Detroit Free Press (MI) July 21, 2004 TIGERS DRAW 322 FOUR-LEGGED FANS TO 2ND BARK IN THE PARK Author: JOHN ELIGON FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER Former Tigers pitcher Milt Wilcox was sitting behind the leftfield stands at Comerica Park before Tuesday night's game when three young ladies rushed him. But they weren't interested in Wilcox. They wanted to check out his black Labrador, Sparky. "He's a chick magnet, no doubt," Wilcox said of the dog he named Sparky Anderson Wilcox. Sparky had plenty of competition, though. At the sight of other dogs, the young ladies quickly dispersed. Wilcox and Sparky were at the game for the second annual Bark in the Park night, in which fans were invited to bring their dogs and sit in the Pooch Pavilion in leftfield. Vendors sold bags of dog food at discounted prices, and organizers auctioned off baseballs signed by Tigers players. Wilcox also posed for pictures with dogs and their owners for $5, with proceeds benefiting the Michigan Animal Adoption Network. Wilcox's dog is especially famous -- he competes in dock jumping and is one of the best in the country with a personal-best leap of 22 feet, 7 inches. The Tigers reported the official dog attendance at 322 for the game against the Minnesota Twins. The dogs ranged in size from 140-pound Great Danes to petite toy poodles. Despite the differences, the dogs seemed to interact playfully with one another -- though an occasional howl was heard. Ellen Hechler, 50, sat in a wheelchair holding her pair of fluffy, white toy poodles on a leash as they reached for a much bigger rottweiler/German shepherd crossbreed. Her dogs looked as if they were in attack mode, but it was all in good fun. Hechler, a Farmington Hills resident and avid baseball fan, was all smiles. "We came last year, and we couldn't wait to come again this year," said Hechler, who named her poodles Happy and Go Lucky. "I love doing anything I can with my dogs." Hechler had two of the smallest dogs in the park, and Kathy Kenney certainly had two of the biggest. She brought her brown, droopy-faced Great Dane and her rottweiler. "I love the big dogs," said Kenney, from White Lake. "The bigger, the better." From hats to bibs to jerseys, many of the dogs sported Tigers apparel. Don and Norine Audette of Sterling Heights brought their tiny Italian greyhound clad in an orange Tigers bib and with a stuffed tiger mounted to a hat on its head. The couple said they're avid Tigers fans, and their dog is, too -- even though they've never asked for her opinion. "If she's in the family, she's a Tigers fan," said Don, 46. Although the Tigers don't always allow dogs in the gates, Norine said, it's something they should do more often. "Ballgames are family games," she said. "And dogs are part of the family."