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Niyo: Uneasy feeling invades MLB as Tigers play a home opener unlike any other

Detroit — It was a virtual certainty, they all acknowledge that. And Monday night, as the Tigers played host to the Kansas City Royals inside an empty Comerica Park, it was virtually impossible to ignore the approaching clouds that shrouded a most unconventional home opener in Detroit.

It was impossible to ignore the incongruity of it all, too, from the traditional pregame introductions — with piped-in crowd noise and players wearing masks — to the video rendition of the national anthem from Jose Feliciano, hearkening back to that stirring performance of his from Game 5 of the 1968 World Series.