Detroit – They can sense the season is getting closer now, playing nine-inning games under the lights with real umpires and piped-in crowd noise.
We can see the Tigers’ prospects getting brighter, too, even if it’s only a short-term glimpse at a far-away future we’re seeing when 19-year-old Riley Greene makes a diving grab in right field and then hammers an opposite-field shot over the fence in left during an intrasquad scrimmage at Comerica Park.
In the here and now, though, there’s a different kind of reality that’s setting in – with the start of Major League Baseball's 60-game sprint only a week away – and we saw some of that Wednesday night as well.