Rod Allen Embraces 'Second Deck' And Says Tigers Fans Should Too [AUDIO]

By: Jeff Riger
@riger1984

There have been signs spotted everywhere, from tailgates at Michigan State to the Tigers' Comerica Park, that prove sports fans around metro Detroit are embracing the "Second Deck" phenomenon.

It started innocently enough when Fox Sport Detroit's Rod Allen yelled out "Second Deck" after a James McCann Home Run in Minnesota that reached the actual second deck at Target Field.  When you listen to Allen say "second deck" it sounded like something that I'm not allowed to write and everybody loved it.

When the Tigers came back from their recent road trip our station got word that even the players were enjoying "Second Deck."

The man who uttered the two words we will forever remember sat down with 97.1 the Ticket's Jeff Riger.

Turns out, he heard about "second deck" from a laughing Brad Ausmus on the plane that whisked the team out of Minnesota the night he said it. "That's when I really started to understand really what they were talking about," Allen said. "Obviously I had seen it on Twitter, but during the course of the game I really can't monitor that too much. I knew something was going on but I didn't know what it was."

He said his broadcast partner didn't think anything was amiss at the time, despite the pause that had many people thinking his jaw had dropped.

"He really didn't have any idea of what I said," Allen said.

Ian Kinsler and Justin Verlander love "second deck," some have noted in the clubhouse.

Allen said players haven't anything said specifically to him, but added "I know that it's getting a whole lot of play across the state of Michigan and here in the city of Detroit. It's all good. I mean we're here in the pennant race and people are having fun."

It's gone so far that a woman brought her 8-year-old son over to Allen and asked him to say "second deck" to her child.

"I said 'absolutely not am I going to say that around your 8-year-old son,'" Allen said, laughing.

Should fans embrace it as a rallying cry that urges on their team in the home stretch? Allen says "yes."

"If it takes their minds off the game for just a moment, too, this is going to be a gut-wrenching week for Detroit Tigers fans, there's no question about that, and the players, if Kinsler and Verlander, they love it too, then it takes their mind off the game, possibly for a moment, and we can all have some fun, we can all laugh, and hopefully we can get to the post-season," he said.

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• Detroit Tigers