DETROIT – Jack Lane, a Traverse City real estate agent and radio host, will attend his 50th Detroit Tigers Opening Day tomorrow. The Tigers are scheduled to face the St. Louis Cardinals at Comerica Park.
Lane has been a fixture at Tigers openers since he was a teenager, missing only a period of games following the 1994 Major League Baseball strike. His tradition represents a lifelong passion for the sport that began in the era of transistor radios and typewritten box scores.
Lane’s first game took place in 1972 at the old Tiger Stadium, a trip he made with a childhood friend. From 1972 through 1994, Lane did not miss a single home opener. However, the streak ended following the cancellation of the 1994 postseason and the subsequent strike that delayed the start of the following season. Lane quit going to games altogether during that time, though he eventually returned to the ballpark when Comerica Park opened.
Lane said his connection to the game dates back to his childhood, long before he began attending openers. “When I could turn the ballgame on my little transistor radio under my pillow and listen without any other influence… I used to sit at the typewriter and type up box scores after the game to pass around the neighborhood,” Lane said. “I mean, I’ve been smitten with baseball for a long, long time.”
Lane indicated he has no plans to stop his annual tradition of visiting the city for the first home game of the year. “Who knows how long. Maybe I’ll make it to 75 years of Opening Day,” Lane said.