DETROIT - On a scoreboard still dotted with malfunctioning gold-tinted bulbs that are either forever stuck on or forever darkened came the understated message: "Welcome to the final home opener at Tiger Stadium."
From the outside it looks like one of the many downtown factories that lined the city's Cass Corridor decades and decades ago when the world knew Detroit as the Paris of the West. On the inside the stadium is azure blue - never again will they build a stadium so blue, so plain, so simple. And never again will the ballpark that has been home to Detroit baseball for more than a century host an opening day.
Except for a short ceremony honoring the 81-year-old Ernie Harwell, the man who has been calling Tiger baseball games over radio waves since before our parents were born, this year's opening day was not unlike the home openers of years past. Ticket
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| MARGARET MYERS/Daily Fans sitting in the bleachers of Tiger Stadium paid only a little for their seats, but were treated to a historic show. The feeling of opening day got everyone in the stands on their feet cheering, despite a slow game. |
Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer and Gov. John Engler, in wingtip shoes, were both on-hand, capped in script D baseball hats for the ceremonial first pitch. Archer gave the crowd an early reason to cheer, however the governor did not reach the hearts of fans and they booed his lob to the plate.
By day's end, Tiger center fielder Brian Hunter had, as in opening days gone by, shagged more beach balls, inflatable beer bottles and other assorted junk than fly balls as the thousands of raucous fans, sardined into the bleachers, made their presence felt. They were the first ones to arrive at the ballpark, the last ones to leave and were easily the loudest fans around.
They watched no less than seven fans, aided by the stadium's low fences and lots of beer, jump from Tiger Stadium's lower deck onto the playing field during the game's 12 innings. All, often shirtless and sun-burned invaders, stayed long enough to taunt sluggish ushers, while one opted to slide head-first into second and another stopped to hug a surprised Hunter.
The game was as close to a must-win as baseball teams can confront this time of year - and the Tigers lost.
After seeing their starting pitchers shelled by the potent batters of the Rangers and Yankees, Monday's starter Willie Blair finally gave the Tigers what they needed - eight solid innings of shutout ball. Despite the valiant effort, the Tiger bats remained as lifeless at home as they had been on the road. The home team mustered just one hit through the same eight innings and managed only three hits for no runs during the entire game - on their way to a 1-0 loss.
Still the Tiger organization is excited. Everyone in the front office is happy to tell fans about the state-of-the-art, new-is-old-style of the swanky Comerica Park - the place the Tigers will call home next season.
They will tell you that the new venue will sport the largest outdoor scoreboard in the world. They will tell you that it will feature an open-air outfield that will treat passers-by to a view of an ongoing game from the sidewalk. They will be sure to mention that the field will be located in the city's up-and-coming Fox Theater district, next to a sparkling new dome for the Lions, and should become a city center - a real-life jewel of urban redevelopment and the key to Motown's rebound.
They will not forget to mention how the new stadium will bring paying customers again out of the area's woodwork, beef up team coffers and one day finance the wildly successful Tiger organization of the future.
What they will not want to talk about are flag poles.
An efficient edifice such as Comerica Park has no room for a flag pole that juts onto the field like the one at Tiger Stadium. There is also no outfield wall-embanked clock in the Comerica blueprints that protrudes into right field and provides outfielders with one last try at a shot destined to become a line-drive home run - like the one at Tiger Stadium now.
And of course most officials only smile and nod when you bring up outfield dimensions of the old stadium. They will humor your chatter, dropping hints about the shallowest power allies in the league housed together with baseball's longest center field wall.
But at Comerica Park, they point out, fans will not have cause to worry about walls that seem to defy the rules of physics - they will be too busy enjoying the beer garden and carousel.
Former Tiger shortstop, World Series MVP and current team hitting coach Allen Trammell, who was on-hand Monday as the current Tigers paid homage to the 1984 World Series-champion squad, had the future on the brain.
"Playing here is a unique challenge - looking at the roof and knowing that it's a reachable thing, there's nothing like it," Trammell said of what is known around baseball as the quintessential hitter's park. "I still love it here, but I've seen what the new one will look like and I'm sure that both fans and the players will love the new stadium."
But long-time Tiger fan Bob Loncharte is not yet convinced.
"I don't know much about the new place but I do know that I have been wanting to see an opening day at Tiger Stadium for 20 years," Loncharte said. "I live in Cincinnati, but because I knew this was my last chance I had to make the trip up for today's game."
And for fans like Loncharte Tiger Stadium still offers the out-dated and sagging charm that has made it famous for years. The infield grass, even on the first game of the season, looks like it did 12 rounds with some sort of typhoon. The jumbotron in center field is tame by today's standards - offering only limited replay sequences and split screens that make it seem far from menacing.
The Tiger organization has decided to embrace the old building during its last hurrah - let us not forget there are still some 80 games to be played here. Both dugouts have been painted with a classy new logo featuring the dates 1912 and 1999, marking the official lifetime of the ballpark at the corner of Michigan and Trumbell Avenues. The dull roar of the future could already be heard Monday afternoon - a commotion that will only get louder (and richer) as the 1999 season works its way slowly into history.
As beer vendor Joe Tharpe put it: "Next year will be a whole new ball game. They will be playing the same game on the field you know, but with the new place and the new fans it will attract - suddenly that game will be worth more money. That will change everything."
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| MARGARET MYERS/Daily Third baseman Dean Palmer was a big and expensive off-season acquisition for the Tigers. So far, he and the rest of the team have not had especially hot bats. |
04-15-99
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