Detroit Tigers: Jose Iglesias courageous, diversity, best living Tiger

James Schmehl has a must-read from yesterday talking about the courage of Jose Iglesias.

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No it has nothing to do with dealing through a season-long injury last year and has everything to do with the danger and moral dilemmas that arise from defecting from a native country.

Next up we look at how the Detroit Tigers will host a LGBT pride night. They will face the Oakland Athletics, another team that holds this type of event–one of just five in baseball currently.

Finally, the Free Press posted a story talking about a statistical look at the best living Detroit Tiger conducted by the Wall Street Journal.

Chasing his dream: Jose Iglesias’ secretive escape from Cuba a courageous tale – James Schmehl, MLive

"“Really scared,” Iglesias, the Tigers’ starting shortstop, recalled during a lengthy conversation at his locker at Joker Marchant Stadium earlier this spring.Iglesias, now 25, was well aware of the repercussions of fleeing Cuba, his native country. He knew he’d be leaving home, maybe never to return.“It was tough. Really tough,” he said. “I had no family. No friends. I just wanted to do what I love to do. Play the game of baseball.”At the time, only Iglesias’ father, Candelario, and a former Cuban teammate, Noel Arguelles, knew of his plans to defect. His mother, Barbara, and his four siblings were completely unaware of the dangers he — and they — could soon encounter.“She would’ve freaked out,” said Iglesias when asked why he didn’t disclose his plans with his mother. “Security would’ve known something was up.”"

Detroit Tigers to become one of five Major League franchises to host LGBT pride night – Model D

"Tony Paul of the Detroit News is reporting that the Detroit Tigers will host the first LGBT pride night in franchise history on June 3 when the Oakland Athletics will be in town….The announcement, which was made Monday (2015 Opening Day), comes on the heels of the A’s announcement that they will host their own LGBT night on June 17. That announcement was met with some opposition by some season ticket holders, which prompted Eireann Dolan, girlfriend of A’s pitcher Sean Doolittle, to offer to buy any unwanted tickets so they could be donated to Oakland-area LGBT youth organizations."

The greatest living Tigers? Kaline, Lolich, Verlander – Steve Schrader, Detroit Free Press

"But the Wall Street Journal compiled that list — the greatest hitter, pitcher and active player — for each of Major League Baseball’s 30 franchises.And you can’t argue with the selections if you believe in enhanced statistics, because it’s based on their WAR numbers at baseball-reference.com. Only the WAR (wins above replacement) for their time with each particular team was counted.For the Detroit Tigers, no surprise, the greatest living hitter is Al Kaline, who hit .297 with 399 home runs in 22 seasons, all with the Tigers, for a WAR of 92.5."

Next: Detroit Tigers 5 Offensive Questions