  Mrjoshua Member Username: Mrjoshua Post Number: 934 Registered: 03-2005 |
Once a baseball cathedral, Tiger Stadium now sits in disrepair Updated 10/19/2006 1:22 AM ET By Mel Antonen, USA TODAY DETROIT Former outfielder Willie Horton, a baseball legend in Motown, avoids driving anywhere close to Tiger Stadium. Baseball hasn't been played there for seven years, but seeing the ballpark is too emotional for Horton. "Our team bus drives by it, and I look the other way," says Horton, a Detroit Tigers executive who played 14 years for the club, including the 1968 World Series win against the St. Louis Cardinals. "There's something there that's still a part of me, and when Tiger Stadium goes, a piece of me will be gone, too."  Even though it now sits empty, Tiger Stadium is still a landmark for Detroit baseball fans at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues. A new era of Detroit championship baseball begins Saturday night when the Tigers play Game 1 of the World Series in their snazzy $300 million Comerica Park. Opened in 2000, Comerica has roomy concourses, carnival rides, a downtown view, giant tiger sculptures and an outfield fountain that sprays water synchronized to music. The park is a just over a mile from the corner of Michigan and Trumbull, where decaying Tiger Stadium sits waiting to be demolished. The no-frills park that opened in 1912 (as Navin Field), hosted 12 World Series games and averaged 1.6 million fans a year since 1960 is an albatross to the area's economic growth, city officials say. After seven years of intense debate, city elders announced plans in June to raze the park next year and build retail stores, apartments and condominiums, a museum and a baseball field where children 12 and younger can step into the same batter's box as Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg and Al Kaline. "The focus will be on children," says Peter Zeiler, special projects manager for the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. "The last thing we want is a bunch of drunks putting softballs into people's windows." Plans are for 250 to 450 living units in a six-story building and 35,000 to 50,000 square feet of retail space that would surround the field. The field will stay the same, and developers will keep as much of the ballpark as possible. The first step is to sell the ballpark's memorabilia, from the seats to the signs to the lawn care equipment, in a computer-based auction in January or February. The project design should be done next spring, with the wrecking ball swinging a few months later. Developing a persona The area right around Tiger Stadium has an eerie quiet about it, almost as if the Tigers were on a road trip. The light fixtures stretch into the sky, and the white and blue exterior, with orange paw prints painted on the wall, is in decent shape. There's a Tiger Stadium neon sign at the top. The blinds are pulled down inside the ticket office, and posters say tickets can be purchased at Comerica. There is a sign that says "Bleacher Entrance" and advertisements for Ballpark Franks and Coca-Cola. A homeless person was wrapped in a sleeping bag outside Gate 15 this week. Inside, the blue and orange seats are in place and the base lines are clean. The electricity and water have been turned off. There are weeds in the grass and some in the grandstand concrete and dugout steps. The center-field scoreboard is intact, with the rotating ads stopped at Budweiser and Blue Cross-Blue Shield. "It's a jigsaw to keep the field there and still be able to build something around it," Zeiler says. "The city has been criticized for not having done anything but ... we spent time finding the right use and we wound up with something no other city has youth baseball players on a former major league diamond." Not everyone agrees. Most who don't are clinging to the tradition of baseball in that Corktown area. Tiger Stadium, site of three All-Star Games (two as Briggs Stadium), is the symbol of the club's glory years, especially when the most recent Tigers were losing. (This season they had their first winning record since 1993.) Others desire private enterprise to take over. Some are angry that Tigers owner Michael Ilitch, who also owns Little Caesars pizza as well as the NHL Detroit Red Wings, annually received until this year between $200,000 and $400,000 to maintain security and do the ground maintenance at the ballpark. Louis Beer of Clarkston, Mich., is the leader of the Navin Field Consortium, a group that proposed returning the ballpark to its original 1912 configuration when it had 18,000 seats. Beer wanted to bring in an independent or minor league team. "Tearing it down is a mistake," Beer says. "I don't see the economic vitality." But Scott Martin, head of the Greater Corktown Development Corp., does. He says Corktown's growth is in the "embryonic stage," with the price for the average house doubling to $250,000, luxury flats selling for $500,000 and developers eager to invest. "We're confident," he says. "The ballpark will be a huge catalyst. The field will be like a town square, and it will be a historic tourism destination." The area booms without the Tigers because, when they were there, residents tore down their homes and operated parking lots for fans driving to games. Those parking lots are being converted into homes and businesses. There are also plans for seven or eight miniature sculpture gardens. The Corktown corporation has built 30 homes and is planning 75 more, in an area two or three blocks from the old park. There's a 61-unit building with luxury lofts several blocks in the opposite direction. Five businesses have started in the area in the last year. Three or four more are coming in the next few months, Martin says. Says Zeiler: "This is all going to come back to life. There's a lot of momentum." Nostalgia lives around the park Some former Tigers think it is time for the ballpark to go. "I don't understand the people who want to keep the ballpark because it is an eyesore," says Jack Morris, who won 198 games for the Tigers from 1977-90. Hall of Fame outfielder Kaline agrees: "It was a great old ballpark for the fans to watch a game, but there was nothing else good about it." Tigers reliever Jason Grilli has a family connection to Tiger Stadium. His dad, Steve, pitched for the 1976-77 club. Grilli doesn't remember the games, but he does have pictures of himself as an infant in the clubhouse with such Tigers as Mark Fidrych and Ron LeFlore. Grilli went into Tiger Stadium this season with a flashlight and broke through cobwebs to check out the location of his dad's locker. He called his dad from the pitcher's mound. "I wanted to see what my dad saw in his day," Grilli says. "He was glad I was there. He was laughing and said, 'I can't believe you're there.' It's neat tracing the history." St. Peter's Episcopal Church is across from the Michigan-Trumbull intersection. Walk a block down Michigan Avenue, and there's a boarded-up deli, an out-of-business suspension service motto, "Limp In, Leap Out" and a Chinese restaurant. Down Trumbull there is a bar, a liquor store, a vacant lot with a broken-down bus, a cab company and Brooks Lumber, a family business that has operated since 1900 and is thriving. Raymond Formosa, 43, who owns Brooks Lumber, is still getting used to a neighborhood with no baseball. He grew up a "block west of home plate," and the stadium lights used to shine into his bedroom window. His office, which has a picture of opening day 1938, is across the street from the ballpark's Will Call window. In a drawer, he has baseballs that were hit from Tiger Stadium into his lumber yard. Formosa and his dad used to park cars at the ballpark. He would listen to the game on radio until the seventh inning, then go into the stadium for free. He remembers people celebrating on their porches throughout the neighborhood when the Tigers were winning. He gets tears in his eyes when he thinks about Horton and other Tigers stopping by the sandlots after games to give pointers to the kids. "It was heartbreaking" to see the team leave, Formosa says. "I miss that stuff. It gets in your blood. It was fun meeting the people. There were people that were married with children who said they first met in our parking lot." Formosa has been to Comerica Park, but it's not the same. He says there is too much entertainment and not enough focus on baseball. "I'm there to see a game, but by the time you do all the (entertainment) stuff, it's the fourth inning." Still, he's happy for the new generation that the Tigers are winning. One of his employees, Justin Marroquin, 19, is a Tigers fan living a winning season for the first time. He wears a Tigers cap to work and loves Comerica. "It's great," Marroquin says. "I saw plenty of baseball this year. I saw (Ken) Griffey hit a grand slam. Pudge (Rodriguez) get a game-winning hit and Roger Clemens pitch. "And now I will be able to tell people what I remember about the first World Series in Comerica." Fond memories for Horton Horton, who turned 64 Wednesday, can relate. He was the youngest of 21 children growing up in the Jeffries Projects 10 minutes from Tiger Stadium. His dad was a coal miner and construction worker. As a kid, Horton and his friends used the Tiger Stadium walls as a backstop to play baseball. He would sneak into the stadium with concession trucks, hide in Dumpsters and go into the park when the gates opened. At 17, Horton came to Tiger Stadium and signed his first contract. He hit a home run in his first game there, off the Baltimore Orioles' Robin Roberts. There is a statue of Horton outside Comerica Park, and his uniform No. 23 is retired. He speaks of throwing out the Cardinals' Lou Brock at home plate in the 1968 World Series, about the '72 playoffs and how Tiger Stadium was so intimate that teammate