By Barrett Dolata, The Detroit News

After a 20-year hiatus, the Detroit Zoo has brought back its Zoo Keys, sponsored by Fifth Third Bank. These rhinoceros and gorilla-shaped keys can be purchased for $4 and used at 11 different audio boxes located around the zoo to unlock poems about the nearest animal.

The poems are intended to foster both learning and a deeper appreciation for animals, which were written and recited by local youth from the zoo’s education and volunteer programs, including InsideOut Literary Arts and additional afterschool programs.

“They were able to come spend time at the zoo, observing the animals,” said Emily O’Hara, senior director of guest experience at Detroit Zoological Society. “And then work with our team on writing and working through the poetic process.”

O’Hara said with the newly developed audio boxes, the zoo is able to reprogram the messages and poems from each box as needed, offering both messages in English and Spanish. After purchasing a Zoo Key, guests can reuse the key at every box and with every visit.

When guests used their Zoo Keys back in the 1960s-’70s, and again in the early 2000s, the audio boxes were programmed with storybook animal tales — still as a way to engage zoo guests with the animals creatively. While the messages have switched to poetry, guests can use their old Zoo Keys from their early days to prompt the audio boxes.

“You can bring them back if you pull them out of a drawer or an old box that maybe a parent or grandparent or someone else in your life has,” O’Hara said.

The keys that date back to the ‘60s were red and shaped like an elephant, and adapted to a flat shape in the early 2000s. The iconic Zoo Keys were also used at other zoos like the San Francisco Zoo and Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, and are now selling on Ebay for upwards of $30-$50 or more.

“For anyone who grew up with Zoo Keys, we have heard for years guests asking, ‘Are they ever going to come back?’,” O’Hara said. “So we’re really excited to offer this up to guests who come to the Detroit Zoo to be able to come back and live some of that nostalgia.”

With the reintroduction of the Zoo Keys, the zoo also added a limited-time Dragon Forest trail for guests to explore and new penny press machines, featuring eight designs to collect this summer.

They also plan to add a few more audio boxes in the near future, and eventually expand even more down the line. Zoo Keys are available for purchase at the Detroit Zoo Shop, main gate ticket booths and other attractions.

bdolata@detroitnews.com

©2025 The Detroit News. Visit detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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With just a single season in the books, the indoor golf league created by legends Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy already is expanding.

TGL announced plans for a new franchise Tuesday, and the league is welcoming Detroit into the fold. TGL announced that the Motor City Golf Club will start play in Season 3 in 2027.

The Detroit ownership group is led by Detroit Lions principal owner Sheila Ford Hamp and her sons Michael Hamp and Peter Hamp. Rob Walton, owner of the Denver Broncos, also is part of the ownership group, as are additional partners from the sports and Detroit community.

Michael and Peter Hamp were early investors in TGL.

“This is a great moment for Detroit sports and a proud moment for me personally,” Michael Hamp, co-owner of Middle West Partners and team governor for Motor City Golf Club, said in a statement. “My grandfather, William Clay Ford Sr., was an avid golfer, and I believe bringing a new format of the game he loved would make him really proud. I’m incredibly grateful for our partners at MGCC.

“It’s an honor to build this team together. Detroit’s fans are the most loyal in sports, and we’re excited to represent our city in TGL and build a team that Detroit fans will be proud to support.”

Other members of the Detroit ownership are Jordan Rose, president and founder of the Rose Law Firm; Kevin Kelleher, also of Middle West Partners; and Jay Farner, former CEO of Rocket Companies.

Player commitments for the Detroit franchise weren’t immediately announced Tuesday.

Season 1 of TGL, played in state-of-the-art, high-tech SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, featured six franchises: Atlanta Drive Golf Club, Boston Common Golf, Jupiter Links Golf Club, Los Angeles Golf Club, New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club. Featured players included Woods, McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama, Max Homa, Tom Kim, Collin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele and Ludvig Aberg.

Inaugural franchise owners included Venus and Serena Williams, Stephen Curry, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, the owners of the Boston Red Sox, and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen.

Each TGL franchise has a four-player roster, with three competing in each match ― the matches are broken up into sessions of alternate-shot format and head-to-head match play. Players hit tee shots and approach shots into massive simulator screens, while they play their shots around the green, including bunker shots, chips and putts, on a green surface that rotates and adjusts for each hole, depending on the hole’s layout.

