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Native makes a rousing returnBy LUIS GONZALEZ © St. Petersburg Times, published April 1, 1998 * * *ST. PETERSBURG -- When the Devil Rays announced their team, I was a free agent and I would've liked to have come here. But things worked out great for me. I signed with the Tigers and it's the first team that came in to play here. It just seemed like everything was a perfect fit. I was just fortunate enough to hit the first home run. I beat Wade (Boggs) to the punch. When I heard the crowd booing, I don't know if they wanted to throw it back. I figured my grandmother was holding onto that ball. It was an exciting day for me to come home and play like this with a lot of friends and family here today. And we won. So that was the most important thing for our ballclub. I bought 12 tickets. (They and) my mom were in the safe seats behind the net. I put my grandmother out there (in rightfield) with a helmet and a glove. I'm just kidding. I wouldn't give my grandmother a helmet and glove. But the way balls were flying out in batting practice, I was getting a little worried when I saw where they were sitting. I was just hoping it would stay fair. I got a slider down and in and just got the bat head out there. It started hooking a little bit. I was just hoping I got it out there far enough to keep it fair. I was excited. The kid inside of you is always going to jump out. But it was a good feeling, to know you were the first guy to hit an official home run in the stadium and this is where you grew up. As a kid, you always wanted to see a major-league team here, and now it finally has happened. And being on the other side of the coin, I got a different perspective of what it was like. So it was a kind of an exciting day for myself. I don't think I've ever been a (home-run hitter). My whole career, I've basically been a line-drive, gap-to-gap guy. This team is tremendous. From day one, you walked into this clubhouse and everybody felt comfortable. The last couple years, a lot of these guys have been through some ups and downs. I've been in that situation before in Houston when we had a lot of rookie call-ups. But this team is starting to get there. It felt like a spring training game for us because we got to the park so early. We hit before the home team. That was different. We had a lot of down time to just sit around. It was almost like a rain delay after we hit. But we've got a good bunch of guys. Everybody was excited to get out there. We came out swinging early and got a good lead for J.T. (Justin Thompson), and he pitched a tremendous game for us.
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etroit Tigers leftfielder Luis Gonzalez, a former star at Tampa Jefferson High, hit the first regular-season home run at Tropicana Field on Tuesday. The following is a compilation of his post-game comments.
