Being that I grew up in the upper\u00c2\u00a0boonieland of Michigan, I didn’t make it to many games at the old Tiger Stadium, but I did have the privilege of making it to a few games\u00c2\u00a0in my early teen years.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not going to bore you with the many scripted cliches that have surrounded peoples first experience in a classic park, you have all read them all\u00c2\u00a0before.\u00c2\u00a0 By the time we came upon the final season at the Corner,\u00c2\u00a0 I was a college student with far more recreational things to do at Michigan State than go to a ball game in Detroit.\u00c2\u00a0 I had\u00c2\u00a0many more\u00c2\u00a0entertaining and regrettable things to do instead of follow the\u00c2\u00a0Bengals.\u00c2\u00a0 Thre were parties to attend, events\u00c2\u00a0to grace,\u00c2\u00a0tests to study for and so on.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t have many regrets in my life, but To this day, I regret not making it to the final game at the Corner, or even a few of the final games in that last week of September 1999.\u00c2\u00a0 But life goes on…<\/p>\n
But for the Corner of Michigan and Trumbull, life didn’t go on.\u00c2\u00a0 After countless efforts and thousands of dollars raised, the talking heads that be (or were) in the city of Detroit swung\u00c2\u00a0the final death blow and now\u00c2\u00a0the Corner now sits vacant; another urban oasis dotting the landscape of inner city Detroit.\u00c2\u00a0 I could go on and on about my disgust with city council, the organizations attempting to save it and the need for restoration vs demolition but that is for another entry.<\/p>\n
Opening day in Detroit is a party like no other.\u00c2\u00a0 It is truly an unofficial holiday in the city.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone, ticket or no ticket , goes down town to party it up and have a good time.\u00c2\u00a0 This was my first ever opening day celebration.\u00c2\u00a0 Personally, I think opening day is for\u00c2\u00a0amateur fans; they come out for one game to have a multitude of cocktails in the presence of the DPD and get roudy.\u00c2\u00a0 It reminds me of the couple that only goes out to eat on Valentines day… Personally I don’t see the point of going down town just to drink – opening day is just that – opening day of baseball season, not liquor season.\u00c2\u00a0 If you are not planning on going to the game, you shouldnt go.\u00c2\u00a0 I never really had the desire to go before.\u00c2\u00a0 But I somehow managed to get tickets this year (at face\u00c2\u00a0value none the less) \u00c2\u00a0so I put my prejudice asside and went to enjoy myself.<\/p>\n
And enjoy myself I did.\u00c2\u00a0 There was such camaraderie amongst all who were there pre game.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone was smiling and lauging and having a good time.\u00c2\u00a0 No rowdiness, lots of hugs and so much live entertainment to take in.\u00c2\u00a0 My seats were fabulous, hotdogs were just as\u00c2\u00a0I remembered them last season and my Tigers won.\u00c2\u00a0 It all seemed so perfect (except for the bitter cold wind – 36 degrees in the D, but it was sunny!).\u00c2\u00a0The whole time I wandered around Grand Circus Park in front of Comerica after the game, I couldnt help but feel like something was missing. I had enjoyed myself, ate my typical summer dinner,\u00c2\u00a0bought my souvenirs and yearbook\u00c2\u00a0but I couldn’t help but think that something was missing.\u00c2\u00a0 Something didn’t feel quite right.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasnt until I decided to depart the street party after the game, when fate and horrendous traffic intervened.<\/p>\n
My Jeep is very familiar with the pot holes, curves and odd angles that make up the street pattern of down town Detroit.\u00c2\u00a0 Its no secret that Detroit doesn’t have the money to properly fix those pot holes and that the city was not in any way shape or form\u00c2\u00a0built on a grid pattern.\u00c2\u00a0 In an effort to try to find a back way out of the bumper to bumper gridlock traffic that was permeating the area around the stadiums,\u00c2\u00a0my\u00c2\u00a0Jeep and I\u00c2\u00a0wound up heading down Michigan avenue… my thought was to take it to the next available main\u00c2\u00a0street and take the back way out of the city.\u00c2\u00a0 But my Jeep had other plans for me.\u00c2\u00a0 We got stopped at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull on the cobblestone street section by a stoplight and I couldn’t help but pull into a street side parking spot to stop and reflect.<\/p>\n
