[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 31, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S2878]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    1998 DETROIT TIGERS OPENING DAY

   Mr. ABRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise today to send my best 
wishes to the Detroit Tigers for a successful 1998 season. This 
afternoon, on opening day, the Tigers will take the field for their 
97th year of play. Their opponents, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, will be 
taking the field for their first regular season game ever.
  I'm sure my colleagues from Florida are confident the Devil Rays are 
a fine team who will fare well in today's contest. However, I would 
like to remind them the Devil Rays are facing one of the most storied 
and successful franchises in major league baseball history. The Tigers 
will be playing for their 7,623rd American League win while the Devil 
Rays will be going for number one.
  The history of Tigers' baseball in Detroit is replete with the names 
of current and future Hall of Famers like Ty Cobb, Charlie Gehringer, 
Hank Greenberg, Hal Newhouser, George Kell, Al Kaline, Alan Trammell, 
Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson, Sparky Anderson, and so forth. The Tigers 
have won sport's most cherished prize, the World Series, four times, 
having savored victory in the Fall Classic in 1935, 1945, 1968 and 
1984.
  I am hopeful the 1998 season will see the Tigers among the ranks of 
the major league's elite teams where they belong. I, for one, will 
certainly be watching the next 162 games with interest, hoping to see 
the Detroit Tigers finish the season as champions of their new 
division, the American League Central, and from there go on to capture 
the pennant and the World Series as well.

                          ____________________