The Atlanta Drive, led by Thomas, Cantlay, Billy Horschel and Lucas Glover, won the championship for Season 1 of TGL, which aired its matches on ESPN platforms. The league debuted in January 2025. Matches, which aired on Mondays and Tuesdays, averaged a little more than 500,000 viewers, modest numbers, though numbers that outpaced the programming in similar time slots on ESPN platforms in 2024.

TGL was created by TMRW Sports, the brainchild of Woods and McIlroy, as well as sports executive Mike McCarley, in partnership with the PGA Tour. Jason Langwell, who ran the Rocket Classic, Detroit’s PGA Tour stop, from 2019-24, joined TMRW Sports as chief revenue officer in July 2024, shortly after the completion of that year’s Rocket.

“Detroit is a fantastic sports town. The city has a championship legacy and Detroit fans are passionate about their teams and they’ll let you know it,” McCarley, CEO of TMRW Sports, said in a statement Tuesday. “The ownership group for Motor City Golf Club will utilize their deep ties to the community, and extensive expertise as NFL team owners to forge a TGL team that embodies Detroit’s culture for sprots and the region’s golf of golf. TGL’s inaugural season generated extensive interest in its expansion process and we’re proud to welcome Motor City Golf Club and its ownership group as we build on the league’s continued momentum in the years to come.”

TGL is continuing to explore expansion into additional markets, including possibly Chicago and Dallas.

DETROIT – Gleyber Torres’ baseball intelligence has been on display in various forms all season, none more than in the sixth inning Friday night.

“Smart player,” manager AJ Hinch said with appreciation after the Tigers’ 2-1 win over the Rangers.

It was a play that was not recorded because it technically happened after the third out of the inning was made. But Torres wasn’t completely sure of that and, especially in a one-run game, he wasn’t taking any chances. He stayed with the play.

Here’s the set up. The Rangers had spoiled Tarik Skubal’s bid for perfection with a run on a couple of two-strike singles and a hit-batsman.

With two outs, Skubal got Jonah Heim to hit a grounder to short. Trey Sweeney got the ball on a couple of hops and had to hurry his throw to Torres covering second base.

The umpire signaled the runner, Sam Haggerty, out, but it was a bang-bang play and Torres didn’t want to leave it up to a challenge. He alertly fired to third base and the Tigers trapped runner Ezequiel Duran in a run down.

“We talk about those plays that end innings; just keep playing the play,” Hinch said. “Whether you are a base runner or a fielder like Gleyber was. He had the best view for feeling the bag and he threw the ball to third base.

“Just a really smart play.”

That play effectively negated any reason for the Rangers to challenge the play at second.

“He would have been out at home,” Hinch said, “or we would have seen my first ejection.”

Torres is only 28 but he is in his eighth season. He and Javier Baez are easily the most-seasoned players in the clubhouse.

“Just being a pro, and I think that’s what he’s come into our clubhouse and done,” Skubal said. “You can feel the veteran that he is, who he is in the box and defensively, too.”

The Tigers preach strike zone control on both sides of the ball and Torres is a model for that. He has a higher walk rate (8.6%) than strikeout rate (7.8%) and his 131 OPS-plus is third best on the team.

On top of that, his calm, steady presence both on the infield and in the clubhouse has been stabilizing.

“He’s in tune with every aspect of the game and continues to impress me,” Hinch said.

Torres made another veteran play in the seventh, another one that won’t go into the books but was big at the time.

In the seventh inning, Skubal was up over 90 pitches. He was laboring after he struck out Marcus Semien for the second out so Torres strolled up to Skubal on the mound.

“That was the most important mound visit I ever had,” Skubal said. “He came up and said, ‘Just giving you a breather.’ I said, ‘Put your hand on my chest, feel my heart.’ It was beating pretty fast.

“I don’t really like calling guys out to the mound, but I was going to have to call out Ding or Fett (pitching coach Chris Fetter). But Gleyber did it and I Iove that. He’s a pro’s pro.”

ALLEN PARK — Some people were born to be Detroit Lions. Isaac TeSlaa is one of them.

The Lions traded up twice on Day 2 of the NFL Draft, using their second move to go up 32 spots in Round 3 and grab TeSlaa, a wide receiver from Arkansas who grew up in Hudsonville and has been a fan of the Lions since he was in diapers.