Gates Brown's dad, John, could give him batting tips as he stood in the on-deck circle. Horton thumps his chest and says, "Tiger Stadium will always be branded right here. There's not a day goes by that I don't think of Tiger Stadium. We played more than a game there. That's where I learned about life." But Horton says it is time to move on. "This new ballpark is beautiful and will be something for my grandchildren," says Horton, who has seven kids, 19 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. "This ballpark is the future. It's time to give them the same kind of memories I had." The Tigers will begin that task Saturday night. A GREAT PLACE TO HIT DETROIT -- Tiger Stadium will be remembered by former Detroit Tigers for its green enclosed interior, closeness to fans, right-field overhang and low roof in the dugouts. Gates Brown, the Tigers' pinch-hitter extraordinaire from 1963-75, says the ballpark was perfect for hitters because of the overhang. "Sometimes, you'd hit one and throw your bat in disgust. Then you'd look up, and it'd be gone," he says. "I just ticked the overhang a couple of times. Only in Tiger Stadium." His best memory was a 1968 doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox. Brown hit a home run in the bottom of the 14th to win the first game and an RBI single off Sparky Lyle to win the second. "My finest day. I'll take that to my grave, Brown says. Fifty thousand people went crazy. And there was a sign across the expressway that said, 'Gates Brown for Governor.'" Former Tiger Willie Horton, who played 14 seasons for the club, also hit a home run at Tiger Stadium in the 1959 city championship game for then prep-powerhouse Detroit Northwestern High School. Hall of Fame outfielder Al Kaline (3,007 hits) says the fans in Tiger Stadium were so close, a player could hear them talk. Kaline, at 18, saw the park for the first time from a team bus in '53. "It looked like a battleship," Kaline said. Jack Morris pitched 14 seasons for the Tigers and was 19-11 in 1984 when they won the World Series. He says he cussed Ty Cobb, who was 6-1, every time he bumped his head on the ceiling of the Tigers' dugout. "The ballpark," Morris says, "was state-of-the-art in the 1920s." By Mel Antonen | ||
Supersport Member Username: Supersport Post Number: 10771 Registered: 10-2003 |
If they are referring to Eaton Spring, I believe they are incorrect. I bought custom springs for my Challenger R/T a few years back from them. They supply the restoration market with replacement springs dating back to the early 1900's, they are "THE" company when it comes to springs, even though the place isn't that big and you'd never guess they do the business they do. This past year my friend attended a Super Bowl event in Dearborn in which the company had their truck on display at the event. If they have since closed up, it is news to me, and slipped under my radar. | ||
Cletus Member Username: Cletus Post Number: 1320 Registered: 01-2004 |
Willie Horton is right, it hurts to drive past Tiger Stadium now. When the park is re-developed and the field is booked with Little League games, it will be a different story. | ||
Blaw82 Member Username: Blaw82 Post Number: 119 Registered: 02-2005 |
Let's just hope the Little League fields really get built. Re-development plans have a way of crumbling in this city. But hopefully the Tiger Stadium plans go as planned and opens the flood gates of demolishing/renovating old buildings around the city. I mean just a mile is Central Station.....they need to figure out what to do with that place. | ||
Dougw Member Username: Dougw Post Number: 1388 Registered: 11-2003 |
At first glance I thought this piece was going to be a hack job, but it's actually a pretty decent, in-depth article. | ||
Andyguard73 Member Username: Andyguard73 Post Number: 143 Registered: 03-2006 |
I felt the same way Dougw, especially after the "morbid urban safari" that was posted yesterday. This was really a well-written article. | ||
Chitaku Member Username: Chitaku Post Number: 832 Registered: 03-2006 |
This city government is a crock and already has disgraced the stadium. For shame! Ilitch too the rotten bastard. I ride by there on my bike look in and think about the great memories with my dad. Then I look at Comercial Park and puke. If I wasn't such a fan of baseball (some family members played in the bigs)and the Tigers of course, then I doubt I would go to Comerica | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 547 Registered: 02-2006 |
Well if you weren't a fan of baseball, you probably wouldn't go to Tiger Stadium if it were still open either. In fact, I'd say you'd be less likely, as it'd be a dump for someone who doesn't appreciate baseball. | ||
Chitaku Member Username: Chitaku Post Number: 834 Registered: 03-2006 |
what about someone who appreciates history? | ||
Eric Member Username: Eric Post Number: 563 Registered: 11-2004 |
