Lakeland, Fla. — Notes, thoughts, items as the Tigers wrap up Week Two of their preseason choreography at Tigertown:
Chris Ilitch says all the best things.
Knowing he is being sized up, maybe even suspiciously, by a Tigers community fearful he will shred budgets and take a razor to baseball line-items, Chris Ilitch had a vital news briefing Friday in the hours before his dad, Mike Ilitch, was honored in a lovely farewell at Marchant Stadium (Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, to keep the sponsors and officious folk happy).
Chris said he loved baseball, that he coached his kids’ teams as a measure of that passion, and that the Tigers weren’t going to worry about payroll even with luxury-tax penalties mounting.