moment the Tigers have been building toward for a decade since their last playoff run in 2014. And now the team is excited to share this moment with the fan base.

“The city deserves it,” Meadows said. “It's been a long time and they've supported us all year and we've been through adversity but the fans continue to show their best. That’s loyalty.”

“It’s exciting for me to finally see playoff baseball here again,” Graves said. “The city deserves it, the team deserves it. They played hard for a month and a half and they deserve it.”

Jared Ramsey is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press It covers the city's professional teams, the state's two flagship universities and more. Follow Jared on X @jared_ramsey22and email him at [email protected].

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