“The Final Season”, “The Last Season”… Details, schmetails… The sentiment is still the same.

I read The Final Season right around the time Jeff did. I thought I was the only one who read books like that at seemingly inappropriate times. Inappropriate in the sense that I had already said my tearful goodbyes.

I found the book to be pretty sappy, but I still loved it. I don’t know if I only liked it because I am a huge fan of the old Stadium and of the Tigers in general. I’m not sure how I’d respond to a similar book about, say, Forbes Field or, god help me, old Comiskey Park. I’d like to think that the experience of saying goodbye to a place like that is universal, but I’m sure my personal connection with the team made the book a heck of a lot sweeter. A nice read. I’m not ashamed to say that I wept. That last game was rough.

The phrase was overused at the time of Tiger Stadium’s closing, but, let’s face it, under the right circumstances, there *is* crying in baseball.

Man, the sight of The Bird (who pitched in the first big-league game I ever attended in one of his many comeback attempts in 1980) coming out there to the mound and scooping up dirt with a spoon, putting it in a little baggie and stuffing it in his back pocket… I was a goner after that.