Subject: Briggs Stadium Trip Report Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 21:20:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Don Dudley - Sun Microsystems To: Don.Dudley@Sun.COM Baseball fans, I've not made any progress on Senior Circuit parks since visiting Wrigley Field last September. In fact, with the addition of Milwaukee County Stadium and Arizona's Bank One Ballpark, I'm losing ground -- now I have _four_ NL parks I haven't visited. (Florida's Pro Player, nee Joe Robbie, Stadium and Atlanta's Turner Stadium, having replaced Fulton County Stadium, are the other two.) Anyway, with abandonment of the stadium imminent, I ignored my NL predilection (only Milwaukee of the aforementioned four was home anyway) and went to Detroit this past Saturday. I stayed downtown in the DoubleTree Inn, right across the street from the Renaissance Center. The top floor of the Center was the scene of a rally for the Colorado Buffaloes football team on Friday, September 23, 1994, the night before Kordell Stewart's Hail Mary to Michael Westbrook shocked Ty Law and 106,000 Wolverine Faithful. I was within a mile and a half of the park, so I thought it might be worth just walking and avoiding a parking hassle. I left at about 4:45 pm for the 7:05 pm start. The neighborhood was even a bit worse than I expected, so I took a cab back to the hotel after the game, even though there was still some daylight at 9:45 pm, what with the proximity to Summer Solstice and Detroit's westerly position in the Eastern time zone. I was in town within a few days of the Red Wings' Stanley Cup Finals sweep. On my walk to the park I saw a multistory statue wearing a Red Wings' jersey -- it actually fit. Speaking of multistory, I saw about a 10-story mural of Barry Sanders on the side of a building. When I got back to Boston, I saw a similar mural of Marilyn Monroe (although not nearly as big). That must say something about the two cities ;-). Before entering the park, I got a closer look at the Ty Cobb plaque on the outside -- "A Genius in Spikes." I had only driven by it in 1994. Professional baseball has been played on this very site since before the turn of the century. I'm referring to it as Briggs Stadium as that's how I knew it as a kid -- it didn't become Tiger Stadium until 1961, my last year of collecting baseball cards until 1990. Monitoring the attendance, I took my chances and chose not to get a ticket in advance. Only 19,629 attended (capacity 46,945), so I made out very well. I was in the Lower Tiger Den, Row 4, about four seats to the right of dead center behind home plate. Unfortunately batting practice was replaced by a youth clinic. This gave me ample time to do a complete inventory of the concession possibilities. I found my choice -- a Tiger Ground Round BBQ w/ cheese -- to be far inferior to Wrigley's bratwurst but didn't fall to the temptation to seek parity (and additional calories). If it's not otherwise obvious that there's something seriously wrong with this country, contemplate the destruction of this monument. It has an absolutely classic upper deck. Could there be a better name for an adjacent street than Kaline Drive? The seats have real wood arm rests, at least in the Tiger Den. I sat behind a guy with his son who's been coming from 250 miles away for 35-40 years. He was able to name everyone who had cleared the left and right field roofs -- no one's ever quite hit it over the centerfield bleachers. Unlike Fenway and Wrigley, the original scoreboard has unfortunately been replaced by a Jumbotron. The 12 Tigers in Cooperstown are enumerated in right field. Apart from the obligatory Jackie Robinson, they have retired just four numbers -- 2, 5, 6 and 16. I won't insult you trivia buffs out there by naming them here. The Seventh Inning Stretch was a far cry from Wrigley, where Harry Caray presided, but the ground crew put on quite a show, apparently in memory of a crew member who danced up a storm across the dirt for decades before succumbing to cancer. They pause briefly behind second base and boogie to Y-M-C-A. I couldn't top the Wrigley game where Sandberg came off the bench to touch off a five-run, come from behind winning rally with a homer, but it was quite a decent game. The line score was KC 3 10 0 Detroit 4 10 0 The Tigers took a 3-0 lead in the first with a couple of dingers, built a 4-1 lead and held on, as the tying run died on third in the ninth. The time of the game was 2:35, very decent by AL standards ;-). Briggs Stadium -- don't miss it. I've got my eye on Milwaukee next. Don