Detroit Tigers pitcher Matthew Boyd speaks to the media on Thursday, March 12, 2020, in Lakeland, Florida. Detroit Free Press
LAKELAND, Fla. — Ron Gardenhire had never seen it before. He likely will never see it again.
Sitting in the Detroit Tigers’ dugout during Thursday afternoon’s Grapefruit League game against the Atlanta Braves at Joker Marchant Stadium, a security guard sitting nearby handed him a cell phone.
“(He) said, ‘Read this,’” Gardenhire said. “I kinda got a game going on.” The security guard simply wanted to share baseball’s latest bombshell, Gardenhire said, news which seemed outrageous a week ago, unlikely a few days ago, but inevitable as of Wednesday night.