Draft night turns into 'Pizza Pizza' party for Tigers

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The home run dugout celebration has become a big part of the MLB experience, including this year’s Tigers celebration with the Little Caesars pizza spear.

Likewise, the war room celebration shot has become an iconic part of the draft broadcast in all sports, including baseball.

On Sunday, the Tigers might have become the first team to merge them both.

So how did the pizza spear become a part of the Tigers’ Draft room?

“I don’t have a specific answer,” Tigers assistant general manager Rob Metzler said. “I’m not even sure, truthfully. The buildup to the initial picks, sometimes [amateur scouting director] Mark [Conner] or myself are out on the phone trying to figure out what’s going on. I came back into the room, and then the pizza spear was in there.”

In fairness, the pizza spear wasn’t going to be in use for a few days over the All-Star break before it heads to Canada with the team for a three-game series at Toronto beginning Friday. The only celebrating going on for a few days was going to be for future Tigers being added to the system.

In that respect, the Tigers getting shortstop Bryce Rainer with the 11th overall pick was arguably as big of a development as the Tigers’ comeback wins over the Dodgers over the weekend. It addressed one of the organization’s longstanding positional needs, and given the mock Drafts leading up to Sunday, it came as a bit of a surprise.

The Tigers, Metzler explained, were prepared to be surprised, doing their homework on Rainer. And when he became available at their pick, they were able to make it happen. So if players are allowed and encouraged to have fun, so should scouts and crosscheckers, who never get nearly enough credit in the Draft process.

• Rainer
Area Scout - Tim McWilliam
RC - Alex McClure

• Owen Hall
Area Scout - Steve Taylor
RC - Tim Grieve

• Ethan Schiefelbein
Area Scout - Steve Pack
RC - Alex McClure

At first glance, the photos look kind of corporate. But in reality, scouts and crosscheckers are part of the lifeblood of any functioning MLB organization. They spend far more time in ballparks than in boardrooms, donning polos more often than suits. They spend long stretches on the road watching players, looking for the next talent that could help the parent club’s fortunes.

So with all three selections Sunday night, the regional crosschecker who scouted the player drafted got to take a lap around the room with the spear.

“After the buildup and the excitement to those picks and all the work that has gone into them, you never know how the release of energy and excitement is going to come out,” Metzler said. “So it led to the pizza celly. … I think it was just a fun moment for the group. More spontaneous than planned, let’s put it that way.”