A History of TIGER STADIUM

From 1896-1999, the northwest corner of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues, in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood, was the home of the Detroit Tigers. Join me as we stand there like a house by the side of the road, and learn about the rich history of The Corner.

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Sources:
Script:
Jeff Samoray, SABR, George A. Vanderbeck, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/george-a-vanderbeck/
Wikipedia, History of the Detroit Tigers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Detroit_Tigers
Scott Ferkovich, SABR, Tiger Stadium (Detroit), https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/tiger-stadium-detroit/
Detroit Tigers, MLB, Tigers Timeline, https://www.mlb.com/tigers/history/timeline
Detroit Free Press, Ten Runs Won In The Ninth, https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press/3540769/
Learning Inc., YouTube, Bennett Park: The Legendary History of Detroit Tigers’ Historic Grounds, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l72qq8l1_Pc
MLB, Past Tigers Ballparks, https://www.mlb.com/tigers/history/ballparks?msockid=1e633d1ca6e4655c1f612909a77d64b0
Video:
1935 World Series, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QWeJfFvzV0
1945 World Series, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDm_nA-q-qs&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY
1968 World Series:
Game 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc9g0yy6-Qs
Game 7: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1141680082893301
1971 All Star: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=93&v=C7kS5pwH0hM&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDI4NjY2
1984 World Series, Game 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooA3_IjiqhQ
1984 World Series, Game 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FO4rp1PUzY
Final Hit, Tiger Stadium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax5-dfYtgeI
Final Out, Tiger Stadium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uljvXvdYHoE&t=9s
Local 4 WDIV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5YavoeqD-0

Baseball stadiums are more than what they seem, more than a simple arena where a game is played. To many, they are cathedrals dedicated to the worship of a most deeply ingrained religion. Sure, baseball is just a sport to some, and at a base level, the fans are there to see a game, a simple contest. But below the surface is so much more than that. Going to a baseball game isn’t merely a trip to the ballpark. It’s a pilgrimage to a sacred place. Whether it be a little league sand lot or a major league ballpark. [Music] Today we’ll be talking about one of the most iconic ballparks to ever host Major League Baseball. Built at the corner at the intersection of Michigan and Trumbull and Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood, this location stood as the home of the Detroit Tigers for 104 seasons. From Tai Cob to Allan Traml to Denny Mlan’s 31 season and Giby’s Upper Deck shot off of Goose. From hosting nine fall classics to the hosting of three MLB All-Star games, welcome back to the bad baseball fan. Let’s stand there like a house by the side of the road and learn about the history of Tiger [Music] Stadium. Remember, if you guys enjoy my videos, make sure you like the video and subscribe to the channel. Don’t forget to turn notifications on so you never miss anything from the bad baseball [Music] fan. Professional baseball in Detroit, Michigan is rooted in far more tradition than an outside eye might perceive. Major League Baseball in Detroit extends all the way back to 1881 with the founding of the Detroit Wolverines, who spent eight years in the National League. The next professional baseball team would be the Tigers. A quick bit of research would tell you that the Detroit Tigers timeline extends as far back as 1901 when they became charter members of Ban Johnson’s American League. In actuality, the franchise was originally founded in 1894 as a member of the minor league western league, also ran by Ban Johnson and a direct precursor to the AL. Owned by real estate magnet and stock broker George A. Vanderbeck, the team spent their first two seasons playing at Boulevard Park on Detroit’s east side near Bell Ale. Boulevard Park was severely limited in its ability to provide a good baseball experience. And by the end of 1895, Vanderbeck was seeking new grounds for his ball club. Through November, he managed to acquire the property on the northwest corner of Michigan and Trumbull avenues, roughly 3 to four miles west of their previous playinggrounds, and began to build a new ballpark for his Tigers. The new diamond and wooden grandstand were named Bennett Park in honor of popular Detroit Wolverines catcher Charlie Bennett and had an initial capacity of 5,000. The ballpark had an L-shaped grandstand with a peaked roof and took up roughly half the