start on Opening Day since 1979. This was the fifth Opening Day start of Tanana's career, as he had made four for the Angels in the 1970s. He won 13 games apiece in 1991 and 1992 before pitching one more season with the Mets and the Yankees in 1993. After becoming a born-again Christian in November 1983, Tanana became a leader among baseball's Christian community. He has continued to serve in the ministry following his retirement, serving as an elder in his church, assisting the Tigers' chaplain, and performing Bible studies and marriage counselling. He lives in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Early life Tanana grew up in the northwest part of Detroit, Michigan. His father, also named Frank, had played professional baseball in the 1950s and was on the 1955 Eastern League championship team, the Reading Indians, before he left baseball and joined the Detroit Police Department to support his family. After young Frank got done with homework, he and his friends would spend the rest of the afternoon playing various sports. He rooted for the hometown Detroit Tigers growing up, listing Al Kaline, Mickey Lolich, Willie Horton, and Mickey Stanley among his favorite players. Tanana attended Detroit Catholic Central High School, an all-boys school; though it was seven miles from his home, he was attracted to it after seeing their basketball team featured on the front page of a newspaper sports section. He made all-state twice in basketball, but it was in baseball he excelled, as he had a 32–1 record in his high school career. In a cocky moment his senior year, he threw sidearm to a hitter and injured his shoulder. He pitched through the injury for the rest of the year until leaving the mound after the fourth inning of the championship game, when the pain got to be too much for him. Thinking the injury would hurt his baseball chances, he had just about decided to attend Duke University on a basketball scholarship when the California Angels made him their first-round draft pick in 1971. Minor league career Tanana was assigned to the Idaho Falls Angels of the rookie-level Pioneer League in 1971, but tendinitis in his shoulder prevented him from pitching. Instead, he received cortisone treatments. "I tell you, I didn't have many friends on that team," Tanana said. "Here were guys being cut off the team, and I, who couldn't throw, was staying because