Tiger Stadium likely to be demolished...

Did they find any of my braincells in centerfield?
On the day Tiger Stadium goes down, I will mourn.

 

Mass quanities of alcohol were consumed before, during and after my years of games there... Dad scammed season tickets from an ad rep at the Freep when I was in college and the high school buddies and I went to about 10-15 games each summer... Must have been to close to 200 games there in my lifetime... many of them sober.

 

When I covered preps they played some high school games in a huge old minor-league ballpark that was built by the WPA. But you couldn't sit in the stands because everything was covered by bird shit. So you had like 15,000 empty seats and no one sitting up there -- there were people sitting on the grass or in lawn chairs. Eventually, it got torn down.

Costs a lot of money to keep up a stadium. Unless they're going to find a use for it, it's just going to rot.

 

Yep, if it's not being used for any purpose whatsoever, it may as well be brought down. Wouldn't be my preference, but putting something there that would be utilized logically seems like the right thing to do.

Even if that does happen, would be nice to see teams take the opportunity to incorporate a small piece if the stadium into the future development. I believe a portion of the wall of Forbes Field still exists. At least if the entire park can't remain, there can be a historical marker as a nod to the millions and millions who passed through a long time ago.

 

My favorite Tiger Stadium moment -- when I looked at the centerfield Jumotron and it read, "The Detroit Tigers Welcome The Eugene V. Debs Memorial Marching Kazoo Band."

 

Flash has a tattoo which serves the same purpose.

 

Robert Moses had nothing to do with the destruction of Penn Station. It was wholly owned by the Pennsylvania Rail Road, they decided to tear it down to develop the real estate. People tried to stop it, but since it was private property there was nothing the city could do. This is what lead to the current landmark laws.

 

As I said before, I've never been inside Tiger Stadium. When we went up for the Tigers-Red Sox July game and Tigers-Royals September game, my father and I walked around the old ballpark and took some pictures. For me, it was a great moment. To see where nearly 100 years of history stood was remarkable. Ruth hit a 575-foot shot there, out of the ballpark, and it's been regarded as the longest HR in history. Roger Maris hit No. 1 of 61 at Tiger Stadium. Cecil Fielder bombed a HR onto the rooftop. Al Kaline's corner locker. Etc., etc., etc. So much more history.

As I stood at The Corner a few hours before the September game, I wondered if there was anything I could get my hands on for a keepsake. I got outbid at the last second for a piece of Tiger Stadium in the online auction, so I wanted something. I couldn't find anything loose on the building besides some paint chips. I saw some loose bricks in the Michigan-Trumbull intersection, but it was 4 p.m., sunny, people were all over the streets and cars were rolling through the roads. I wasn't going to grab a brick in broad daylight.

As we walked out of Comerica Park from the Tigers-Royals game and the effects of eight 22 oz. Bud Light's flowed through my body, I asked dad if he'd drive me to the intersection so I could get a brick. He obliged. We got there, he stopped right in front of the old ticket booth and I swiped two bricks. Fans were all over the sidewalks headed back to their vehicles from the game. Before getting (stumbling?) into the car, a guy with a Tigers shirt and ballcap wanted to take my picture, citing, "That's the awesomest fucking thing I've ever seen!" So I posed, shut the car door and now have a piece of history that millions of people journeyed on to watch a baseball game.

 

The City of Detroit, which owns Tiger Stadium, paid Ilitch $420,000 a year for "maintenance and security" at the stadium, a total of more than $2 million into Ilitch's pocket (in addition to the $300 million ballpark he was given by the taxpayers, and the $300 million hockey arena he will want to be given to him very shortly).

These efforts consisted of throwing a few $1.99 padlocks from the dime store on the front doors, and walking away. The last 2-3 years, the stadium has been left to rot.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/michigan-and-trouble/

Like the once-magnificent Michigan Central terminal four blocks away, the stadium has disintegrated into a complete ruin. The city government, run by a criminal thug, couldn't clean up a box of crackers if it fell on the floor.

Blow it up. Burn it down. Tomorrow morning.

 

Good luck. The options seem to be a parking lot, or a super wal mart.

 

I went there in 1999 ... Pedro Martinez (10 Ks), Rheal Cormier and Derek Lowe combined on a three-hiiter and Troy O'Leary homered off Jeff Weaver in the Red Sox's 1-0 win.

Something called Columbine earlier in the day, though, ruined it all.