space that Tiger Stadium eventually would. The first game ever played there occurred on April 13th, 1896, an exhibition against a local semi-professional team where the Tigers began their tenure at the corner with a 30-3 win. For the next few years, the Tigers were decent, but never great. all the way through the final season of the Western League in 1899. Ban Johnson disbanded the Western League going into 1900 and immediately reorganized it into the American League of Professional Baseball Players. Johnson spent the year setting up the league to be a direct major league rival to the National League. But for the 1900 season, the league would be classified as a minor league. The Tigers were a charter member of the AL along with six other former Western League franchises. those being in Buffalo, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Washington, and an additional team in Chicago. Unique for their time, the Detroit Tigers were the first team in major league history to feature a mascot. 1900 also saw the first change in ownership in the Tigers and thus Bennett Park. Team owner George Vanderbeck was a well-known crook and was legally forced to sell the team. A conjunction of businessman James D. Burns and Tigers ball player and manager George Stallings bought the team. This was the first of many ownership changes throughout the first decade of the 20th century. The first major league game played at Michigan and Trumbull happened on April 25th, 1901 against the Milwaukee Ball Club, now colloquially known as the Brewers. According to the Detroit Free Press, the next day 10,000 people showed up to watch the ball game. And quite a game it turned out to be. Detroit started out the bottom of the ninth down 13 to4 and proceeded to come all the way back and win the game 14-13 on first baseman Frank Dylan’s walk-off double. Dylan actually smacked four doubles in that game, establishing a new Major League record. Major League Baseball at the corner, seeing one of the greatest comebacks in baseball history and a Major League record, was off to an incredible start. [Music] The 1901 Detroit Tigers finished the American League’s inaugural major league season with a 7461-1 record and a third place finish 8 and a half games behind the Chicago White Socks. Finishing with a losing record for the next three years, 1905 saw the Tigers bring their first baseball legend to the corner. In the midst of their first winning season in a few years, the Tigers organized an exchange for one Tai Cobb who made his debut with the Tigers on August 30th. Cobb would go on to play 22 seasons at Michigan and Trumbull and would not just go on to be the greatest Tiger of all time, but to be one of the greatest to ever play in general. Just two years later, Bennett Park hosted its first ever Pennet winner with the Tigers taking the American League by a game and a half and finishing with a 9258 and3 record. The corner was set to host its first ever World Series games against the Chicago Cubs. In a disappointing finish, the Cubs beat the Tigers in just five games. Game one in Chicago was a tie after 12 innings of baseball and the Cubs proceeded to win the next four in a row with games four and five being played in Detroit. Fans in Detroit had to suffer through watching the darned Cubs celebrate a championship at Bennett Park. The Tigers and their 21-year-old star Tai Cobb returned in 1908 to claim their second consecutive American League pennant, finishing the year with a 9063 and1 record. The Tigers won the league by only half a game. Unfortunately for the baseball fans in Detroit, the Tigers took on the dreaded Cubbies again with little different result than the year prior. The Cubs, just like in 1907, won the series in five games. though this time at least the Tigers managed to win one of the games rather than tie it. That game happened to be in Chicago though as the three games played in Detroit, those being games 1, four, and five were all won by the Cubs. The Tiger Faithful had to sit through Chicago celebrating their championship at Bennett Park once again as it became hollowed ground for another city’s baseball team. A bitter Tigers team returned with a vengeance in 1909, finishing the year with a 9854-6 record and claiming their third consecutive American League pennant by three and a half games over the Philadelphia Athletics. Becoming the first American League ball club to capture three consecutive pennants, the Tigers desperately craved their first world championship. Set to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates. This time, the Tigers once again failed to get over the hump. With homefield advantage in the sevename series, Detroit fell in seven games, going two and two at Bennett Park and losing the decisive game seven at home. For the third consecutive season, the Detroit Tigers fans had to sit in their own home ballpark and watch another team celebrate a World Series victory. Even more unfortunately for them, this would be the