Detroit Tigers at top, so why not Detroit?

"It's getting a whole lot better," says Sylvester Whitley, who works at the State Theatre across from Comerica Park. A resident with a memory that stretches back three decades, he says the job opportunities are better now than in many times in Detroit's past.

The city's population has fallen by half from its peak around 1950. But Mr. Whitley symbolizes the many residents – 4 in 5 black like himself – who aren't throwing in the towel. And he's a fan of the Tigers, from leadoff man Curtis Granderson to last-in-the-lineup Ramon Santiago. "I like 'em all, because they play as a team," Whitley says.

For him and other fans, the club embodies a mix of grit, talent, and improbable flair of which turnarounds are made.

But experts say that completing Detroit's revival won't happen in one season, let alone a decade.

In the past few years, even as unemployment has fallen to below 5 percent nationwide, the jobless rate has risen here to 7.1 percent.

Next to Cleveland, Detroit has the highest poverty rate of any major city in the United States, at 31 percent.

And amid a recent teachers' strike, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded for City Hall to take over management of Detroit's struggling schools.

Since race riots rocked Detroit in the late 1960s, a white exodus to the suburbs has left much of the 139-square-mile city in stagnation. This summer, for the first time, came news that the city's African-American population is declining as well.

This city has always been a transportation hub of sorts, arising as a French fur-trading center on the Great Lakes. The central role of the car industry has made Detroit's road a volatile one. As the region rode the automobile's rise for much of the 1900s, population soared.

In 1968, when the Tigers won an epic seven-game World Series against the Cardinals, Michigan built about 3 million cars and light trucks, more than one-third of the nation's total. When the Tigers next played in the series, in 1984, the state still made as many cars, but those were just 26 percent of the US total. Today, Michigan is making 1.6 million vehicles, just 19 percent of US output, according to data from WardsAuto.com.

The city will surely remain a hub of car design and engineering. But the factory jobs continue to vanish.

Against this backdrop, recent signs of progress are steps on a long path. "It's not a renaissance. It's not a turnaround," says Mr. Boyle. "It's a realignment."

A Tigers victory would provide a morale boost along the way. "Detroit could always use it," says Paul O'Neill, a resident of nearby Troy who brought his family into town to bask in the excitement before Game 1.

His little daughter, Grace, has a simple recipe for urban revival.

"More kids," she says. "We need a few more kids on the streets."

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