Editor's note Aug. 14: Longtime Gazette employee Tim Simpson, who chronicled his visit to and gifts from the Detroit Tigers in the letter below, has died.



Tim Simpson, a long-time employee at The Gazette and former member of the Sports department, is battling terminal cancer. Simpson, whose 40-year newspaper career began at the Windsor Star and ended when he took a buyout from The Gazette last year, is a lifelong Detroit Tigers fan. This is a thank-you letter he wrote recently to Detroit general manager Dave Dombrowski after attending a game in June as a special guest at Comerica Park.

Dear Mr. Dombrowski,

This is to thank you, again, for doing such nice things for me.

Last winter, my friend Michael Farber asked you to arrange an autographed baseball from Justin Verlander. In March, the parcel arrived. It was a great gift for a lifelong Tigers fan who is dying of cancer.

I wrote a thank-you letter for that and, with the help of countless people, it was published in The Gazette here in Montreal, the Windsor Star and the Detroit Free Press. There were lots of emails and comments about the letter. I cried so much reading about how it offered hope to those in similar circumstances. The real reward of the efforts.

You wrote a nice letter back, telling me to get in touch with your staff the next time I was in Windsor.

“We’d like to do something special for you,” it said on the letter.

“Something special” for me, anyway, is something like free tickets to a game. Good seats, of course. Maybe even a parking pass.

After trial and error, it was arranged that I would attend a game. The original plan was for a game in late July.

But life got in the way.

The results of the CT scan I had in April were not good. My first round of chemotherapy was an epic fail. The tumours — lung, liver, esophagus and bones — are aggressive. They not only resisted the chemo, they got worse.

Now what?

The trip to Windsor had to be sooner rather than later. Some family and friends to see before it got to the point where I can’t travel any more. And one more baseball game. I really wanted to see one more baseball game. True baseball fans understand.

After corresponding with the Tigers staff, we went to Comerica Park on June 17. Seven of us: my Mom, my sister Terry, Aunt Ila and Uncle Bernie and their grandson Michael, and my oldest and bestest friend Dave. As I told others, to say you did “something special” for me is like saying the sun is a little bright.

We gathered at the administrative offices at Comerica Park. We were there to meet public-relations honcho Donna Bernardo. She and her assistant/intern Courtney treated all of us like royalty.

We were taken to the field for batting practice. Then Donna explained the rules to us: stay between the barriers, do not walk on the field grass (seriously!), don’t go over and start talking to players, and don’t take any bats and balls.

Too late, Donna. I got a ball! And no. You cannot have it back.

Not long after that, I finally got to meet you, Mr. Dombrowski. Again, I apologize for crying when I met you. You’re the one who arranged to get the baseball from Verlander. And you’re the one who was responsible for all that was happening that day. In my condition, I get quite emotional. Please don’t think all us Canadians are wusses.