Getting out of my car, I noticed that other cars had the same thought process as mine did.\u00c2\u00a0 There were dozens and dozens of cars parked along the street and in the vacant lots off Cochraine Ave.\u00c2\u00a0 Tigers fans young and old had stopped to pay their respects to the hallowed grounds where baseball had been played by our beloved Tigers since they became a recognized team in 1901 (and many many years of ball on the site before that).\u00c2\u00a0 There were grandparents talking to their grandchildren telling them stories about when they were kids what they used to do at the ball park that was right here.\u00c2\u00a0 There were people my age, roaming around taking photos.\u00c2\u00a0 There was an elderly man in a wheelchair with his Tigers blanket and ball cap, sitting and gazing out where right field used to be in silent reflection.\u00c2\u00a0 There were still more people lined up along the fence over the foot bridge that goes over the freeway.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had been to this site hundreds of times before.\u00c2\u00a0 I documented and photographed the demolition for far away fans to watch… It was a sunday ritual over the last few years to go say hi to the corner and see what part of her they ripped up that week.\u00c2\u00a0 It pained me to see her like that, all falling apart and crusty – piles of rubble to be hauled off to rot in a dumpster.\u00c2\u00a0 Millions and millions of memories filling a landfill.\u00c2\u00a0 I hadn’t been down to see her since they shattered her final walls and brought down her elevator shaft.\u00c2\u00a0 I couldn’t\u00c2\u00a0stand to see the big empty hole they had made in the middle of our city. I dreaded driving by her\u00c2\u00a0and when\u00c2\u00a0I had the\u00c2\u00a0opportunity,\u00c2\u00a0I took another route so\u00c2\u00a0I wouldnt have to look at her emptiness. \u00c2\u00a0 But this time it was different.\u00c2\u00a0 Eventhough she was physically gone, she was still there.\u00c2\u00a0 She was there in the hearts and minds and memories of every fan that still goes to the Corner to see her, to remember her and pay homage to her.\u00c2\u00a0 The Corner will never be gone as long as the fans that still love her go and visit her every once in awhile and let her know that she’s still in our hearts and on our minds.<\/p>\n
I managed to make it to the 11th opening day at Comerica park – which drew the largest opening day crowd to date, but I had forgotten what lies at the heart of our team – their former home at the Corner of Michigan and Trumbull.\u00c2\u00a0 I realized what was missing – it was time to stop running from the barren field of memories\u00c2\u00a0and time to start loving her again for what she is.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m going to go vist my old friend more often this summer, for no other reason than to just say hi and I miss you.<\/p>\n
~MotorCityKitty<\/p>\n
~~~Now, lets just pray that the city of Detroit decides to never put a Walmart on the site – that would be the\u00c2\u00a0diamond edged\u00c2\u00a0dagger in my nastalga loving heart…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Being that I grew up in the upper\u00c2\u00a0boonieland of Michigan, I didn’t make it to many games at the old Tiger Stadium, but I did have the privilege of making it to a few games\u00c2\u00a0in my early teen years.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not going to bore you with the many scripted cliches that have surrounded peoples first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6276,6284,3363,6289,6282,6286,6283,1700,6281,6287,6274,6275,6277,1161,3305,6288,6285,6280,6279,6278],"class_list":["post-4427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-amateur-fans","tag-ball-game","tag-city-of-detroit","tag-cliches","tag-death-blow","tag-dpd","tag-final-death","tag-final-game","tag-final-games","tag-first-experience","tag-inner-city-detroit","tag-michigan-and-trumbull","tag-old-tiger","tag-opening-day","tag-talking-heads","tag-teen-years","tag-thre","tag-tiger-stadium","tag-unofficial-holiday","tag-urban-oasis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}