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As baseball season begins to crank up...

Echoes of the Past

Young Jack Szigety stands on the pitcher's mound at now-defunct Tiger Stadium, June 2010.

Other than the traces of the infield, now weed-choked, and the flagless flagpole out in center, not much remains

of the "good old days," other than numberless, ever-fleeting memories of all the distantly-played

games we attended, watched, or listened to....

Note: That's Motor City Casino looming in the background left and Brooks Lumber

(now affiliated with Ace Hardware) on the right. Got this from Wikipedia:

"There were over 30 home runs hit onto or over the right field roof over the years. It was a relatively soft touch compared to left field,

with a 325-foot foul line and with a roof that was in line with the front of the lower deck. In left field, it was 15 feet farther down the line,

and the roof was set back some distance. Only four of the game's most powerful right-handed sluggers (Harmon Killebrew, Frank Howard,

Cecil Fielder and Mark McGwire) reached the left field rooftop. In his career, Norm Cash hit four home runs over the

Tiger Stadium roof in right field and is the all-time leader.^"

P.S. Homers by Cash, Kirk Gibson and others landed on the roof of the aforementioned Brooks Lumber, monster blasts all.

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  Rubbing Shoulders.



Tiger greats Al Kaline (above) and The Gator, Gates Brown, got

a chance to meet and enjoy a photo op with me and back in June, while I was visiting

Comerica Park with Rich & Jack Szigety of Cox Classic fame. Of course, both

ex-Tigers remembered me from the 60s when as a boy, I'd bus down Michigan Avenue

to Tiger Stadium from Dearborn and fork over $1.50 of my hard-earned paper route

money for a general admission seat.  It was good for them to see me again. wom

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Perfectly Awful.

Goodbye Ernie...

Remembering a Detroit legend

click right here: 1968: The Year of the Tiger.

Actual Audio

from Larry King Radio in the '90's /JPM

The Long Goodbye

Tiger Stadium languished in limbo, empty and abandoned, for 10 long years

before it finally succumbed to the wrecking ball. Click the pic for an outstanding

slideshow of its final days by Detroit photogapher Justin Harris.

CoPa at dusk, August 9, 2006October 28, 2006 - Okay, so the 2006 baseball season is now officially over, and the Tigers' youth -- which had been the team's strength throughout the year -- proved to be its Achilles' Heel against St. Louis. So be it. The Boys gave us an amazing ride, they left us with lots of hope for next year, and it was great fun watching their playoff run. However, it WASN'T such great fun watching a team of mainly Hispanic stars from the Caribbean attempt to play a summer sport in a 35-degree wind chill. (Has any baseball player ever worn a more ridiculous item of clothing than Placido Polanco and his head condom? Yet, who could blame him, given the conditions?)

But all that's behind us, and we refuse to look back. Instead, we forge forward and focus on what's really important...UM football. There's still untapped potential on this front, and we shall stay with it all the way to Columbus....

October 12, 2006 - As Ann Arbor got its first glimpse of winter -- a few random snow squalls whose bark was worse than its bite -- we were reminded of just how cold it will be at Comerica Park when the Tigers and A's resume their series tomorrow night. Baseball weather in Michigan in mid-October is iffy at best; it gets even worse if Detroit heads to the World Series. The NLCS between the Mets and Cards could go until October 19, should they play a full seven games. The World Series, in that case, wouldn't begin until October 21st and run nearly up into November. So, is the season too long? Back in 1963, LA -- behind Koufax and Drysdale -- beat the Yanks four straight games and were home on October 6th. In '84, when the Tigers reigned, they clinched in five games, and the Series ended on October 14. All this aside, the colder it is, the better it is for Detroit. Trying to hit a 100 mph fastball with your teeth chattering is next to impossible. The Tigers need two more games to move to the final round, and this climate change bodes well for the good guys....

Jason's rooftop, Detroit, MI - Looking from Seldon Ave. southeasterly toward the Renaissance Center (towers visible on right); Ford Field, home of the "Lions" (center-left, white structure directly beneath the two smoke stacks); and Comerica Park (one light tower is visible just to right of Ford Field), home of the incredibly talented Tigers, who just beat the Overpaid Primadonnas (AKA, the Yankees) 4-3 in game two of their playoff series. Next stop for the Bengals: That very same Comerica Park for games three and four.

