Ask most parents. Taking your son/daughter to a Major League Baseball game is fun. Watching him/her play is even more fun. But, playing on the same team in Detroit Tigers uniforms for a week in Florida makes the fun of fantasy reality.

When my eldest son Harris was nine, we spent an idyllic week watching Major League Baseball spring training games in and around Dunedin, Fla., the Toronto Blue Jays spring home. Twenty-three years later, we revisited central Florida to celebrate his 31st birthday. However, this time there was a major league difference. We didn’t watch, we played.

The crack of the bat and the sound of a hardball on leather may signal the onset of spring for many, but for St. Clair Avenue and Avenue Road area resident David Eisenstadt, it's a chance to bond with his son.

It was yet another surreal moment amid seven days of pure fantasy. In the game that capped the Detroit Tigers baseball camp — against the retired pros who had coached me — I found myself staring down 1968 World Series pitcher Jack Billingham in the first inning.

BASEBALL DREAMS BECOME REALITY AT TIGERS FANTASY CAMP

BASEBALL FANTASY CAMP BECOMES REALITY FOR A CANADIAN ENTREPRENEUR

In 1938 and 1939, “Hammerin’” Hank Greenberg led a Detroit Tigers lineup that included left-handed pitcher Harry Eisenstat. For seven glorious days in January, I joined their alumni roster as the latest Eisenstadt to don Tigers’ blue, albeit at the team’s fantasy camp. Learning to really play hardball, meeting phenoms of yesteryear, honing my skills, swapping tall tales, and generally having the time of my life made the week about as good as it gets.

Opportunity to play game with Detroit Tigers greats a thrill for lifelong major league wannabe