I found this great article about Tiger Stadium.
She still stands at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull, an aging shrine carved into a city block in west Detroit.
Her massive light towers still overwhelm onlookers passing by on the Rosa Parks Boulevard.
She still has the same tough, gray facade that fits so perfectly into the landscape of a hard, factory-driven town.
Inside, the same souvenir stands and snack shops still line the concourse as though they're simply waiting through another tough Michigan winter for Opening Day to come.
Built in 1912, she is a piece of baseball history.
But history is all that old Tiger Stadium has anymore.
For seven years now, the place so many baseball legends called home has sat empty. The team for which she is named moved across town to a bright, shiny new ballpark.
Since that move, the city of Detroit has been searching for takers, someone to invest the necessary funds needed to preserve the 95-year old park.
But they found none, and were forced to make an agonizing decision.
Beginning this spring, demolition work will begin on the majority of Tiger Stadium, closing the book on one of the most storied arenas in American sports history.
"The city tried diligently to try and find someone who could redevelop it using at least most of the stadium," said Fred Rottach, manager of the city's planning and development department. "Given the economic times and the old ballparks with how hard they are to redevelop, we just weren't able to find anyone.
"We were looking at someone probably spending at least $150 million. That's how much it would cost to redevelop something of this stature."
The park was costing the city $400,000 a year to maintain, and was used only one time for a public function since 2002.
Having exhausted all possible options for salvaging the stadium, it was decided that the entire park would be razed except for a portion of the lower grandstand along the third base line, where a youth baseball field would be built next to the remaining seats.
"The city has finally decided, after giving every possible effort, that it's time to give the area a new future," said Rottach, a Detroit native and avid Tiger fan. "We'll keep a portion of it as a little league park, and the rest will be used for condos and shops and things like that. We want to it be a real asset to the community again."
For the better part of a century, Tiger Stadium was a community asset. A common ground for people from all walks of life to gather and cheer on their team.
It opened its doors for the first time on April 20, 1912 -- the same day as Fenway Park in Boston.
But the grand opening of those parks took a backseat to an even bigger news story, as details were still being sorted out from the sinking of the Titanic just five days earlier.
Originally known as Navin Field, for team owner Frank Navin, and then changed to Briggs Stadium before given its most famous moniker in 1961, Tiger Stadium has played host to six World Series and three All-Star games during its existence.
Among those who sank their cleats into the stadium grass included Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer, Kirk Gibson, Alan Trammell and "Sweet" Lou Whitaker.
Ernie Harwell, the Tigers' legendary Hall of Fame broadcaster for more than 40 years, remembers fans sitting so close to the players that they could "see them sweat and hear them cuss."
"I'll keep a lot of memories in my mind from that park," said Harwell, who actually called his first game in Tiger Stadium as a visiting broadcaster, working with the newly formed Baltimore Orioles in 1957. "All parks must eventually come down, though. Yankee Stadium doesn't look like it did originally. Fenway Park doesn't either. Even the old Polo Grounds where I worked in the early 1950s eventually came down. It's just what happens.
"Tiger Stadium stood for that long on its own merits, though. People didn't expect all the food courts and merry-go-rounds that you get with these newer parks."
But newer parks are generally more cost-effective to operate, which is a big reason why 15 of Major League Baseball's 32 teams have built new stadiums since 1990 -- and why at least four others are either in construction or have plans to build new parks over the next four years.
One of those was Comerica Park, a $300-million stadium which opened on the northeast side of downtown Detroit in 2000.
Comerica enjoyed the first World Series of its history when the Tigers met the Cardinals last October.
But while the new park was rocking with fans relishing their first trip to the Series in 21 years, old Tiger Stadium sat cold and empty on the opposite side of town, awaiting its impending demise.
A Web site called
www.savetigerstadium.com voiced strong sentiment to preserve the stadium, but even that group was satisfied with the city's plans.
Webmaster Dan Holmes, who also operates the Web site for the Baseball Hall of Fame, posted on the site: "Most encouraging to the "Save Tiger Stadium" efforts, the City plans to preserve the footprint of the playing field and maintain a diamond on that historic location. ... If it does happen, it would be a decent compromise. No, it's not a full-fledged minor league ballpark in the tradition of Navin Field, as some have suggested. And of course, it does demolish the actual structure of Tiger Stadium, but people who were hoping for the park to stand forever were not facing the facts.
"Detroit's plan allows for the preservation of the ballfield, and a nod to the history of 'The Corner.' Now, we will wait and see."
Several Major League clubs will have their pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training today, although Tigers' players aren't scheduled to arrive at the team's camp until tomorrow.
In about a month and a half, they'll travel north to Detroit and begin yet
another Major League Baseball season in the Motor City.
Fans will continue to flock to the park, proudly wearing hats, jerseys and sweatshirts with the Tigers' classic "D" moniker, and sharing memories with their children, and their children's children.
Just as it's done for the last 106 years, baseball will go on.
"Opening day was always a big occasion in Detroit," said Harwell. "It was the one day a year when baseball would just take over the newspapers, televisions and radios. People used to dress up and come to the ballpark.
"In 50 years, people will probably be remembering old Comerica Park. It just hasn't been around long enough yet. I think people are just beginning to build new memories there."
That's the beauty of baseball. There's always room for more memories.
And no matter what new experiences Comerica Park brings, those who were lucky enough to see her will never forget old Tiger Stadium.
Razing memories of 95-year-old Tiger Stadium before demolition work begins
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