Detroit Sports Fans Take Stock as Struggling Teams Meet a Surprising Lions Draft Pick

Sports sit at the center of Detroit's culture. Every major stadium is located within the city limits, and thousands of fans turn out to mark the victories, the defeats and everything between. Lately, though, the local teams have given supporters little to cheer about.

Neither the Detroit Red Wings nor the Detroit Pistons reached the playoffs. The Detroit Tigers, meanwhile, hold a 9-15 record, which places them in the middle of the pack in the AL Central. Attention is also turning to the Detroit Lions and what the coming season may bring, particularly as the NFL Draft began the previous night.

WDET's Detroit Today program checked in on the state of the city's teams with four sports journalists who cover them closely.

Cody Stavenhagen, who covers the Tigers for The Athletic, pointed to the offense as the main factor holding the team back. He noted that the Tigers had baseball's worst offense last year and did not sign a free agent hitter to a major league contract. Given that, he said, the current results are not especially surprising. "The Tigers rank 30th in team batting average, 30th in team slugging percentage," Stavenhagen said.

Helene St. James, a longtime Red Wings reporter for the Detroit Free Press and author of "On The Clock: Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft" and "The Big 50: Detroit Red Wings," said the hockey postseason has been "phenomenal" to watch even without Detroit in it. She said she loves the first round of the playoffs because viewers can watch two to three games every night, and "there's always an upset somewhere."

Attention in football turned to the Lions' choice with their first draft pick. Justin Rogers, who covers the team for the Detroit News, said management did something unusual with the selection. Describing how people responded, he said, "I would say that the general reaction was surprise."

Kirkland Crawford, a sports editor at the Detroit Free Press, read the pick as a sign of the team's priorities. In his view, it indicates that the Lions want to strengthen their running game. "The Lions certainly have shown a willingness and a propensity to want to establish the run game," Crawford said.

The discussion painted a mixed picture for Detroit sports as of April 28, 2023: a Tigers lineup struggling to score, two teams missing the postseason, and a Lions front office whose draft decision has fans and analysts weighing what it means for the season ahead.