22 Years Ago Today

[casimir]

4 hours ago, djhutch said:

The thing I miss about it is when you came into the stadium you couldn't see the field.  You went thru the tight spaces, & then there was that moment your little 12 yr old head peaked over the ramp & you saw green for the first time .. it was perfect.

And there has never ever been another glimpse of that same shade of green since then.  It truly was breathtaking to see it for the first time.  Even as a kid, you knew it was special.

[RandyMarsh]

I was too young to see any of the good Tigers teams there so my fondest memory was seeing my then favorite player and team Ken Griffey Jr. and the Mariners(as a teen they were the coolest team of that era) there. This was in the summer of I believe 99, Luis Gonzalez hit a would be HR only for Griffey to seemingly come out of nowhere to rob it. The buzz in the stadium was incredible and still the greatest defensive play I ever seen live. 

[Motor City Sonics]

My best friend's family owned a bar called Kenilworth Pub in Dearborn.  They now own The Biergarten, also in Dearborn.  I don't know why but at some point Oakland A's people started hanging out there while they stayed at the Ritz in Dearborn.  We all became friends with the A's trainer, Barry Weinberg.     Barry would always get us tickets when the A's were in town.  

One Sunday we had tickets for an A's game with Mark McGwire was still with them.   These were tickets on the first base side, but we always like to sit in the first few rows of the right field upper deck.  The old stadium they didn't really check, it was rarely full.   

We have the one guy who is always late and not 10 minutes late, like 45 minutes late, to everything.  We are on our way to the game and 1st inning Tony Clark hits a home run, right to our seats. We get to the stadium, it's the 2nd inning and we are in the hallways in the lower deck, we stop to get beers and dogs and on the TV we see another HR go right to our seats, so we all rip on Steve and he unleashes an obscene-laden torrent at the top of his lungs at us (because we stopped for food and beer) that echoed through the corridors so loudly that security almost threw him out of the park.  I swear that when they leveled the place and tore down that hallway, the last whoosh of air to escape still include echoes of Steve's tirade.  

[Motor City Sonics]

I remember a mostly empty park once when Mark McGwire cleared the roof in LF.  I still remember the collective gasp

[Clinkeroo]

8 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

My best friend's family owned a bar called Kenilworth Pub in Dearborn.  They now own The Biergarten, also in Dearborn.  I don't know why but at some point Oakland A's people started hanging out there while they stayed at the Ritz in Dearborn.  We all became friends with the A's trainer, Barry Weinberg.     Barry would always get us tickets when the A's were in town.  

One Sunday we had tickets for an A's game with Mark McGwire was still with them.   These were tickets on the first base side, but we always like to sit in the first few rows of the right field upper deck.  The old stadium they didn't really check, it was rarely full.   

We have the one guy who is always late and not 10 minutes late, like 45 minutes late, to everything.  We are on our way to the game and 1st inning Tony Clark hits a home run, right to our seats. We get to the stadium, it's the 2nd inning and we are in the hallways in the lower deck, we stop to get beers and dogs and on the TV we see another HR go right to our seats, so we all rip on Steve and he unleashes an obscene-laden torrent at the top of his lungs at us (because we stopped for food and beer) that echoed through the corridors so loudly that security almost threw him out of the park.  I swear that when they leveled the place and tore down that hallway, the last whoosh of air to escape still include echoes of Steve's tirade.  

So, MCS, I'm Clinker from MTS.  From your story, I'm wondering if we know each other.  DHS, Class of '85?

Edited September 29, 2021 by Clinkeroo

[Motor City Sonics]

Then there was August 11, 1994.   The last day of the season because the strike was coming.     The Tigers were playing the Brewers that day and Bill Wegmen was warming up in the bullpen and my other friend Steve, who's 6'8" is calling balls & strikes as he's warming up and Wegman stops and looks at Steve and Steve says "lets see a strike", so Wegmen rips a strike and Steve says "that was beautiful".   No issue, right.    Nope,  Teddy Higuera comes up to us and starts  yelling at us and his accent is thick so we are not sure what he's saying but he's just really pissed off and the ushers come over to us and tell us to go to our seats.     Well our seats were given to us by the Brewers broadcasting guys -- we were right behind home plate, about 20 rows up.   We decided that every single pitch Wegman threw, we'd yell out BALL, which is what we did.  The ump turned around and yelled that he didn't need our help.  Even Lou Whitaker tried to shoosh us.   We didn't care, they were going on strike and we didn't care if we got tossed.   We never relented.  The whole game.   I am sure everyone around us hated us, but Higuera pissed us off and we were angry about the strike.    The best thing Wegman had going is that the Tigers had Mike Moore pitching and we got clobbered that day, 10-4 or 10-5, something like that.     

