DETROIT (WXYZ) — The ballpark is a place known for families to gather, but many of the bonds built by Detroit Tigers fans go beyond Comerica Park.
"My brother's 10 years older than me and him and I talk baseball a lot," a fan outside the stadium said.
VIDEO: Tigers move on in playoffs, eliminate the Astros
"It definitely kind of brought up a memory being back there now at 23 years old," another fan said outside of Comerica Park.
Almost every fan has a story about familiar bonds built off none other than Tigers baseball.
"My dad and I, we would always, we had a lot of years in my 20s that we would go sit at the bar and the Tigers were great during that period," Jeremy Ison said.
The Ison siblings said it was their late father who got them into the team.
"We just kind of grew up loving the history and the legacy," Ison said.
It has been exactly one year since he has died and Jeremy, Sarah and Melissa said seeing the team takeoff this season is bittersweet for their family.
"I know he's watching right now," Melissa Johnson said.
"I was there on Friday when they took it and to have them proceed to the playoffs on the day we lost our father a year later, I don't know if you could write it better," Ison said.
Decribing it as an almost universal, feeling, Miguel Gutierrez said he shared the baseball bond with his grandfather, who died in 2015.
"It was all about hey, what's Verlander doing today, how many runs has he let in, what's the score?" Gutierrez said. "Every pitch was special. We evaluated a lot of the stats and analytics between each player and it just became a tradition, you know."
Gutierrez wishes his grandfather was here today to see the young team possibly go all the way.
"With them making this run, it just brought back the memories of being 20 and 21 again and he and I being downtown and walking around and having a stranger ask, hey what's the score by the way," Gutierrez said.
For everyone we spoke with, it is not about winning or losing — for them, this team is bigger than baseball.
Watch the excitement from watch party day two at Comerica Park below:
"It's not the three strikes and you're out, the nine innings. It's memories, it's family and it's life lessons and it's teaching teamwork and it's teaching our kids. It's just not the game. It goes so much more," Sarah Manzella said.
