Michigan and Trumbull

I have no idea when the first time I saw Tiger Stadium was, or what transpired at any games that I attended there, but what I do remember I feel is far more important. I’m not sure if I would have turned out any differently had I never visited the stadium, but I cannot imagine a childhood without lazy summer days spent in a ballpark. I remember those long low tunnels and the great expanses of green everywhere. I remember the sea gulls and the hot dog vendors and watching batting practice. I can still remember sitting in those plastic chairs eating peanuts with my dad and even if I wasn’t paying complete attention to the game, I was learning to love it, I was soaking in the atmosphere.

I’m not even sure what more I can express about baseball or childhood or the Detroit Tigers that I have yet to in this space. It meant everything to a kid from Dearborn, to a Detroiter at heart whose blood was full of motor oil, to sit in that stadium and be part of something that stretched back to times that were written in the black and white of newsprint. Wins or losses never mattered back then, but I still remember those seats along the third base line with the sun glaring down at me.

There has been a ballpark on the corner of Michigan and Trumbull since 1912, but it seems that that might soon be ending. The Detroit City Council approved plans to demolition the stadium, but then voted against transferring ownership to the demolition company… I don’t know what they’re doing, whether it is just politics or a genuine interest in preserving at least some of the old stadium. I just feel numb to it all now.

I know I’m not an impartial observer in this by any means. A history major that happens to love baseball is against tearing down Tiger Stadium? I’m sure that’s a shock to everyone, but I can’t help but feel with my heart on this issue. I understand the arguments for demolition, but I don’t want to hear them anymore. To me, that building is the heart and soul of the city, and now it is deteriorating like everything else. The Free Press ran an article the other day about how people living near Tiger Stadium are sick of it sitting there, and how it has become an “eye sore”. The entire article pained me to the core. One resident claimed that no one wants to live near a baseball stadium. Maybe you should have thought of that before you moved across the street from one that has been standing for almost a century! And honestly... what kind of person wouldn't want to live near a ballpark? There were some good quotes in the article, too, but far too many of them were horrible. Tiger Stadium deserves better than that. It is a landmark and a place that has meant so much to so many, and these people are just willing to toss it aside?

At lest there are some who are working to keep the stadium, but it seems like it is too little. Ernie Harwell said it perfectly in the Free Press.

“Tiger Stadium has meant a lot to generations,” Harwell said. “If we can’t (save part of it), we’ll have to keep Tiger Stadium in our memory, our mind and our heart, and cherish it that way.”

Somehow Detroit just won’t feel right without that old ballpark sitting at Michigan and Trumbull. I just hope they find some way to honor it there.