last World Series that Bennett Park itself hosted. Detroit wouldn’t win another American League pennant until [Music] 1934. As I mentioned earlier, there were several ownership changes for the Tigers throughout this decade, but the final and most important one occurred in 1908 when Frank Naven acquired a majority share of the ball club. Naven was a businessman and was passionate about baseball. Prior to becoming the majority owner of the team, he worked as the team’s bookkeeper, helping sign key players to the Tigers run at three consecutive AL pennets. Looking to make Detroit a premier place to play baseball and to offer a clean, enjoyable environment for spectators, Naven decided to rebuild the ballpark following the 1911 season. He purchased the rest of the block around Bennett Park. At this point, having been expanded to a capacity of around 14,000 seats, hiring Cleveland’s Osborne Engineering Company, he then had the ballpark demolished and rebuilt using concrete and steel. The diamond was shifted 90°, so the new home plate was where the left field corner had been, keeping the sun out of the batter’s eye, which had been a problem with the old Bennett Park. The new ballpark, named Navenfield, cost $300,000 to build, had an initial capacity of 23,000, and opened its gates on April 20th, 1912. Hosting sholess Joe Jackson and his Cleveland Knaps, the first pitch was thrown out at 300 p.m., and Naven Field’s tenure as a major league ballpark had begun. Fun fact, Fenway Park in Boston opened on the same day, just 10 minutes after Naven [Music] Field. 26,000 fans attended that first game at Navenfield. Cleveland’s Joe Jackson scored the first run at the ballpark in the top of the first inning as the game went back and forth with the Tigers having to score two runs in the eighth to square the game up at five apiece. Needing extra innings, Detroit’s pitcher himself, George Mullen, drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 11th. Navenfield opened with a six to five victory over the Cleveland Ball Club. For the next decade, the Tigers finished as high as second and as low as seventh in the American League and averaged around 400 to 600,000 fans per year. As the roaring 20s got underway, Detroit experienced a growth spurt thanks to the auto industry and a greater demand for seating at Navenfield arose. That gross spur amounted to a doubling of the city’s population during the 1910s, seeing the Tigers set franchise attendance records in back-to-back years, those being in 1921 and 1922. Following the 1922 season, Naven had the ballpark expanded to accommodate the growing fan base. The infield grandstand, as you can see in pictures of Navenfield prior to 1922, was single decked and roofed. This expansion saw this grandstand add a second deck, increasing the seating capacity to about 30,000, and an elevator to the press box was added for the convenience of the sports writers. Over time, that press box with its fancy elevator was expanded to accommodate new forms of media. Radio made its way into the booth heading into the 1927 season with the first broadcast occurring during a seven to nothing smashing of the St. Louis Browns on April 20th. Despite the accommodation of a modern stadium and radio broadcasting, the Tigers failed to find success on the field through the end of the 20s and well into the Great Depression. Tai Cobb retired heavy on the air quotes there from the Tigers following the 1926 season because of tensions with Frank Naven and the ball club began this era with no clear direction and no star to lead them. That all changed in 1934 with the purchasing of Mickey Cochran from the Philadelphia Athletics, plugging him as the catcher and manager. Right off the bat, the Tigers saw a dramatic improvement from 1933 where they finished 7579 and1. By the end of 1934, the Tigers were 101 and 53, American League champions for the first time in a quarter of a century, and their newly acquired catcher and manager Mickey Cochran was their first ever AL MVP. For the first time ever, Naven Field surpassed 900,000 spectators throughout the season as Detroit led the American League in attendance for the first time ever. Set to take on the St. Louis Cardinals in that year’s fall classic. The Tigers hoped to conquer their World Series Ghosts and capture that elusive first championship. With the series going the full seven games, the Tigers played miserably at Naven Field. Holding the homefield advantage, the Tigers only home win in the series came in a gritty game two that took 12 innings. Game seven played in Detroit was dominated by the gas house gang Cardinals in an 11 to nothing thrashing. For the fourth time in four World Series appearances, the Tigers faithful had to painfully suffer through yet another team celebrating their championship at Michigan and Trumble. Returning in 35 determined to conquer their demons, the Tigers claimed their fifth American League pennant by three games and finished with a 9358-1 record. First