The Man, The Mystery

Dat Hollywood Swag.

We love Brennan Boesch. Who doesn't? We were thrilled when at the start of the '10 and '11 seasons when he performed so well. He has the power. He has the personality. He has the smarts. And he has the looks.

However, there are some reasons why people could dislike Brennan, or at the very least not trust his abilities. He fell apart mentally in '10 and physically in '11, and Tiger fans have always been wary of one-half-only players (read: Ryan Raburn).

Early today the Detroit News put out an article that explained a little bit about Brennan and his background. Everyone should read it. How he was raised as a rich kid from LA who played a mean piano to a struggling rookie outfielder who questioned his devotion to baseball. He wasn't sure if he wanted to do it anymore.

He obviously had a choice of quitting baseball and going back to the Good Life in LA. He could have done that, could have quit right then and there. But here's what we like the most about Brennan Boesch, and one of the things we like the most about baseball: it doesn't matter where your from, what your background is, or how much money you have. To make it in pro baseball you have to have talent, but more importantly you have to have ambition and drive. Brennan has all that, and he used it to get to where he is today. He took the hard way.

He also seems to have great personality and character, which isn't something required of big leaguers, but certainly doesn't hurt. He speaks Spanish to the hispanic players, who no doubt appreciate that. He seems to be friends with everyone, most notably Miguel Cabrera, and has quickly befriended newcomer Prince Fielder. He even spends a lot of time with other player's kids--something he definitely doesn't have to do.

Perhaps the coolest thing though is that Brennan has serious respect for the city of Detroit. In the aforementioned article he states: "I'm more Detroit than Southern California. If only I could bring the weather to Detroit, I'd be here. I love this area, everything about it." The Royal Oak resident further goes on to say that "I just get really, really defensive about (Metro) Detroit. It bothers me…I got my GMC outside. I think it would be blasphemy for me to drive a Mercedes in Detroit."

If that isn't the quickest way to a Michiganders heart, than what is?

Combine this great clubhouse personality with massive potential and is it any mystery why he's such a fan favorite? Of course, if he has a second-half dip for a third year in a row it could be potentially problematic, but we don't really see that happening. We, along with countless other Tiger fans, have always, always admired Brennan for his bat, but now we should all give him more respect for his character as well. This is the kind of ballplayer that clubhouses, managers, GM's and cities should love.

Somewhat surprisingly, this pretty-sappy-but-also-pretty-good article was written by Lynn Henning. Nice job, Lynn, but this one line had us literally dying laughing.

"He has an ever-expanding fan club in Detroit galvanized by his slashing, game changing bat, and by a certain mystique, crafted mostly because he's a native of Hollywood's backyard who looks and sounds as if he might have had a shot there."


Brennan Boesch has a mystique? That sounds like something we'd have to judge for ourselves one day!

*Fingers crossed*