Ever since he was little, Brandon Dixon has had his father in the crowd. The crowds are bigger now. So is Dixon, the Tigers utility-man who hit a walk-off homer on Sunday to clinch a series win over Kansas City. His father watched that one from his home in California.
On the special occasions, though, Troy Dixon is still in the stands.
Like last month at Fenway Park, when Dixon started the second game of a double-header against the Red Sox and went 3-4 with two doubles and three RBI in a 4-2 Tigers win. And like last year at Wrigley Field, when Dixon played at baseball's other timeless stadium as a member of the Reds.
"Last year he was able to make it out to Wrigley when I played there, so this year he was hoping that he would be able to make it (to Fenway)," Dixon told the Jamie and Stoney Show on 97.1 The Ticket. "So he caught a red-eye flight, came out and I was able to play that next night that he was there.
In fact, he missed it five times.
"I was actually at breakfast and I was about to pay the bill, and flipped over my phone and I had five missed calls from (Mud Hens manager) Doug Mientkiewicz and then our trainer in Toledo," Dixon said. "I was like, 'Oh no, I gotta do something with this.'
"So I called Doug and he told me I was coming up, but I needed to drive up as quick as I could because they had a day game (in Detroit) and I was in Indianapolis. I had three hours to get there and it was like a five-hour drive."
Despite his best efforts, Dixon didn't make it to Comerica Park until the very end of a 9-7 Tigers win. He made his season debut a couple days later, going 2-3 with an RBI in a 4-3 win.
After blasting that three-run walk off homer on Sunday -- the first walk-off homer he's ever hit -- Dixon owns a .292 average with seven RBI through nine games. He was hitting .174 through 11 games in Triple-A.
So the majors are easier, then?
"Nah, definitely not," Dixon said with a laugh. "But that's just kind of how baseball works sometimes. You have a week where things just aren’t really clicking and then the next week things totally change."
And sometimes things stay the same, like the faces in the crowd.