Tiger Stadium in Detroit MI was one of the most popular and well-known ball parks in America for almost 100 years. But in the 2nd week of July 2008, the old stadium on the "corner of Michigan and Trumbull", affectionately known as just "The Corner", started coming down.
Way back in 1895, then Tiger Owner Arthur Van Der Beck bought the team, formerly known as the "Detroit Wolverines" and started building the stadium. Originally named "Bennett Park" after Tigers catcher Charlie Bennett, the
Detroit Tigers played their first game there on April 28, 1896. Even after several additions, the original ballpark was made almost completely of wood--a great fire hazard. The old stadium was demolished and rebuilt with steel and concrete; and renamed Navin Field.
By 1935, the Detroit Tigers had a new owner,
Walter O. Briggs, who again enlarged and improved the stadium and renamed it "Briggs Stadium". The first night game was played in Briggs Stadium in 1948. In 1961, Briggs Stadium was renamed "Tiger Stadium" by another owner, John Fetzer, who proposed building a new multipurpose stadium. However, fans were outraged and no bonds or other financing ever came through.
Although many improvements continued to be made to Tiger Stadium, including new seats, new whiz-bang electronics, a food court called "Tiger Plaza", and luxury seats, by the early 1990s, a new ballpark for the Tigers was coming into fruition. For diehard fans,
Comerica Park on Woodward, beautiful though it may be, just isn't the same. The "Voice of the Tigers" for 42 years, sports broadcaster
Ernie Harwell, has formed a non-profit corporation to try to
save at least some of the old ballpark; but as of this writing, time is running out. The Detroit Tigers played their last game on "The Corner" on September 27, 1999, against the
Kansas City Royals.
