As a rookie old guy who has spent most of his life in southern Michigan, I can tell you winter isn’t what it used to be. We used to dig tunnels across our yards, complete with ice caves suitable for reenacting various scenes from the Empire Strikes Back, and that didn’t even compare with the classic blizzard of ‘78.
Every once in a while though, we still get a throwback Michigan winter as we somewhat did this year. It was snowy, it was cold, and it went on a long while. It also won’t quite quit. We’re well into April and temperatures for Monday night’s matchup with the New York Yankees were tracking toward freezing temps at game time. The same holds true for Tuesday. As a result, the Tigers-Yankees series in Comerica Park has had game times adjusted to afternoon starts to try and complete them before it gets colder as the sun goes down.
As a result, instead of a 6:40 p.m. ET start time on Monday, first pitch is rescheduled to 3:10 p.m. ET. On Tuesday and Wednesday, first pitch will be moved to 1:10 p.m. ET.
I’m not sure it’s actually going to help that much, however. Expect game time temperatures in the low-to-mid 30’s if you’re going to be in attendance. As they say, there’s no bad weather, only the wrong clothing choices. We like to think of ourselves as a hardy folk, not like those soft southerners—inserts older guy lecture about how you have to understand that driving on snow and ice is like operating your fishing boat—so fans will have to show out anyway.
The Detroit Tigers are out to a 5-4 start and fresh off a very satisfying sweep of the Chicago White Sox. Spencer Torkelson’s walkoff double to win on Sunday put us right back in the Gritty Tigs mindset from last summer. That style of baseball is going to be required to overcome some tough hitting and pitching conditions.
Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, and Jack Flaherty are all set to start for the Tigers against the Yankees, so the pitching matchups are overall slightly in their favor with Mize pitching this well. Let’s hope it plays out that way.
Shout out to the schedulers for giving the Tigers a warm weather start and pushing the home opener back into April when potentially the temperatures would be nice and mild. Michigan mocks your best laid plans.