[RandyMarsh]

Another fond memory was walking around that outside concourse off Michigan Ave.(can't remember the name of it but it was added on towards the end of its existence) before a game and casually sitting in a folding chair dressed in full uniform smoking a cigarette was Ozzie Guillen back when he was a player. My brothers and I went up and got his autograph and chatted with him for a few, I don't know just thought it was surreal to just see a random player chilling out and about, so that moment sticks out to me. 

[Motor City Sonics]

1 minute ago, Clinkeroo said:

So, MCS, I'm Clinker from MTS.  From your story, I'm wondering if we know each other.  DHS, Class of '85?

We might.  I did not go to Dearborn High, I moved there after high school in Sterile Heights.  My friends were all class of '85 DHS.    John-John was one of my closest friends, met him working at Camp Dearborn when he threw my obnoxious cousin into the scummy pond behind the canteen............we all got thrown in there, but she through she was special.   Nope.   

One time Dominic got Dave Henderson so drunk that we had to sneak him to his room at the Ritz.  He fell and cracked his head on a table in his hotel room and his roommate Ron Darling told us to keep our mouth shut about it.   Next day before the game we heard on the radio that Hondo was out with a pulled hamstring.   

[Motor City Sonics]

I also went to all three of the last games of 87 vs. the Blue Jays.  All one-run games.  Camped out Saturday night after being at the bar from about 3am until they opened the ticket office and got bleacher seats for Tanana's 1-0 game that clinched the East.    The only run was a Larry Herndon home run and from the bleachers you could not see the left field corner, all we could do is react to the crowd's reaction.    Another wonderful quirky flaw of the stadium.  

 

[Clinkeroo]

8 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

We might.  I did not go to Dearborn High, I moved there after high school in Sterile Heights.  My friends were all class of '85 DHS.    John-John was one of my closest friends, met him working at Camp Dearborn when he threw my obnoxious cousin into the scummy pond behind the canteen............we all got thrown in there, but she through she was special.   Nope.   

One time Dominic got Dave Henderson so drunk that we had to sneak him to his room at the Ritz.  He fell and cracked his head on a table in his hotel room and his roommate Ron Darling told us to keep our mouth shut about it.   Next day before the game we heard on the radio that Hondo was out with a pulled hamstring.   

Yup.  Many fond memories of being thrown into stank lakes at Camp Dearborn.  The guys will know the name "Clink".  Steve and John were and are frickin' hilarious.

Just to stay on topic, I was a season ticket holder at Tiger Stadium.  My wife still gets pissed at me when I tell people the single greatest moment of my life was game five in '84.  Right field, box seats.  Still get chills when I remember Gibson's second homer rising into the second deck.

I was also at the last three in '87, came home from CMU for those.  Bleachers for all three; what a party.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Clinkeroo

[Motor City Sonics]

As a kid wanted to see how fast Ralph Garr could run.   He beat out an infield play for a single.  It was a game Ray Bare was pitching and my 10 year old self didn't realize that if they'd gotten him out on that close play, it would have been a no-hitter (it was the 5th or 6th inning)

[RandyMarsh]

I get the open concourse and sightlines was all the craze at the time so you weren't going to just build a carbon copy of Tiger Stadium like the Yankees did but I wish they incorporated some aspects of the park, like maybe having one side of the outfield have the bleachers and overhang of Tiger Stadium like how Texas did with their old park.  

[Motor City Sonics]

1 minute ago, Clinkeroo said:

Yup.  Many fond memories of being thrown into stank lakes at Camp Dearborn.  The guys will know the name "Clink".  Steve and John are frickin' hilarious.

Just to stay on topic, I was a season ticket holder at Tiger Stadium.  My wife still gets pissed at me when I tell people the single greatest moment of my life was game five in '84.  Right field, box seats.  Still get chills when I remember Gibson's second homer rising into the second deck.

a lot of people think that was the game winning RBI, but it was not.   Who had the game winning RBI that night.   Gibson did score the 5th run......................his 3 run bomb just cemented it.  What a party.   My first Detroit. championship (sorry MSU basketball fans, that one didn't move me so much). 

