th fun names and turned the locker room into a nightclub — “Club Dub” — after victories.“My dad, George Halas, certainly

The Detroit Tigers blew a three-run lead in the eighth inning and eventually lost on a home run in the ninth. Still Anthony Nelson Jersey , this was a day Jose Iglesias and Leonys Martin may look back on fondly for years.

Before Monday’s game against Oakland, the Tigers hosted a ceremony on the field in which a group of people were sworn in as American citizens. Iglesias and Martin, both natives of Cuba, were among them.

”I will never forget about my country, but it’s amazing to be part of United States,” said Martin, a 30-year-old outfielder. ”Being able to do it here in the ballpark, right in front of the fans, that was really emotional.”

Martin played for Cuba in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. After defecting, he received a $15.5 million, five-year contract with the Texas Rangers in 2011. This is his first season with the Tigers.

Iglesias, a 28-year-old shortstop, made his big league debut in 2011 with the Boston Red Sox. He was traded to the Tigers in 2013, and he can look back now at the daunting process of getting used to a new country.

”It’s hard, man. You came. You face a new culture, face a new language Jeffery Simmons Jersey , facing new food, new everything,” Iglesias said before the game. ”Still learning. I’ve been here for 10 years, and I’m still learning.”

Iglesias and Martin had their ceremony at a time when a national debate over President Donald Trump’s immigration policy has been dominating the news. Iglesias wasn’t about to wade into that.

”I don’t really have a comment on that. I try to stay away from that,” Iglesias said. ”If there’s anything I can do to help a human being in the end of the day, I will do it, but I try to stay away from politics.”

Manager Ron Gardenhire was excited about the ceremony.

”It’s really cool. These guys are really proud of that. I’m just hoping they can get to Canada,” he said. ”They’ve lost their visas and green cards now once they’ve taken this citizenship, so they have to get a passport so they can go with us to Canada here in a few days.”

The Tigers play a four-game series at Toronto starting Friday night.

For a brief moment, it appeared Monday’s game against the Athletics might unfold in storybook fashion – with Martin driving in Iglesias with the winning run. The score was tied at 1 in the seventh inning, and Martin hit a drive to center. Iglesias raced around from first, but he had to stop at third when the ball bounced over the wall for a double. He was thrown out at home when the next batter hit a grounder.

Nicholas Castellanos hit a three-run homer later that inning for Detroit, but Oakland rallied in the eighth and eventually won 5-4.

No matter. This was still a special day for Iglesias and Martin.

”It’s amazing,” Iglesias said. ”Become an American citizen on a ballpark, and with full uniform and everything. It’s a blessing.”

—

ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) — There were times when George Halas was so strapped for cash that he had to borrow from his kids to help keep the Chicago Bears going.That’s what his daughter Nate Davis Jersey , Virginia McCaskey, remembered.The Bears were struggling to stay afloat in the late 1920s and early 1930s, so much so that Halas, the founder of the franchise, had to turn to his children. He did that just to pay the family’s groceries and rent.“I often use the word survival because of what was involved,” McCaskey said. “Fortunately, for us and for so many people now, it all worked out.”McCaskey mentioned her dad, Halas, holding part-ownership in a commercial laundry company, working in real estate and selling cars as he tried to keep his other businesses going.The Bears and the NFL both have come a long way since then.The Bears held their 100th anniversary celebration over the weekend in what was billed as the franchise’s largest gathering of stars past and present.Stars such as Mike Ditka, Dick Butkus, Mike Singletary and Dan Hampton were on hand this weekend. Even Gale Sayers, weakened by dementia, made the 130-mile trip from his home in Indiana to attend the opening ceremonies on Friday night, getting a rousing ovation in an emotional moment.“This weekend has been like a happy dream that keeps going on and on Tytus Howard Jersey ,” McCaskey, the 96-year-old team matriarch, said Sunday.She recalled the tough times after the Great Depression hit, with her father working various jobs and even borrowing from his children just so the family could eat and keep a roof over their head. Their money was in savings accounts established by Grandma Halas, who would send birthday and Christmas checks each year.When she sees the gleaming, expanded suburban headquarters that bears her father’s name, it’s almost difficult to believe how far the franchise has come.“It’s hard to imagine these days with all the millions and millions of dollars that people are talking about,” McCaskey said. “Each time I go up there, I think, ‘Does this really belong to us? Is this really part of our organization?'”McCaskey touched on a wide range of topics, from the history of the franchise and the NFL and her father’s legacy to the current state of the team.Though she was too young to remember it, she was around when the Bears signed Red Grange out of the University of Illinois in 1925 and embarked on a 19-game barnstorming tour that helped legitimize the struggling NFL. She saw the “Monsters of the Midway” re-establish themselves last season, winning the NFC North at 12-4 in fun-loving coach Matt Nagy’s first season. And she has witnessed just about everything in between.She was asked what her favorite game was when the Bears played at Wrigley Field. That would be a 14-10 victory over the New York Giants in the 1963 NFL championship game.The Bears intercepted Y.A. Tittle five times on the way to their sixth and final title with Halas as their coach. Chicago has won it all just one time since then, when the 1985 team shuffled its way to the Super Bowl and the ninth championship in franchise history.“Even though it wasn’t against the Packers, it was the culmination of a championship season and my dad’s final championship,” McCaskey said. “We had beaten the Packers previously in Green Bay and in Wrigley Field that season.”Her favorite Bears player? Walter Payton.McCaskey also talked about the 1985 team Gary Jennings Jr. Jersey , one of the greatest in NFL history. The Bears went 15-1, the lone loss coming on a Monday night at Miami in early December after Chicago outscored Dallas and Atlanta a combined 80-0 the previous two games.“That was a very unusual team and a very unusual season because so much of the normal stress of game days seemed to be disappearing,” she said. “We could go to the game and not be completely knotted up inside. There was so much confidence in everyone. Except for the game at Miami, everything turned out very well.”As for Nagy, McCaskey is a fan.He helped set the tone as the Bears returned to the playoffs for the first time since the 2010 season. He won more games than any other rookie coach in franchise history, and he did it with an approach the city and team embraced. He ran trick plays with fun names and turned the locker room into a nightclub — “Club Dub” — after victories.“My dad, George Halas, certainly celebrated every championship,” McCaskey said. “But all through the season, it was very serious work and very concentrated situations. There are pictures of him in the locker room after the various championships and I love them. But our present day coach has made each game and each week a possible celebration. And I think that is a very excellent difference. The season is so much longer, it’s so much harder to get to the final game and win the final game. But we’re hoping for a lot of those ‘Club Dub.'”