talkin' tiger stadium blues
Another piece of my childhood appears to be a goner, as plans have been announced to demolish Tiger Stadium in Detroit. I drove by "the corner" on Saturday. to catch a glimpse while it remains intact. A brief history: professional baseball had been played at Michigan and Trumbull since 1895, when the Tigers' predecessor in the minor Western League moved to the spot (the league changed its name to the American League in 1900 and declared itself a major league the following year). The original field on the site was Bennett Park, named after Charlie Bennett, a star catcher with Detroit's short-lived National League Detroit Wolverines in the 1880s, who lost a leg in an accident. In 1912, wooden Bennett Park was replaced by a new steel and concrete stadium, Navin Field (named after team owner Frank Navin ). Several expansions over the next two decades brought the stadium to its current size. The name also changed, to Briggs Stadium (1938, after owner/auto executive ...