Tigers fans show off pent-up playoff fever at Comerica Park Watch Party

Detroit — A decade of pent-up playoff passion was on display Tuesday as dozens of Detroit Tigers fans lined up and then filled a section of Comerica Park where they began watching the Tigers in a first-round game on a big screen in the outfield, as they took on the Houston Astros in the wild card game.

Fans filled Witherell Street behind the right stand before the gates opened at 1:30 p.m. and the Houston game began at 2:32 p.m. The last time the Tigers were in the playoffs was in 2014, but this year's team is not expected to make the playoffs until they finish the season with a record of 29-13 and make the final playoff appearance. Secure a spot in the American League.

Heather Meade of Madison Heights and her family were first in line, arriving at 11 a.m., an hour and a half before the gates opened.

“We’re big fans,” Meade said. “I have a whole collection of jerseys from Saturday’s games that will be given away.”

For the viewing party, fans were limited to the right-hand stands. When the gates opened at 1:30 p.m., Meade and her family received new T-shirts to add to their collection. The first 1,000 fans received free orange T-shirts that read “Tigers in the Wild.”

Tickets are $5 for fans to watch the game on Comerica Park's 15,000-square-foot video board, which was installed in addition to the concourse televisions before this season.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Detroit Tigers Foundation, which the Tigers say has awarded millions of dollars in grants, tickets and college scholarships throughout Michigan, northern Ohio and southern Ontario, Canada, since its founding in 2005.

Sureena Koppolu said she had no way to drive to Comerica Park from her home in Farmington Hills, so she paid for it.

“I took an Uber down here,” Koppolua said. “I wouldn’t miss that. I love the Tigers.”

For Ann Coymer of Flint, visiting the ballpark brought back happy family memories.

“It’s a tradition – I always brought my mom and my aunt here,” Coymer said. “Before that, my dad used to go to Tiger Stadium.

Tuesday's watch party continued a more than century-old tradition of Tigers fans watching games from afar. When the Tigers won American League pennants from 1907 to 1909, The Detroit News was among many Detroit businesses that displayed scoreboards outside their facilities. In those days without radio and television, thousands of people would often crowd around the scoreboards, waiting for operators to announce the latest results over the telegraph wire.

During the 1984 World Series, Games 4 and 5 at Tiger Stadium were broadcast on a 20-by-30-foot television screen in Hart Plaza.

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