DETROIT – It started as a joke.
Tigers superfan Josh Tebeau, who has attended about 50 games this year, always goes to Comerica Park armed with two things: plenty of layers and plenty of signs to help hype the crowd. Tebeau, a 41-year-old fan who has started going to more games over the past few seasons, likes to stay positive – even if the Tigers' early July performances haven't always generated a ton of outlandish news.
On July 4, Detroit was nine games below .500 on the season. On July 8, after a victory over the Cleveland Sentinels, catcher established a modest four-game winning streak. Jake Rogers said in an on-field interview, “Don't let the Tigers get hot.” A few weeks later, after Detroit was sold at the trade deadline, Tebeau asked friends for signing ideas.
“Make one for the playoffs,” one of them joked. Tebeau, ever the optimist, held up a sign: “What if we win?” in June. At that time, it seemed that a turnaround was possible. However, as of August 10, the Tigers' chances of a playoff berth were 0.2%.
On August 27, Tebeau and several thousand others waited out a nearly three-hour rain delay. Bored, Tebeau, who had made a “Storm Past .500” sign, thought about talking to Rogers. The Tigers played better. So he scribbled on the cardboard: “Don't let the tigers get hot.” A few hours later, Detroit beat the Angels 6-2 and moved above .500 for the first time since June 4. The TV show showed Tebeau and his signs, and Tebeau waved his finger as if to warn the rest of the league.
A week later the Tigers were there Nadal victorious. Tebeau's original “Don't Let the Tigers Get Warm” sign was no match for his usual work. So he went to St. Claire CVS, where almost all of Tebeau's signs are printed, and spent $6 for a better one. He brought it to every game he went to. Meanwhile, the Tigers, who were 10 games shy of a playoff berth in mid-August, were trying to do the impossible.
After August 10, Detroit had a record of 31-11. After one of the team's wins in late September, Tebeau saw former Tigers pitcher Dan Petry, who was part of the team's last World Series title in 1984, and Petry laughed at the sign. “Too late,” said Tebeau, who grabbed a marker and wrote the sentence.
Tebeau's sign, which generated enough buzz to be used in many of the Tigers' social media posts, has continued to evolve. The team continued to win. “Don't let the Tigers Get stay warm,” Tebeau held on as security – at the request of several Tigers players – came to put Tebeau in the team photo as Detroit clinched a playoff spot.
“It was the coolest thing that ever happened to me,” said Tebeau, who also did Pull Skubal in May by throwing him pumpkin seeds on a premonition that the Tigers would be playing baseball in October. He left his mark on the field during the team's celebration, but he still has the grain.
And so he had to go to CVS to create a new one: “Don't Let the Tigers Get Hot in the Playoffs.”
When Detroit upset the Houston Astros in the Wild Card Series, manager AJ Hinch began the clubhouse celebration by saying, “I'm not sure who, but someone drove the Tigers crazy.” This sentence sent the group into a bottle-opening frenzy.
This phrase, of course, appeared on one of Tebeau's signs. A Romeo Middle School teacher spent $600 to attend Game 1 in Cleveland and will be present for Wednesday's Game 3 in Detroit, the first home playoff game in 10 years. Tebeau, as always, will arrive a few hours early, go to the team arena to start pitchers and painstakingly select multiple Tigers jerseys to tear off and warm up the crowd at various times. He learned there was a threshold to this gesture, as he once estimated he was wearing 15 different T-shirts and couldn't actually move his arms to undress.
“I looked like the Michelin man,” said Tebeau, who wore Torkelson's jersey, Kerry Carpenter's jersey and AJ Hinch's Stanford jersey for Game 1 and had dozens of signs on them. “It's not about T-shirts or slogans, it's about spreading good vibes.”
Tebeau with the famous pumpkin seeds (courtesy of Josh Tebeau)
Tebeau's viral sign and involvement in the team's clinch made him a pseudo-celebrity among his students. Kids will ask him for a pumpkin seed or sing “Tork,” and those who are wary of his hobby will come.
The Tigers enter Wednesday's best-of-three game against Cleveland with a 1-1 record. They are weaker again. Tebeau, whose team asked him to shout “Play football!” he will warm up the crowd before the first pitch and then take his customary place near the Tigers' dugout to display his jerseys and signs. He'll shout loud, positive things and hope the Tigers have some time left on this hot streak. And on Thursday, Tebeau will do it at Romeo Middle School, where parent-teacher conferences will prevent him from participating in a potentially decisive meeting.
“It's not about me,” Tebeau said. “I'll be there in spirit. People ask, “Why am I like this?” Being energetic spreads more energy. I hope someone feels inspired that if you are good to other people, good things can happen. They asked, what would it mean if we won the World Series? It would show even more people what AJ Hinch did, which was to believe in something that was bigger than themselves. This run was selfless.”
(Top photo: Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