baseman Hank Greenberg followed suit with Cochran the year before being named MVP. And Navenfield led the league in attendance for the second consecutive year with nearly 920,000 people passing through the gates of the stadium. That year’s Fall Classic was set to be a rematch of two old Fall Classic rivals, our Tigers and those dang Cubs. Little did the Tigers know, and luckily for them, the Cubs were in the middle of a brutal World Series curse. So, it turns out it was actually impossible for them to win the whole time. In what ended up being a six-game series, the Tigers went 2-1 at home, including the decisive game six and brought Detroit its very first world championship. Maybe even the most exciting was the Tigers walking it off in game six to win the whole thing with Mickey Cochran himself being the one to cross the plate, claiming the championship and causing pandemonium to erupt at Navenfield. Michigan and Trumble was finally the site of a Tigers [Music] championship. In the middle of celebrating their success on the field, the Tigers had tragedy strike merely weeks after closing out the World Series at Naven Field. Tiger’s owner, Frank Naven, suffered a heart attack, fell off of his horse, and died. An owner with a reputation as a gambler and a penny pincher, Naven dearly loved baseball and dearly loved his Tigers. It was a life goal of his to bring a title to Detroit, and he managed to do that right before the end. Ownership of the Tigers passed on to his widow, who sold the ball club for a million dollars to an auto body magnet, Walter Briggs. Briggs had been a minority owner in the franchise dating all the way back to 1919 and was a lifelong fan of the Tigers. Continuing Naven’s vision for the stadium, one of Brigg’s first actions as owner was to undertake massive renovations on the stadium. He immediately hired the Osborne Engineering Company and had the rest of the first base stands double-decked all the way around the right field foul pole, increasing the stadium’s capacity to 36,000. A few years later, following the 1937 season, the third base was double-decked as well. The stadium would be renamed Briggs Stadium and reopened in 1939 with a capacity of 53,000. Finally, the stadium was fully enclosed and double-decked, giving it the familiar shape to most who remember it. It should be noted, though we’ll talk about it in more detail in a bit, that 1938 was the first year that the Detroit Lions played at Tiger Stadium, beginning a decadesl long relationship between the two professional sports organizations. On the field during this time, the Tigers followed their championship with a pair of second place finishes in 36 and 37 with second baseman Charlie Garinger taking home MVP in the latter season before slipping to fourth and fifth places in 38 and 39. Despite falling further from contention towards the end of the decade, the Tigers with their shiny newly renovated stadium never finished worse than eight games over 500. The 1940 season saw their fortunes turn around though as the team improved on their 8173 and1 mark from 39 by finishing 40 at a 90 64 and1 mark winning their sixth American League pennant. First baseman Hank Greenberg won his second career MVP. And Brick Stadium, now the second largest stadium in all of baseball behind Yankee Stadium, ranked first in attendance in the AL, seeing over 1.1 million fans passed through the gates. They faced a new foe in that year’s Fall Classic, taking on the National League’s Cincinnati Reds. Cincy had homefield advantage for the series and the teams traded off games until a 3-3 series tie led to a game seven back in Cincinnati. In front of 26,000 fans present at Crosley Field, the Tigers carried a 1 to nothing lead all the way to the bottom of the seventh before blowing it, giving up two runs to the hometown Reds, who would hold on to win their franchis’s second World Series. The Tigers traveled back to Detroit, feeling the familiar sting of falling just short. After the sore disappointment of 1940, Detroit hosted the All-Star game in 1941 with the AL winning 7 to5 off of Ted Williams timeless walk-off home run. The Tigers failed to remain relevant for the next few years before returning to second place in 1944 with ace pitcher Hal Newhauser taking home the American League MVP. Prince Hal repeated his feat the next season being named the 1945 MVP and helped earn the Tigers a sneaky seventh AL pennant with an 8865 and2 record. Briggs Stadium saw nearly 1.3 million fans pass through the gates as Detroit led the league in attendance and the Tigers played their way into a World Series matchup against their old fall classic rivals. You guessed it, the Chicago Cubs. But if you remember back to the 1935 series, the Cubbies were in the front half of the longest championship drought in American sports history. So, per the baseball gods, it had already been foretold that the Cubs had to lose. That being said, the series was pushed to the brink. In a bizarre series