Okay, Okay, let's count our blessings...the Tigers are at least still playing baseball, one of only eight MLB teams that continues to do so, BUT what a letdown!! It was the proverbial Demon Drop -- that old Cedar Point ride that, like an elevator, takes you up, up, up ever so slowly and pleasantly and then arriving at the top, suddenly begins hurtling madly back down before coming to a jolting rest at the bottom.

It will go down as one of the biggest collapses in Major League history, and even though they are a playoff team, not winning the Central Division Crown, something they had firmly in their grasp nearly all season, will always leave a bitter taste on the palate.

Lifelong Orioles' fan Mary Ella, seen here putting on a stiff upper lip down at Detroit's Comerica Park during HackFest 2006. Secretly jealous that the Tigers were far outpacing her hapless Baltimore Boys of Summer this season, she proceeded to spew bad vibes all over the stadium during her brief visit. As a result, the Tigers went into a severe tailspin starting that very night and nearly lost their grip on what appeared to be a locked-in playoff spot. Finally recovering from her horrible hex more than a month later, the rejuventated team only yesterday clinched at least a wildcard berth in the upcoming post-season, its first playoff appearance since 1987. As of this report, the boys continue to fight the Minnesota Twins for the Central Division crown with just a half-dozen or so games remaining. Baltimore, on the other hand, has plummeted to 25 games behind the leaders. Note smug Detroiter Marcus J, who knew all along that while this may not be the year of the FOMOCO, it most certainly IS the year of the Tiger....

Tiger Stadium remains standing, but like another Detroit monument, the nearby Michigan Central Railroad Terminal, it's just a shell waiting for the wrecking ball. This shot, from the early 70s, gives you a pretty good idea of what a buck could buy you at the concession stand back then...a red hot for 60 cents? Hell, give me two! WOM

New York City, NY, 1993 - It's in this hallowed place that the Tigers commence their run (or, perhaps, limp) toward the World Series...Yankee Stadium. The powerful Bronx Bombers (AKA, the best team that money can buy) are the prohibitive favorites, but you never know...a favorable bounce here, a timely hit there, stingy pitching, a highlight-reel catch or two, an Act of God.... The plaque is a tribute to local hero, Lou Gehrig, who died tragically at just 37. (I've forgotten the name of the disease that ravaged him.)

The southeast wall of the Old Stadium on Trumbull Avenue. Of note is the tacky remnant of Tiger Plaza, which was cobbled on in the ballpark's final years in an attempt to modernize its concessions. The Little Caesar's Pizza booths, nachos' kiosks, and bobble-headed souvenir stands weren't nearly enough to save the place, and now they, too, are in deep decay like almost everything else in the area....

As the Tigers continue to befuddle the New York OPPs (OverPaid Primadonnas), one can't help reflecting on what a championship-caliber baseball team can do to raise the spirits of a city. In was in this now-derelict stadium that the '68 Tigers, following in the heels of the dreadful, riot-torn summer of 1967, stunned the St. Louis Cardinals and the almost-unbeatable Bob Gibson. That did wonders for the city's morale. Seventeen years later, the '84 team faced the San Diego Padres here and did it again. Everyone rejoiced together. Now, 22 more years have passed us by...Can they do it again? At the start of the season, it wasn't even a random thought. Now, after last night's 6-0 humbling of the heavily-favored Yanks, anything seems possible. Of course, they still need one of two just to get into the next round of the AL playoffs. And that will take a monumental effort, a little luck, and another disgraceful performance by their befuddled and disbelieving opponents.

Don't want to get too worked up because the Tigers have not actually won anything yet. But they DID beat the New York OPPs (Overpaid Primadonnas), in the process moving on to the American League Championship Series against Oakland. That is a sensational start to what would be (if they win this next series and are victorious in the World Series) a storybook season, one for the ages (look above to see in a single image what THAT looks like). Still, there was such a vibrant spirit pervading Comerica Park and throughout the state after yesterday's ousting of the Bronx Bummers that it was almost as if the team had won the World Series. After all, they beat what many considered the best team in baseball AND they did it at home, especially sweet after that debacle with Kansas City on the last weekend of the regular season. That miserable performance gave them a wild card entry into the postseason instead of a division winner slot, which Minnesota claimed. And now, where are the Twins? Fading fast into the past with their compatriots, the Yankees. So maybe there is a master plan happening here. Or maybe not. But one thing is perfectly clear for now: The Tigers are still playing baseball, and by the end of tomorrow at the latest, just three other major league teams will be able to make that claim.