The Detroit Tigers won their first 1-0 Opening Day game in franchise history over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday, and Javier Baez relished his role as the villain.
On his third-inning single, the former Chicago Cubs player seemed to take a moment to relish the boos from the southside Chicago fans. He pointed to the fans behind the Tigers’ dugout on his way to first base.
Baez stole second base, then advanced to third on Parker Meadows’ groundout, and scored on Andy Ibanez’s sacrifice fly.
After the game, Baez acknowledged the boos, per Evan Woodbery of MLive:
“To be honest, we hear a lot of boos, but there’s a lot of people that support me, too. I don’t know. It doesn’t make me mad or anything. I feel like it makes me focused.”
The Tigers player elaborated, per Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press:
“I always have fun with everybody yelling at me,” Baez said. “I should have tried throw it a little higher, but I did try to throw it to the net. They were yelling good stuff, not so good stuff, but it’s always fun to compete against real fans that really care about you.”
“When you get booed, you don’t want to suck because they’re going to do it louder,” Baez said.
Javier Baez’s Tigers tenure
If the Tigers are going to show significant improvement in 2024, they are going to be counting on shortstop Baez to get back to the form he had in the earlier years in his career with the Cubs.
Baez was a key performer on Chicago’s 2016 World Series champions. He earned a reputation as a free swinger who delivered big hits while making some of the most amazingly eye-catching defensive plays seen in baseball. His ability to slap a quick tag on opposing base runners was something he did better than any player in recent memory.
However, Baez has fallen badly on both sides of the ball in 2022 and 2023 with the Tigers. He has been booed frequently by Detroit fans, and Baez is as upset about his downturn as Tigers supporters.
He has spent much of the offseason working on both his core strength and fundamentals in order to return to form. Baez said that he had significant pain in his back.
“I was just trying to be healthy (in the offseason), feel better with my low back and my core. It feels pretty good right now. I’ve been swinging a lot. … It hasn’t been bothering me, so hopefully it stays that way,” said the Tigers shortstop.
Hopefully Baez is fully healthy and able to contribute to a Tigers team that is a dark horse playoff contender in the AL Central. If he plays like he did on Opening Day, Detroit has a chance for a big season.
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