where the home teams win a combined two and five, the Tigers took it in seven games, claiming their second world championship and in a turn of fate, celebrating that championship at Wrigleyfield. Regardless in where the series ended, a second world championship was coming to the corner. The Tigers failed to defend their title the next season and began what would end up being the franchise’s second longest championship drought ever and the longest in the history of Michigan and Trumble. Not just would the Tigers fail to win a World Series, they wouldn’t even capture another American League pennant until 1968. The ball club did remain competitive for most of these seasons, even finishing in a frustrating second place in 46, 47, 50, 61, and 67. In the meantime, at the corner, the first televised game occurred on June 3rd, 1947. Then Walter Briggs, who had refused to install lights on the grounds that baseball was meant to be played in the daytime, finally caved and had them installed in 1948. Brick Stadium was the last American League ballpark to have lights installed. And that first ever night game occurred on June 15th, 1948. Brick Stadium hosted the All-Star game again in 1951 with the National League taking the contest this time. During the offseason following 1951, Tiger’s owner and stadium namesake Walter Briggs Senior died. The team passed on to his son, Spike, who dealt with back-hated core dealings for four years before selling the team to a conglomerate of businessmen and media executives spearheaded by John Fetzer. While the Briggs family left behind a legacy that included stadium modernization and a championship, that legacy was also tarnished with bigotry. While the family brought much good to the Tigers, they also refused to integrate the team. Walter Senior even forced people of color to sit in inferior seating in the stadium. 2 years after his family was forced to sell the team, Dominican ball player Azie Virgil was brought to Detroit and that color line was broken. The Tigers unfortunately were the second to last team to integrate in Major League Baseball. The 1950s were also notable for the debut of future Hall of Fame rightfielder Al Kaline. Kaline is one of 13 ball players to make his MLB debut without playing in the minor leagues and end up enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Just 5 years following the ownership change in 1956, John Fetzer became the sole owner of the Detroit Tigers and thus Briggs Stadium as well. Going into the 1961 season, he had the stadium renamed to its final version, the one you all most likely remember it by, Tiger [Music] Stadium. Tiger Stadium christened its new name with a good season of baseball. The stadium gates admitted over 1.6 6 million fans that season as the team finished the year 10161 and1. You’d think that that’d be a shoein for a pennet, but alas, the Tigers could only manage a second place finish. As a matter of fact, they finished a full eight games behind a dominant Yankee squad that was spearheaded by Mickey Manel and a record-breaking Roger Miris. Falling into mediocrity for a few years, the Tigers brought a pennet race back to the corner in 1967. Though they painfully fell short at the very end to the Red Sox, finishing second by only a game, the Tigers returned the next season on a vengeance. Tearing through the American League all year long, the Tigers captured their first American League pennant in 23 years by a whopping 12 games over the Baltimore Orioles. Finishing with a 103 and 59 record, Tiger Stadium led the league in attendance throughout the year, hosting over 2 million fans for the first time ever, and their ace pitcher, Denny Mlan, took home both the Sai Young and MVP awards. Worth noting is the fact that Mlan won 30 games that year. The first big leager to do so since Dizzy Dean in 1934 and likely the last to ever do so. Earning their first pennant in nearly two and a half decades, the Tigers were set to take on an old familiar World Series foe in the St. Louis Cardinals. a defending World Series champion Cardinals team that was led by Bob Gibson having full stop the greatest pitching season in baseball history. St. Louis held the home field advantage for the series and dominated the first four games, racing out to a 3 to1 series lead. Back against the wall, needing three wins and two of them away, the Tigers got to work. Mickey Lolich started game five for the Tigers having earned their only win as of yet. Giving up three runs in the top of the first in front of a crowd of 53,634. He locked in finishing the game without giving up another run. All while his offense took care of business in the fourth and seventh with two and three runs to take the game and push to a game six. In St. Lewis for game six. The Tigers took care of business, scoring two in the second and 10 in the third as they cruised to a 13-1 win with ace Denny Mlan on the mound and push the series to a winner take all game seven. Lulich took the mound for the