The 84 Tigers And The Helicopter Pizza Run
There are certain stories about the 84 Tigers that will be the stuff of legend – the amazing start, Gibby’s HR off Gossage in the Series, and Jack Morris taking a helicopter to Ann Arbor for Domino’s pizza. Oh it really happened.
The 84 Tigers and the World Series Pizza Run
It’s October 18th, 1984 and the Tigers have just won the Series over the Padres. It’s a wild party here in Detroit with people going crazy all over Michigan and Trumbull (and the entire city, let’s be honest). How crazy was it? The 84 Tigers couldn’t get out of the stadium to celebrate.
So what do you do if you own the Tigers, Domino’s Pizza…and a helicopter?
If you’re Jack Morris, you get the helicopter and fly to a Domino’s in Ann Arbor and get 50 pizzas for the team. This really happened.
We talked with Jack about it a couple of years ago and he confirmed what happened:
“We flew to Ann Arbor, picked up 50 pizzas and flew back in,” Morris recalled. “It was pretty cool.”
Morris remembered the surprised reaction from the folks working at the pizza joint.
“Everyone was like, ‘I can’t believe you’re here, what are you doing here?” he said.”And I said, ‘I need some pizzas.'”
More to the story – from the Press Box
Meanwhile, back in the press box, the Tigers also delivered a stash of pizzas to the media. Charley Steiner, now a Dodgers announcer, was working radio during that series, and he, too, was getting hungry. But he had a harder time getting his hands on a slice than Morris.
“That was a time when writers and broadcasters didn’t get along very well,” Steiner recalled. “The pizzas were delivered to the Baseball Writers Association of America. There is war going on around us — flames, cabs, this, that. The pizzas come up to the press box because we’re going to be there a while. The old baseball writers’ president says, ‘No pizzas for the broadcasters.'”
Even in such a desperate time of need?
“There’s war around us,” Steiner said. “And I can’t get a slice of pepperoni pizza.”
