MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses Jeff Petry’s status as a hockey-mad kid growing up in Metro Detroit in the late 90’s this afternoon:
“Both my parents being from California, my dad retired (in Michigan) and thought, ‘What can we put our two boys in that’s going to keep them busy all year round?’ ” Petry said. “So, it was baseball in the summer. And my dad knew nothing about hockey, but he knew it was big in Michigan and that was his reason behind putting us (him and older brother Matt) into hockey.”
Petry was born four days after the Tigers traded his dad to the California Angels on Dec. 9, 1987.
After briefly living in Southern California, the family returned to Michigan, where Petry lived in Grosse Pointe before moving to Farmington Hills, where his parents still reside.
His father, a Tigers analyst for Bally Sports Detroit, retired in 1991. That’s the year the Red Wings launched what would become a 25-season playoff streak that included four Stanley Cup championships.
That got Jeff hooked on hockey.
“I was always watching Red Wings games. My childhood room was Red Wings everything,” Petry said. “Hockey was always something I enjoyed more than baseball. It took me a while to finally tell my dad that. Hockey always meant a little bit more to me. He was very supportive of both sports growing up. When I ultimately made the decision to stop playing baseball, he was thrilled that I picked hockey and was going to continue down that road.”