Tigers in the decisive game matched up against Bob Gibson himself. Both men went the distance with the game going scoreless into the seventh inning before Jim Northrup’s two out triple to center drove in two runs. The Tigers never looked back, closing out the game 4 to1 and claiming the franchise’s third World Championship. In doing so, they became only the third team to ever come back to win a World Series went down 3 to1. Detroit sadly did not defend their title the next year, falling to second place again in 1969 with ace Denny Mlan taking home his second career Sai Young award and Tiger Stadium hosting nearly 1.6 million fans. Another pennant drought began but again this void was filled with significant events and changes. The beginning of the 70s saw the final All-Star game played at Tiger Stadium in 1971. The American League won the game 6 to4, but the highlight of the evening was the Oakland Athletics Reggie Jackson obliterating a third inning pitch that scaled the building and struck a light transformer in right field. 1972 saw the Tigers capture their first ever AL East title following the split into divisions going into the 1969 season. Following an 86 and 70 record, Detroit fell short in the ALCS, losing in seven games to the Athletics, the Detroit Lions played their last game at Tiger Stadium on Thanksgiving of 1974 before moving to the newly built Silverdome. I’ve only talked baseball so far, so let’s talk about what the Lions did at the corner. and two separate stints at Michigan and Trumbull. Those being from 38 to 39 and from 41 to 74, the Lions would have what would be by far their greatest era of play. They won three NFL championships in 1952, 53, and 57, with the 1953 and 1957 championship games being played at the corner. Many football legends passed through during the Lions time sharing space with the Tigers, including quarterback and infamous curse starter Bobby Lane, running back and kicker Doke Walker and linebacker Joe Schmidt. Good times weren’t all that accompanied the Lions at Tiger Stadium. Tragedy came along for the ride as well. In the fourth quarter of a game against the Chicago Bears on October 24th, 1971, Lions wide receiver Chuck Hughes collapsed and tragically passed away later that day. He remains to this day the only player to lose his life while playing an NFL game. The Lions tenure at Tiger Stadium ended in 1974 as they moved on to the Silver Dome. And from that point on, the only major sports franchise to call the stadium home was the Tigers. Tigers fans in 1976 were treated to one of the most incredible, captivating single season performances of all time as they followed Mark the Bird Fitter on his way to winning the American League Rookie of the Year. A year later in 1977, John Fetzer sold the stadium to the city of Detroit, who began to plan and implement some muchneeded renovations. Stripping the stadium of its traditional wooden green seats, the city replaced them with modern plastic ones decked out in the Tigers orange and blue, and the rest of the interior was painted blue to match. And according to the SABR, the outside of the stadium was redone with white aluminum siding to prevent a costly repainting that was done yearly. Serious concerns at this time were starting to be raised about the stadium’s longevity and whether or not it was time to start considering a brand new ballpark. Also during this time, the Tigers signed a pair of ball players who would go on to be the greatest double play combination in the history of the sport. Alan Traml and Lou Whitaker. Both ball players made their debut during the 1977 season, and things started to look up. Coming up through the Tiger system at the time were also Lance Parish and Jack Morris. With the signing of legendary manager Sparky Anderson in 1979 and the calling up of team legend Kirk Gibson that same season, the Tigers seem poised to compete for a [Music] ring going into 1983. John Fetzer sold the ball club to Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monahan. Monahan was a native of Ann Arbor and an avid Tigers fan. The Tigers played solid, though unspectacular baseball through the 1983 season before absolutely exploding at the beginning of the 84 campaign. The Bless You boys won 35 of their first 40 games as they got off to the hottest start in the history of Major League Baseball. They finished the season with a 104 and 58 record, claiming the AL East by a massive 15 games over the Toronto Blue Jays before sweeping the Royals in a five-game ALCS with Kirk Gibson being named ALCS MVP, setting them up for a World Series matchup against the San Diego Padres’s. Tiger Stadium led the league in attendance for 1984, hosting over 2.7 million fans as Tigers reliever Willie Hernandez won the Al Sai Young and MVP awards, becoming one of the few relievers in history to win the MVP. Despite finishing the season 12 games behind the Tigers at 92 and 70, the Padres’s held homefield advantage for the Fall Classic thanks to the National