COLUMN: CMU missed chance with Detroit Tigers event
The Detroit Tigers lofted up CMU a pitch to crush out of the park. The Tigers even gave CMU an aluminum bat to ensure that it’d be belted over the fence. But CMU swung and missed.
Badly.
Today, 16 players, five coaches, a broadcaster and front office personnel from the Detroit Tigers are in the Events Center. Didn’t hear about it? It’s big news, don’t you think?
The Detroit Tigers are on our campus. The reason students and faculty didn’t hear much of it was because they weren’t invited.
Yep.
CMU kept all the fun for the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. Three years ago when the Tigers tee’d up a ball, CMU drilled it by filling up Rose Arena with more than 2,000 students.
Why not this time?
Because CMU Athletics always brings in the Chamber of Commerce for an event, and they thought it would be nice to have the Tigers’ winter caravan that event.
Guess what, it still could have been.
CMU should have put the event in McGuirk Arena, filling it with an electric crowd full of students from all-around Michigan that love the Tigers. At the same time, giving the Chamber of Commerce its event by giving them a VIP breakfast and seating close to the stage or court where the Tigers are.
Then, when the Tigers players open to questions give those questions to chamber members. The students would love it because they still get to hear from their beloved players, like Brandon Inge and Joel Zumaya. And you can’t tell me chamber members would complain about a nice breakfast and being up close with the boys of summer.
It would give the CMU baseball team a bigger platform to be praised for last year’s Mid-American Conference title too.
It’s a win-win situation if CMU would have gotten everyone involved. But most of campus was left in the dark as the Tigers came and went without much of a fuss.
Please, CMU, next time the Tigers come to Mount Pleasant during their winter caravan keep your eye on the ball, give it a nice and easy swing, then watch the ball fly over the fence as every student has the opportunity to enjoy the event.