Yeah, it would've been nice had they stayed, but they didn't so get over it already, things change and it's time for the stadium to go. If Corktown and the City call pull off this project it'll be the best both worlds the neighborhood get wonderful mixed-use residental project, while keeping the field and part of the stadium for future generations | ||
Burnsie Member Username: Burnsie Post Number: 700 Registered: 11-2003 |
For some reason I have a nagging suspicion that the field will be reduced in size...I hope I'm wrong. | ||
Histeric Member Username: Histeric Post Number: 752 Registered: 10-2003 |
And you are probably correct. The right field will probably have to be reduced to make the Trumbull frontage work for redevelopment. Is that worse than a big box and no field? | ||
Urbanoutdoors Member Username: Urbanoutdoors Post Number: 63 Registered: 11-2005 |
No one is mentioning the point that they have not named a developer for such a project.... I will believe it when I see it. This project just came out of thin air and it doesn't make sense especially with how long they took on planning and securing funds for the book-cadilac. | ||
Smogboy Member Username: Smogboy Post Number: 3905 Registered: 11-2004 |
There was awhile back on the DetroitYes forums here a video made by someone showing aerial views of Tiger Stadium via a tiny video camera and a model airplane. I've searched and searched to no avail as to where it is here. But it was some great footage of the interior of the park from way up high. One VERY disturbing bit of footage that I saw was that the flagpole was still in centerfield. I asked around with several other friends and Tiger fans and we all thought that the flagpole was the piece of history that was going to pass from Tiger Stadium to Comerica Park. Were we all wrong in that assumption?? And if anyone has a link to that thread, I'd deeply appreciate it. | ||
Drm Member Username: Drm Post Number: 1067 Registered: 10-2003 |
You're right, it's never going to happen because nobody bothered to consult with you or inform you of the details. | ||
Adamjab19 Member Username: Adamjab19 Post Number: 726 Registered: 11-2003 |
Maybe it was the idea of having the flag pole in center field in comerica park except they keep moving the fences in so no longer exactly in center field. | ||
Eric Member Username: Eric Post Number: 564 Registered: 11-2004 |
This was anything, but out of thin air people in corktown have in advocating for this for years. And what does the BC's financing have to with this they are two entirely separate projects? | ||
Border5150 Member Username: Border5150 Post Number: 172 Registered: 03-2004 |
Originally, the actual flagpole from TS was supposed to be moved to Comerica Park. My understanding was that the COD - since they own Tiger Stadium - presumably got into some sort of pissing match with the Ilitchs, forcing them to install a new flagpole at Comerica. | ||
Burnsie Member Username: Burnsie Post Number: 701 Registered: 11-2003 |
Histeric wrote, "...The right field will probably have to be reduced to make the Trumbull frontage work for redevelopment. Is that worse than a big box and no field?" I don't know why you inferred that my comment meant I was against the whole preservation / redevelopment plan. As Al Gore would say, there's no need to get snippy! | ||
Smogboy Member Username: Smogboy Post Number: 3913 Registered: 11-2004 |
Hey Burnsie, I remember you were just as eagle eyed as I was on that thread about the model airplane flying over Tiger Stadium. You saw the flagpole still in centerfield as well! What happened to that thread. I cant find it anywhere here- even with the searches. Any help?? | ||
Kathleen Member Username: Kathleen Post Number: 1643 Registered: 10-2003 |
Here you go, smogboy! https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/76017/81982.html | ||
Smogboy Member Username: Smogboy Post Number: 3916 Registered: 11-2004 |
You're a godsend, Kathleen! I did searches with words like "aerial", "airplane" and even "Tiger Stadium" to no avail. I just wanted to show someone who is also a devoted Tiger Stadium fan the shots overhead and of the flagpole. Thanks again. | ||
Smogboy Member Username: Smogboy Post Number: 3949 Registered: 11-2004 |
I've seen much more traffic around the old ballpark by fans in uniforms & gear wanting to have their pictures taken next to the building as of late. Especially on game days. | ||
Mallory Member Username: Mallory Post Number: 74 Registered: 05-2006 |
And just think, had they actually kept up the old ballpark, they could have freaked everyone out and played one of the WS games there, with the two ball clubs wearing throw back uniforms to commemorate the 1968 series. Imagine selling 9,000 more tickets than you would for a Comerica game. Oh well, too late for that, huh? So go ahead and tear it down if you want. I guarantee it will be an empty field for years. Sad. |
