Tigers Meet Harlequin: Reunited With The Pitcher's Sweetheart

The Hero: David Price

What You Need To Know: While he was drafted out of high school by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Price opted to spend three years playing college ball for Vanderbilt that paid off handsomely when he was drafted #1 overall by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2007.  He pitched his first major league game in 2008, giving up a home run to Derek Jeter (incidentally Jeter also got his 3000th career hit off Price - another home run in 2011).

But giving up home runs to Jeter aside, Price was money for Tampa Bay - winning the Cy Young Award in 2012, being named the starting pitcher for the American League All-Star Team in 2010, and was a big reason this expansion team started to become credible after posting it's first winning season ever (in 2008) and advancing to the World Series (they lost, to the Phillies).

The Rays on a downhill slide (and looking to dump payroll) in 2014, Price came over to Detroit as part of a three-team trade with the Seattle Mariners.  We lost Drew Smyly (a promising young pitcher) and past Tigers Meet Harlequin All-Star, Austin Jackson.  This move was huge news at the time, since it put three Cy Young winners in Detroit's starting rotation.  Price's time in the second half of the season for Detroit was a little uneven, but he's bounced back sufficiently to be named this year's Opening Day starter.

His Baggage: Active on social media, the real story isn't David Price but his French bulldog, Astro. Astro is a regular fixture in the clubhouse and was so popular in Tampa Bay he even got his own bobble-head promotion.  Look at that face.  How could you not love that sweet, goofy looking face?  Both of them.

Proposed Category Romance Plot:  Looking to recoup after a long, grinding season of upheaval, he heads back to his Tennessee hometown to spend time unwinding and relaxing.  However, instead of family barbecues and playing catch with his nephews in the back yard, he finds himself getting roped into doing charity work for a no-kill animal shelter.  They want him, his dog, and the celebrity power of  them both to raise funds in a hurry, or else one of the very few shelters in the area is in danger of closing it's doors for good.  He's happy to help, until he realizes that he's going to have to work with his former college sweetheart, the girl he done very, very wrong.  But that was a long time ago.  He's a changed man.  Certainly she's still not carrying a grudge?  Uh, hopefully?

The Heroine: Oh boy. How did she let herself get talked into this nightmare?  She's poured her blood, sweat and tears into the shelter, but it's never quite been enough.  In danger of losing the place forever she lets her sister talk her into seeking out David, the man who broke her heart into a million pieces back in college.  She was over the moon for him,  Crazy in love.  Until the day she walked into his dorm room and found him in a compromising position with a girl she thought was her friend.  He left school soon after for the big leagues, and she graduated with a fancy diploma that has led her to fulfilling, albeit poorly paid, work in the non-profit world.  As much as she's not ready to let David back into her life?  She's a different person from the girl she was in college.  And besides, she'd do anything for her shelter, even if that means she has to put barbed-wire around her heart in order to save the place.

What Category Romance Line?:  Oh David, how could you!  Cheating on your college girlfriend!  With a baseball groupie!  Dude.  You've got some fast talking and fancy tap-dancing to do.  Angst, cute puppies and kitty-cats?  A hero who will have to get on bended knee and grovel his face off?  Harlequin Romance.