Actress rumored to be Detroit Tigers fan has ties to auto industry
Fact check on report of celebrity sighting at Comerica Park
The city smiles when a celebrity attends professional sports events in Detroit.
Whether it’s Eminem. Or Jeff Daniels. Or Big Sean. Or Flava Flav. Or Bob Seger. They’re seen at Detroit Lions games and, possibly, headed to the Super Bowl.
But now the Detroit Tigers have stunned the world, making the post-season cut for the first time in a decade, beating the Chicago White Sox 4-1 at the end of September.
Then social media buzzed about Emmy-winner Sydney Sweeney coming to Detroit to cheer her cousin, Detroit Tigers shortstop Trey Sweeney.
“Apparently Tiger shortstop Trey Sweeney is a cousin of actress Sydney Sweeney, who was in attendance at the stadium tonight,” wrote JD Law for blessyouboys.com on Sept. 27, 2024 — after the Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox in front of 44,000 fans at Comerica Park.
While the actress may or may not have been in town, it wasn’t a family reunion.
I reached out to Chad Crunk, director of media relations for the Detroit Tigers. And Crunk reached out to Trey Sweeney to check the alleged connection. “Confirmed that he is not related to S(y)dney Sweeney,” Crunk wrote.
Known for TV, film and her 1969 Ford Bronco
The actress, who just turned 27, is known for her TV and film roles that range from “The Handmaid's Tale” and “Sharp Objects” to “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Anyone But You.”
But car culture junkies know Sweeney for her love of a classic 1969 Ford Bronco and the Ford x Sydney Sweeney limited edition workwear clothing line she designed — “made to get dirty.”
Buyers snapped up her khaki overalls with pink straps, work pants, bandannas, baseball caps with a label that said “Ford” and “Syd’s Garage” — some items sold out within 31 hours early last year.
"I come from a family of mechanics. It's in my blood,” she said in a video released at the time, showing her working on her vintage vehicle.
Michael O’Brien, Ford director of global marketing, told The Detroit Free Press in April 2023, “… hearing about young women who are inspired to work on their car for the first time because of Sydney Sweeney’s workwear line is so moving.”
Pivot to classic Mustang in Ford redux
Then Ford announced a second limited edition workwear collection, inspired by Sydney Sweeney’s 1965 Ford Mustang, in late 2023. It included denim coveralls, a racing jacket, a corduroy hat, a t-shirt and a keychain, all made by Dickies.
“I love working in the garage and was so excited to partner with Ford on a clothing line that’s comfortable in and out of the shop,” Sweeney said in a November 2023 news release. (The high-profile partnership has concluded, for now.)
Sweeney’s vintage car addiction has made headlines in unlikely places.
In April 2022, Vanity Fair ran Sweeney's photo under the headline, "'I love Chrome:' Sydney Sweeney Shows Off Her Souped-Up Vintage Bronco" and wrote, "The star of 'Euphoria' and 'The White Lotus' breathed new life into a candy apple red classic, doing much of the work herself — and chronicling it all on TikTok, naturally."
Tigers baseball: Confessions of a longtime fan
So, if you see Sydney Sweeney in the stands, it’s because she has her own Motor City connection. And because all of America is watching the young team.
How young? So young that the 26-man Detroit Tigers wild card roster earns less at $18.8 million than Houston Astros pitcher Josh Hader at $19 million.
“Money doesn’t always equal wins,” wrote Andrew Peters in bleacher report.com
The Tigers defeated the Astros in back-to-back games the first two days of October.
Now, after a 7-0 loss to the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday, fans are anxiously awaiting the Monday afternoon game on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024.
Detroit Tigers fans all over the country wish (quietly) for another World Series.
The iconic photograph of Kirk Gibson celebrating a home run in the clinching game of the 1984 World Series — that photo — hangs in our kitchen.
My husband was there in person. And he remembers it like yesterday, even though it was 40 years ago.
Photojournalist Mary Schroeder, who captured that moment, autographed her famous photo and gave it to us as a gift when I first went to work for The Detroit Free Press in 2017. Mary was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.
Trey Sweeney vs. Cleveland Guardians
A new era of fans now fill the stands, eating hot dogs and drinking beer.
A lot of metro Detroiters will sneak out of work early to make the 4:08 game on Monday, Oct. 7, coming from the factory floor and the C-suite — and maybe even Hollywood.
But Trey Sweeney, 24, a 6-foot-3 native of Louisville, Kentucky, who wears #27 on his jersey, brings star power and grit all on his own. His whole team has America in awe.
Veteran MLB player cheers Tigers from home
Now everyone wants to see how the Tigers respond to the 7-0 annihilation inflicted by the Cleveland team on Saturday, Oct. 5, said Len Matuszek, 70, a former Major League Baseball player who will watch the game on his home TV in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“The Tigers are hot.
He loves Detroit. He loves the Tigers. And he loves A.J. Hinch, the former Tigers catcher who returned to the team in 2021 as manager and deserves credit for making miracles happen, Matuszek told me Sunday night.
They’ve accomplished so much together in so little time, he said.
“These guys look like they're in high school,” said Matuszek, known as “Lenny” in baseball circles. He was a first baseman and outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays and LA Dodgers from 1981 to 1987.
“I was surrounded by veteran players, first in ‘83 with Philly, and then in ‘85 in Los Angeles,” said Matuszek, who replaced Pete Rose in Philadelphia.
It’s not easy to survive playoffs as mostly young players, and that’s why the leadership of their seasoned manager is so significant, Matuszek said.
“The Tigers (now) are just a bunch of young guys that are banded together. That's where A.J. Hinch comes in. When you're young, you want to have a great statistical year so you can get a big contract. A manager that can make that line of thinking focus on ‘Hey just play this role and this role, win and you'll get what you want,’ that’s a whole different line of thinking. The Tigers are hot.”
Having played in stadiums all over the country, Matuszek said crowds play a critical role at times like this. “There’s energy around the Tigers. That extra boost to a group of young guys … that’s the great thing going on.”
As a former reporter at The Des Moines Register and lecturer at the annual Okoboji Writers Retreat in Iowa, I’m grateful to be part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Check it out.
I remember the Kirk Gibson moment too! Go Deeeee-troit