Baseball was in Mike Ilitch’s blood.
It was embedded in his life as a kid growing up on the west side of Detroit, starring at shortstop for Cooley High School in the mid-1940s. It remained part of his life after graduating high school, playing while serving four years with the Marines. It was a dream when he signed a minor-league deal with the Detroit Tigers in 1951 and many moons after his baseball career ended and his business career started, it was an even bigger dream when he bought the Tigers in 1992.
“A guy like myself,” Ilitch said at Tiger Stadium after buying the team on Aug.