2012 West Michigan Whitecaps Feature Relatives Of Famous Detroit Tigers

Baseball is back!

If the West Michigan Whitecaps season is half as good as their menu sounds, we can expect a lot of good baseball at Fifth Third Ballpark this summer.  Either way, there are going to be a few familiar names on the roster this season.

The Whitecaps home opener is Monday at 6:00pm at Fifth Third Ballpark.  There will be fireworks after the game...and hopefully a few fireworks courtesy of Whitecaps bats too.

Detroit Tigers fans will recognize some of the names on the roster this year:  Leyland, Lemon, Avila, and Kaline.

The Whitecaps give us more details on the players from these famous Detroit Tigers families:

Infielder Colin Kaline is the grandson of Hall of Famer Al Kaline, whose 22 seasons in the Major Leagues were spent entirely in Detroit and included a World Series victory in 1968 and 15 appearances as an American League All-Star. Infielder Marcus Lemon is the son of Chet Lemon, who played nine of his 16 seasons in the big leagues with Detroit and was part of the 1984 World Series championship. The younger Lemon, who was a fourth-round pick of the Texas Rangers in 2006, was recently signed by the Tigers as a Minor League free agent in late February.

Whitecaps' catcher Patrick Leyland, the son of current Tigers' manager Jim Leyland, continues his climb through the system since being selected in the eighth round of the 2010 draft. He will be catching right-handed reliever Nick Avila, who is the cousin of Tigers' catcher Alex Avila and the nephew of Tigers' Vice President/Assistant General Manager Al Avila.

Between the new menu and the famous Detroit Tiger names the Whitecaps aren't going to have trouble selling a few tickets, here's hoping the almost-famous new Whitecaps live up to their names on the field this season.