League capturing the All-Star game that summer. That meant absolutely nothing to the Tigers who were on a mission to prove that they were wireto-wire the best team in all of baseball. The first two games played in San Diego were split with both games being pretty close. Game one started by Tigers ace and future Hall of Famer Jack Morris ended in a 3-2 Tigers victory. The Padres’s behind the arm of Andy Hawkins took game two 5-3 over Detroit’s Dan Petri before the series pivoted back to Detroit tied at one. The Tigers pounced on the Padres’s Tim Ler early in game three at Tiger Stadium, chasing him out of the game after just five outs made and four runs given up. Closing the game out at 5-2, Detroit earned a win for their starter Milt Wilcox, who went six innings before Bill Sher came in for two outs. And MVP Willie Hernandez came out to close out the final two and a third innings. Two to1 Tigers. Ace Jack Morris took the mound for Detroit in game four, matched up against San Diego’s Eric Show. Show only lasted in any longer than Ler did in game three as Morris went the distance and the Tigers won the game four to2. Three to one Tigers just one [Music] more. The next day in front of a crowd of 51,91 at the corner of Michigan and Trumble, the Tigers looked to claim their fourth World Championship. Detroit got off to a quick start, tagging Padre starter Mark Thurman for three runs before chasing him out of the game in the first. Dan Petri took the mound for the Tigers and ran into trouble in the third and fourth where he allowed the Padres’s to tie the game before being pulled in favor of Bill Sher. Sher went for an inning before being relieved by Aurelio Lopez, who probably had the coolest nickname in baseball history, Senor Smoke. Kirk Gibson scored on a gutsy tag up in the fifth to give the Motor City Kitties a one-run lead. And the four to3 score held until the seventh inning when Goose Gosage came in for relief for San Diego and promptly gave up a dinger to Detroit’s Lance Parish. 5 to3 Tigers. Willie Hernandez took the mound in the eighth for Detroit to begin the process of closing the game out, giving up one run in the top of the inning. But the bottom of the eighth is where the deal was sealed. With utility man Marty Castillo opening the inning with a walk. He was immediately followed by a guy who should be in the Hall of Fame but isn’t, Lou Whitaker, who attempted to buck Castillo over. Padres’s third baseman, Greg Nettles, fielded the ball and promptly fired it to Gary Templeton for a force out. Templeton, assuming the ball was going to first, was out of position at second and both runners were safe. Following a successful sacrifice bunt by Alan Traml, both runners advanced to second and third. And then Kirk Gibson stepped up to the plate. Padres’s manager, Dick Williams, visited the mound to tell Goss to walk Gibson, but he refused, confident he could get the man out. First pitch inside, ball one. Gossich toes the rubber, looking to get a strike by Gibby to regain the advantage. Looking to pinch Gibby high and tight, Goose left the ball just too far over the plate and Gibby turned on it. The ball sailed into the chilly Midwest night straight into the upper deck of right field as absolute pandemonium erupted at the corner. Kirk Gibson rounded the bases, touched home, and delivered some of the sloppiest high fives you will ever see. Eight to five Tigers. Just three more outs. Willie Hernandez got the three outs in the top of the ninth with the final out off of the bat of Hall of Famer Tony Gwyn sailing into the glove of left fielder Larry H. Hearnden. Chaos broke out as fans and players celebrated on the field. The Tigers were world champions again and were the first team since the 69 Mets to clinch their division league championship and World Series at home. Nobody knew it at the time, but that was the final World Series game that would ever be played at the corner. The Tigers remained competitive throughout most of the 80s, even claiming another AL East title in 1987 before falling in five games to the Minnesota Twins in the ALCS. But just two years later, the wheels fell off and the Tigers began a prolonged period of struggling to reach mediocrity that lasted well past the end of their beloved stadium. In 1992, Monahan sold the team to Detroit native, Little Caesar’s founder, and Detroit Red Wings owner, Mike Illich. At this point, both the Tigers organization and the city of Detroit began to raise serious concerns about the stadium’s long-term viability. And behind closed doors, both the team and city agreed it was time for a new ballpark. According to the SABR, the team and city complained that the stadium was both outdated and too expensive to maintain. It was quickly deteriorating and had a lack of parking amenities. Illich was a strong proponent of building a new ballpark. And it took some convincing, but he was able to acquire over 40% of the funding for his new stadium through taxpayer money. And