Tigers pitcher Chase Lee living in an RV at campground amidst MLB debut
- Chase Lee, a Detroit Tigers relief pitcher, made his MLB debut against the San Diego Padres.
- Lee and Andrew Chafin, another Tigers player, traded teams and ended up swapping RV campsites.
When I was a kid, we used to spend every summer camping all over Michigan in a trailer.
Up to Tawas. Over to Houghton Lake. Along the Rifle River. Across the Upper Peninsula.
Every night, we would have a campfire and roast marshmallows, make Tonka Toasters (two pieces of bread with pie filling or pizza stuff in the middle and cooked over the fire) and eat S’mores.
Sometimes, we would get somebody to go snipe hunting (don’t fall for it). And eventually, somebody would end up telling a campfire story – of course, my dad was busy listening to Ernie Harwell on a portable black radio and drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon. Then, every morning, whenever a bunch of RVs were coming into a park, my dad would say: “They are streaming in!”
Which happened for a couple of Detroit Tigers.
Seriously.
But it was more like: they are swapping spots.
Until they became neighbors.
Confused?
Well, this is like one of those convoluted campground stories.
Only it’s better. Because it’s true.
Trading places – RV style
Last summer, the Tigers traded Andrew Chafin to the Texas Rangers for Chase Lee, a right-handed relief pitcher.
But the real story happened at a campground, where Chafin had been living in an RV. Because Chafin pulled out and Lee moved into the same campground. Actually, he took the same campsite. Seriously. They didn’t just trade organizations. They actually swapped RV parking spots.
“I have a fifth wheel,” said Lee, who pulls his RV with a truck. “He had a diesel RV but they were similar size.”
The best campfire stories have a twist. And this one has a wild one.
The Tigers brought back Chafin but he didn’t make the Opening Day roster, so he went back to that same campground between Toledo and Detroit. Lee didn’t make the Tigers out of spring training, so he returned to that same campground as well.
Alas, they became campground neighbors, just a few spots away from each other and a few weeks ago, they had a bonfire.
“Andrew lives 10 campers from me,” Lee said. “So on the off day, two weeks ago, we had a campfire and watched the Detroit game at the fire, just hanging out, enjoyed being outside.”
One heck of a debut
On Tuesday, the Tigers called up Lee and he made his debut in the eighth inning against the San Diego Padres, a game the Tigers would lose, 2-0. It was his first time in Detroit, his first time in Comerica Park. And Lee entered the game with one out and a runner on first, as the Padres clung to a 2-0 lead.
Was he nervous and filled with adrenaline? Of course.
“I didn't really realize it until the first pitch, and it was pretty erratic,” Lee said. “After that one, I tried to slow the heart rate down a little bit.”
He got Manny Machado to hit a soft line drive toward the mound. Lee snagged it for the out and flicked it to first for the force out of Fernando Tatis Jr., ending the inning. OK everybody, exhale.
“I'm not sure you could draw it up any more uniquely,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “So that was really cool for him.”
Lee got into trouble in the ninth when the Padres put two guys on with one out. Elías Díaz, who had hit a homer against Jack Flaherty, hit a ball to left, but Riley Greene came flying up and caught it with a beautiful dive. After walking the bases loaded, Lee struck out Mason McCoy to end the threat.
“I was really glad to not give up any runs there, keep the game close, more so than trying to get a strike out,” he said.
Lee has a humble, incredibly likeable personality. He wasn’t recruited out of high school, in part, because his fastball hovered around 80 mph. He tried to walk on at Alabama but got cut. So, he spent his first year throwing club baseball.
He never dreamed of this moment because, well, it never seemed possible. “This was never a reality for me,” he said, after it did indeed become a reality.
After he got out of the ninth inning, he returned to the dugout and even though it was a tense time in the game – the Padres were clinging to a tight 2-0 lead – the Tigers celebrated his moment.
“I think the dugout was really happy for him and celebrated a little bit despite where we were in the game with our backs against the wall," Hinch said. "That was a really cool moment for our team."
A really cool moment for Lee.
“Excited and grateful honestly for the opportunity and thinking about all the people that have poured into me and gotten me to this point,” he said, standing at his locker after the game, talking to reporters. “I'm really just grateful for the opportunity and for everybody along the way.”
Lee ended his interview session and was able to spend some time with his family. They went onto the field and posed for what looked like dozens of pictures, as the grounds crew prepared the field for the tarp.
The Tigers put his picture on the giant scoreboard: “Welcome to The Show Chase Lee.”
The big leaguer still living at a campsite.
Now, that’s a great campfire story.
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