Detroit's Comerica Park: There's a lot to see ... including a good team

Sunday, July 20

Tigers 5, Indians 1

(Randy's Perspective)

(Note: My wrap text mechanism is not working. I wanted to post a few more photos, but Penny will post a picture-filled blog.)

Detroit is bankrupt. Its population is essentially half what it was 50 years ago. Six years ago, the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News became the nation's first newspapers to end daily home delivery. The automotive industry, Detroit's calling card for almost a century, is down, then it's up, then it's down. 

The bottom line: Detroit, a great American city, has struggled for a long, long time.

But, here's a small bit of good news. You wouldn't have known that if you were coming into the city on Saturday night, July 19, and you were looking for a downtown hotel room.
Penny and I had taken a rookie's gamble. We headed from an excursion in Toronto, where we saw two Blue Jays games, to Detroit that Saturday without a room reservation. We'd planned on stopping in Windsor, Canada, for the night, but we figured: How hard could this be? Let's go ahead and pass through customs tonight and find a place near the park. We'll splurge for hotel near Comerica Park (since we had tickets for the Tigers' Sunday afternoon game with Cleveland.)
Sooo...
The Westin? Full.
MGM Grand? Full.
Greektown Casino? Nope.
Holiday Inn Express? Sorry.
Double Tree? Not a chance.
Eventually, with the help of a kind clerk at the Westin, we got a room at the Adoba Hotel in Dearborn, a suburban city about 10 miles from downtown. Dearborn is the home of Henry Ford and the headquarters of Ford Motor Company.
The clerk said, "I hate to send you out to Dearborn, but there's nothing, and I mean nothing, in town. You'll like the hotel. It's the first hotel I ever worked in."
We did like the hotel, actually. It is a reasonably priced, nice hotel/conference center that was no doubt a showpiece at one time. What we didn't like (picky, picky) was the roughly 100-member family reunion party that took place up and down the halls outside our room most of the night. And, no, we couldn't move to another room. Long story. Wasn't happening.
Anyway, Sunday was a new day.

On Sunday we discovered Comerica Park. Sweet.
After checking out the scene at a couple of bars, restaurants and shops near the stadium - and looking at the largest array of artsy statues of tigers that you can imagine (outside the stadium) - we entered Comerica, home of the Detroit Tigers.

Some artsy tigers, with a flagpole obstructing the view

There, we found more artsy tigers, a ferris wheel, museum pieces throughout the stadium celebrating Tigers history, a centerfield fountain that can be choreographed, and a pretty astonishing food court. We also found out that if you ask the right person - an usher near the "catered section" seats - you can buy the largest, best-tasting, hand-rolled pretzel you can imagine. Really, I've seen kitchen appliances smaller than that pretzel.
The park is a nine-ring circus and "clean as a whistle," as my father used to say.

The scene is a far cry from what I'd heard about Detroit. Granted, Comerica is certainly an oasis, but it is definitely in and all about Detroit. And I would go back.

To me, Detroit has always meant three (reasonably obvious) things: Cars, Motown and historic sports teams (the Tigers, the Lions, the Pistons, the Red Wings). ... If I were paying deference to my sister-in-law Peggy, I would add a fourth local landmark: Eminem. But that's another story.

And since this trip was about the Tigers, I throw in a few of my past recollections...

I remember the great Al Kaline and Gates Brown, who was signed right out of prison, and Denny McClain, the last pitcher to win 30 games and who wound up IN prison (for racketeering, I think it was). I remember the incredible run of Mark "the Bird" Fidrych, the pitcher in the late seventies who became a national phenom because he did things like talk to the baseball, stalk around the mound and shake everybody's hands after the game. He also won a bunch of games.

I also remember, of Detroit's four World Series titles, that great Tigers team in 1984 that beat the Padres in the Series.

There were two moments in that World Series that I thought were especially cool.

One involved Kirk Gibson, whose most famous moment in baseball was an indescribable home run he hit for the Dodgers in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, while batting basically on one-leg because of injury. One of the great scenes in baseball history was Gibson limping around the bases after that walk-off home run.

But before he was a Dodger, Gibson was a Detroit Tiger. And before that 1988 home run, Gibson had hit another famous clutch World Series homer. It was in 1984 off San Diego's sensational closer Goose Gossage. Gossage talked manager Dick Williams into letting him challenge Gibson when an intentional walk might have made more sense. Gossage intended to strike him out. San Diego was leading 5-4 at the time, and there were runners on second and third. Well, Gossage threw his heater and Gibson crushed it. It landed way up in the Tiger Stadium upper deck.
This is a great clip: Kirk Gibson's 1984 World Series homer

There was a second thing that I remember about that 1984 World Series that actually is a seque into something we saw on Sunday at Comerica.

In 1984, the Wave was an up-and-coming fad. At the end of the Game 2 of the '84 Series against the Padres (the first two games were in San Diego), a reporter asked Detroit manager Sparky Anderson how he liked San Diego's Wave.

Anderson said, "Their Wave is kindergarten. Come to Detroit. We'll show you what a Wave looks like."

Sparky was right. Those Detroit fans killed it.

Now, I understand that all those Detroit memories were from the Tiger Stadium era, which lasted from 1901 until 1999. 

And it was a grand old stadium, replete with huge columns in the upper and lower decks that probably obstructed the views of at least 50 percent of every crowd.

So, finally, in 2000 the Tigers moved to Comerica. And man, to me, there is nothing historic looking about Comerica. Not that that's a bad thing. In fact, the museum pieces scattered around the stadium fit right in.

In fact, I guess what struck me as most interesting is that Comerica is now 15 years old, and in most ways it looks as if it were built yesterday. Baseball in Detroit moved to a different planet in 2000. It is a fine baseball stadium.

Another difference about baseball in Detroit these days is that the Tigers are consistently good. In the past, they had some success, such as a good run back in the eighties and some other random successful seasons during the past century. But the Tigers are a force now. They've won the past three division titles and lead the American League Central now. They won the pennant in 2012.

All that said, we hit town on a day that the Tigers had lost a day-night double-header to the Indians. The Indians, left for dead a few weeks ago, had crept back to within 4.5 games of the lead.

But on Sunday, the Tigers woke up. 

Hunter homered and Smiley pitched seven strong innings. Cleveland only had four hits, including a solo homer by Gomes. The Tigers won 5-1.

As we've experienced many times before, it was a mild-mannered Sunday afternoon baseball crowd. It was as if the stadium is so nice, the crowd doesn't want to get too rowdy. It might get dirty. (But then again, it was a warm Sunday afternoon.)

The crowd even took a few half-hearted attempts to get a Wave going. No deal. Of course, it's not the eighties anymore.

So here are my personal takeaways from Detroit.

• Tiger Stadium was great, but it's long gone. The only thing remaining is a tribute park and the original diamond.
• If you want a room downtown on a Saturday night, plan ahead.
• The scene inside and around Comerica Park is clean, pretty original and fun.
• The Tigers are a solid team.
• The Tigers' fans were polite.
• Their Wave sucked.