groundbreaking occurred on October 29th, 1997. Tigers fans fought back hard for several years to preserve Michigan and Trumbull as the home of their beloved team, but it was to no avail. Several plans were proposed, but never truly considered by the city, nor Mike Illich. I said in my Ebottzfield video that these stadiums, like all things, are subject to time and progress. Despite over a hundred years of baseball being played at the northwest corner of Michigan and Trumbull, it would all come to an end following the 1999 [Music] season. The final game at the corner took place on September 27th, 1999. Tickets sold out for the game within an hour of being posted for sale as 43,356 fans showed up to cheer their team and mourn their ballpark. In eulogy to the longest standing professional baseball grounds in Major League Baseball, the Tigers won the game 8 to2 over their division rival Royals. Tiger Stadium always had a flare for the dramatic right to the very end as the final hit at the stadium was an eighth inning grand slam and the final out a strikeout. That grand slam off the bat of designated hitter Robert Fick was the 11,000th 111th home run in the history of the ballpark. Even more iconic, he was wearing Norm Cash’s number 25. Cash famously hit more balls onto the roof of Tiger Stadium than any other man. And guess where Fick put it. Following the final out of the game, home plate was immediately dug up and transported with a full police escort to the new stadium. Then nearly 70 former Tigers joined together on the field to celebrate with the fans. As we can only imagine, there was hardly a dry eye in the building. Homeplayed umpire John Row, a Michigan native, kept the official lineup cards. And in a beautiful moment of baseball lore, the great nephew of Charlie Bennett, walked onto the field and delivered a final farewell pitch. His great uncle and namesake of the original stadium had thrown out the original first pitch over a century prior. It was a fitting end. And just like that, 88 years of Tiger Stadium and 104 seasons of baseball at the corner came to an end. There was an effort to save the stadium and repurpose it as it sat in limbo for nearly a decade. As a matter of fact, it was later discovered that Mike Illich had been granted half a million dollars a year by the city to help maintain Tiger Stadium, but it appears he likely kept it. Demolition finally began in 2008 and was wrapped up in 2009. When the demolition was complete, all that was left was the field, the foul poles, and the flag pole. 5 years later, at the end of 2014, a $33 million redevelopment project was approved. ground broke in 2016 and in 2018 the newly renovated corner ballpark opened up. The field was preserved and is now used for youth through college baseball and retail and residential buildings were erected, revitalized and alive once again. Baseball is being played at the corner of Michigan and Trumble as it has been and as it should be. Though Tiger Stadium no longer stands, the impact it had on the city of Detroit remains to this day. It was outside of the purview of this video, but once upon a time, The Corner was host to Detroit’s own Joe Lewis, defending his heavyweight title against Bob Pastor in 1939. It hosted major musical events, exhibition soccer, college football, and four different professional football teams. Michigan and Trumbull played host to seven major sports championships, four in baseball and three in football, and in the process actually hosted six World Series and two NFL championship games. Over 6,800 major league games were played on that field with well over a 100 million fans passing through its gates over the years. Like I said, baseball stadiums are subject to time and progress. in the immortal words of Ernie Harwell as he spoke the farewell address at the final game at the corner. We love nostalgia. We love history and we like to be sentimental, but I think you have to have a degree of practicality. We just have to keep Tiger Stadium a treasure in our [Music] minds. Thank you all for joining me on this exploration of one of the most historic baseball grounds in America. I love the Tigers and I regretfully never had the pleasure of visiting the old ballpark. I think this project was a way for me to live vicariously and pretend for a bit that I truly knew what it was like to see a game on those hollowed grounds. If you have memories at the corner, please feel free to leave them down below so I can live vicariously through you, too. And if not, tell me a story about your favorite baseball diamond. If you enjoyed this video, make sure you give it a like and subscribe to the channel. It goes a long way in helping me produce passion projects like this. If you want even more ways to help support the channel, consider becoming a member of the channel for just a dollar a month. Or check out the merch I’ve linked below. Anyways, go Tigers. And remember, if you like baseball, like this video and subscribe for more. [Music]