Brandon Inge got the call just after 5 p.m. Thursday informing him that he’d made his first All-Star team. Shani Inge, who was riding in the car with her husband when Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski rang with the news, did what any wife would do when she heard.

“I screamed,” she said. “I couldn’t control it.”

Her husband, on the other hand, spent the first hour or so after receiving the news chatting on the phone to well-wishers, trying to find a minute to let it sink in.

“He’s beside himself,” she said.

Inge had a hunch it would be this way. Not necessarily that he would win the All-Star Game Final Vote and secure the last spot on the American League roster — in a record-setting vote: 68.6 million votes were cast—– but that gaining a spot on the All-Star team would complete a stunning turnaround from a little more than 12 months ago, when Inge lost his starting spot at third base.

“Oh, my gosh, there were times last year when we didn’t know what the future would bring, or whether we would stay in Detroit,” Shani said. “But I was just telling Brandon how important it is sometimes to go through all of life’s experiences, no matter how painful.”

Inge knows that, too. This is why when he was asked the day before the voting concluded what it would mean to make it, he said: “Probably, the best thing that would ever happen to me in baseball. I’ve been thinking about this since I was a little kid.”

As the week progressed and Inge began sensing the fans — and organization — pushing his candidacy, he felt overwhelmed, in a good way. Every time he jogged back from third he saw signs in the stands: “Vote for Inge.” Sometimes he could hear them as he stepped out of the dugout toward the on-deck circle: “Hey, we voted for you, come on, buddy!” Or, “Hey, if you don’t get a hit here I’m not voting for you.”

Inge was the first Tiger to win the All-Star Game Final Vote. His 11.8 million votes were enough to edge Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler. Fans bragged about voting several hundred times, and the whole thing had a loose and easy vibe to it. Still, said Inge’s manager, Jim Leyland: “No matter how he got there, he deserves it.”

Few Tigers are as popular as Inge. He received the loudest ovation on Opening Day, and despite his struggles at the plate over the years he has found ways to endear himself to fans with hustle, intensity and often spectacular play in the field.

Said Shani: “I hadn’t been to the park all week, and when I went there (Wednesday night) I couldn’t believe all the T-shirts and signs supporting Brandon. It overtook me.”

On Thursday, the result of that affection overtook her husband, too, and a career year got a whole lot sweeter.