Detroit sent multiple Day 2 picks to get TeSlaa (6-foot-4, 214 pounds) on Friday night, giving up both of next year’s third-round picks and this year’s third-rounder (102 overall). In return, the Lions received pick Nos. 70 and 182 in this year’s draft and a sixth-round pick in next year’s draft.

“I don’t know if I have words … I’m still processing it right now. Obviously, it’s been not only a dream to play in the NFL, but to play for my hometown team, the team I’ve been rooting for since I was a baby, so, it’s just an incredible feeling,” TeSlaa told reporters via Zoom.

TeSlaa, 23, attended Unity Christian in Hudsonville. He began his college career at Hillsdale (Great Midwest Athletic Conference) before transferring to Arkansas in 2023. Over 25 games for the Razorbacks, he caught 62 passes for 896 yards (14.5 average) and five touchdowns.

He first got on the radar of Lions general manager Brad Holmes during the Senior Bowl. Holmes immediately noticed TeSlaa’s blocking, saying he “was just being a pest and he was pissing off the (defensive backs).”

“Obviously, it made me just want to completely watch the tape when you see a guy that’s just big, long, smooth strider, can accelerate, can run, he’s a hands catcher, can play special teams, can block,” Holmes said. “He can do a lot of things.”

He’s an uber-athletic receiver with inside-outside ability and said he models his game after Los Angeles Rams receiver Puka Nacua. Based on NFL Combine measurements, TeSlaa ranked No. 1 in athleticism score, per Next Gen Stats. He received a 9.97 Relative Athletic Score, which ranks 11th out of 3,441 receivers from 1987 to 2025.

“He’s gonna need to develop, but he’s got the tools to play outside and win outside. He’s gonna have to learn getting off press (coverage) and all that stuff, just like they all do, but he’s got all the physical tools,” Holmes said. “He’s got the intangible makeup to be able to overcome that.”

The Lions hosted TeSlaa on a top-30 visit — and TeSlaa showed up in a customized Lions jersey (No. 10) with his name on the back. Holmes thought it was a bit “cheesy” until TeSlaa told him he’s owned the gear since eighth grade.

Just how deep does TeSlaa’s fandom go? He was in attendance at Ford Field when Lions Hall-of-Famer Calvin Johnson set the single-season receiving record in 2012.

“I remember growing up watching Calvin Johnson, Matthew Stafford, all those guys,” TeSlaa said. “It’s cool to be a part of that team now.”

Two of the picks used to move up for TeSlaa were compensatory picks awarded to the Lions after former defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn was hired as head coach of the New York Jets. Detroit also moved up three spots in Round 2 to draft Georgia guard Tate Ratledge, sending pick Nos. 60 and 130 to the Denver Broncos for Nos. 57 and 230.

Following the pair of trades, the Lions are set to have four picks on the final day of the draft: Two in Round 6 (Nos. 182; 196, via Tampa Bay) and three in Round 7 (Nos. 228, via Dallas; 230, via Denver; and 244). With still one day remaining, Holmes has now traded up in the draft 11 times since 2021.

Entering Day 3, the Lions have yet to address edge rusher, their biggest position of need entering the weekend and arguably one of the deepest positions of the entire draft.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a disappointment (to not add an edge rusher) because we got all guys that we love,” Holmes said. “Like I told you guys before the draft, we could have drafted an edge rusher that plays that position. We could have done it, and y’all would have been happy, right?”

Holmes continued, “All I hear is ‘Edge rusher, draft an edge rusher.’ So I’m like, ‘Well, are you assuming that the guy’s really good?’ Well, that’s a whole different story. Can you get in a position to get one of those? I don’t need to get into specifics, but there’s times where we made attempts to get one, and (he) just got picked before, we couldn’t get up (in a trade). It takes two to trade. Or we just had another player higher, but we did the same thing that we do every draft. We picked the highest-rated player regardless of position.”

At Hillsdale, TeSlaa was named the 2022 Great Midwest Athletic Conference offensive player of the year and was First Team All-G-MAC after hauling in 68 catches for 1,325 yards (19.5 average) and 13 touchdowns.

TeSlaa joins a receiving room that features two-time All-Pro receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Tim Patrick, Ronnie Bell, Tom Kennedy and Kalif Raymond.