Free Press sports writer Anthony Fenech tours the Detroit Tigers' Dominican Republic academy in March 2020. Detroit Free Press
Somewhere, in a different world, Ron Gardenhire would be in the visitors’ dugout in Cleveland.
The Detroit Tigers' manager would have been talking to reporters there, early Wednesday afternoon, before his team went through a pre-Opening Day workout at Progressive Field. He would talk about how he’s excited to "get ‘er goin’" and finally play a game that counts in the standings, maybe even crack a joke about how his wife is excited he’ll be out of her hair for a while.