Terror in the City of Champions by Tom Stanton

Author:Tom Stanton [Stanton, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2016-11-22T05:00:00+00:00

Detroit fans had not grown complacent. They remained exuberant. The winning of the league title brought 100,000 fans downtown on September 21. They crushed onto Woodward Avenue, halting traffic in front of the Hudson’s Department Store. Patriotic bunting lined the street. Fifteen times, once every minute leading up to noon, a celebratory explosion echoed through the downtown area, reverberating off the brick buildings. A deafening cheer rose from the streets when Mickey Cochrane appeared with his darling five-year-old daughter Joan, bow in hair, on a balcony above the gathered masses. Baseball Commissioner Landis and Tigers broadcaster Ty Tyson joined the Cochranes on the platform as little Joan pushed a button, symbolically releasing a sixty by ninety foot banner. It unfurled down the building’s exterior. It featured a colossal illustration of a tiger and the words “Champions—Detroit Is Proud of You.” The crowd cheered. Perhaps caught in the moment, Cochrane discarded caution and proclaimed that the Tigers would win the World Series. The fans responded deliriously.

In the evening after they had officially secured the pennant, Cochrane rose before a thousand men at a banquet honoring Tigers owners Frank Navin and Walter O. Briggs. Business leaders dominated the audience, everyone from the head of Chrysler to the chair of the board of commerce. “These Tigers are not my champions,” said Cochrane, downplaying his own contribution. Looking at Navin—whom the papers had taken to calling “Uncle Frank”—and then Briggs, Cochrane credited them for making back-to-back pennants possible. “These two men,” he said, “gave me the greatest break I ever had in my life, and I am glad to have the opportunity to thank them publicly for it.”

They were heartfelt words, the kind usually said at eulogies. Navin even managed a slight, cherubic smile.

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