The Detroit Tigers are back in Lakeland for spring training for the 68th time, and one person who can tell you a lot about the team's connection to the town is Tigers Special Vice President Willie Horton.
Horton is passing along more than four decades of professional baseball wisdom to a younger generation -- wisdom that includes his first spring training as a player with the team in 1963.
Lakeland was still segregated then. Horton wasn't allowed to stay at the Regency Hotel with the rest of the team and couldn't ride in a cab to get to practice.
"I thought they [were] playing a rookie joke on me," said Horton. "I didn't worry about it. I found out later he was telling me the truth. I got in the cab and he said, 'I can't take you out to Tigertown.'"
Nevertheless, Horton decided to turn that negative experience into a positive one by getting involved in the community. Click on the link to the bottom right to watch this entire story -- our Extra on Special Assignment.
http://www.baynews9.com/site/content/34952.html
Horton is passing along more than four decades of professional baseball wisdom to a younger generation -- wisdom that includes his first spring training as a player with the team in 1963.
Lakeland was still segregated then. Horton wasn't allowed to stay at the Regency Hotel with the rest of the team and couldn't ride in a cab to get to practice.
"I thought they [were] playing a rookie joke on me," said Horton. "I didn't worry about it. I found out later he was telling me the truth. I got in the cab and he said, 'I can't take you out to Tigertown.'"
Nevertheless, Horton decided to turn that negative experience into a positive one by getting involved in the community. Click on the link to the bottom right to watch this entire story -- our Extra on Special Assignment.
http://www.baynews9.com/site/content/34952.html