[Motor City Sonics]

3 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said:

I get the open concourse and sightlines was all the craze at the time so you weren't going to just build a carbon copy of Tiger Stadium like the Yankees did but I wish they incorporated some aspects of the park, like maybe having one side of the outfield have the bleachers and overhang of Tiger Stadium like how Texas did with their old park.  

Based on the Texas timeline the Tigers will have a new park in what, 2026?    Still can't believe they did that, the park they had was cool, the new one is ugly. 

[RandyMarsh]

Just now, Motor City Sonics said:

Based on the Texas timeline the Tigers will have a new park in what, 2026?    Still can't believe they did that, the park they had was cool, the new one is ugly. 

I never went to a game there but I too always liked the look of that Texas park and not just cause of the Tigers Stadium thing. I always thought it looked unique and stood out from other parks. My understanding is that it was super hot there and that was the main reason why they "upgraded" but you think that was something they would've thought about when they built the park to begin with.  

[Motor City Sonics]

1 minute ago, RandyMarsh said:

I never went to a game there but I too always liked the look of that Texas park and not just cause of the Tigers Stadium thing. I always thought it looked unique and stood out from other parks. My understanding is that it was super hot there and that was the main reason why they "upgraded" but you think that was something they would've thought about when they built the park to begin with.  

Come on, you and I and everyone else knows that someone got rich off of building the new ballpark.    But, outside of Tampa and maybe Oakland, that is the ugliest MLB park and its only 2 years old. 

 

[Clinkeroo]

9 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

   Who had the game winning RBI that night.   

Rusty.

  

[oblong]

31 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

My best friend's family owned a bar called Kenilworth Pub in Dearborn.  They now own The Biergarten, also in Dearborn.  I don't know why but at some point Oakland A's people started hanging out there while they stayed at the Ritz in Dearborn.  We all became friends with the A's trainer, Barry Weinberg.     Barry would always get us tickets when the A's were in town.  

One Sunday we had tickets for an A's game with Mark McGwire was still with them.   These were tickets on the first base side, but we always like to sit in the first few rows of the right field upper deck.  The old stadium they didn't really check, it was rarely full.   

We have the one guy who is always late and not 10 minutes late, like 45 minutes late, to everything.  We are on our way to the game and 1st inning Tony Clark hits a home run, right to our seats. We get to the stadium, it's the 2nd inning and we are in the hallways in the lower deck, we stop to get beers and dogs and on the TV we see another HR go right to our seats, so we all rip on Steve and he unleashes an obscene-laden torrent at the top of his lungs at us (because we stopped for food and beer) that echoed through the corridors so loudly that security almost threw him out of the park.  I swear that when they leveled the place and tore down that hallway, the last whoosh of air to escape still include echoes of Steve's tirade.  

I used to go to Kenilworth around 1998-2001.  Biertgarten was a lunchtime staple for me but haven’t been in a long time, probably 4 years. I know who the family is but don’t know them personally.  I remember the dog at Kenilworth. When I talked earlier about the Aussie that gang would meet up at Kenilworth. Not sure how they did it but somehow all the aussies in the area found each other.  One memorable night they got kicked out of Kiernan’s.   I miss those places.  Howell’s. Double Olive. The very first thing I bought with my first paycheck out of college was a Martini at the double olive. 

[Motor City Sonics]

1 minute ago, oblong said:

I used to go to Kenilworth around 1998-2001.  Biertgarten was a lunchtime staple for me but haven’t been in a long time, probably 4 years. I know who the family is but don’t know them personally.  I remember the dog at Kenilworth. When I talked earlier about the Aussie that gang would meet up at Kenilworth. Not sure how they did it but somehow all the aussies in the area found each other.  One memorable night they got kicked out of Kiernan’s.   I miss those places.  Howell’s. Double Olive. The very first thing I bought with my first paycheck out of college was a Martini at the double olive. 

Once saw a guy on TV, a hurricane victim from Hurricane Hugo in South Carolina - He had a Pelican Club t-shirt on.   I was given a commemorative brick from the Kenilworth with a little plaque on it when it was torn down.    

[Motor City Sonics]

5 minutes ago, Clinkeroo said:

Rusty.

  

yep,  Tony Gwynn lost a routine fly ball in the lights.  

[oblong]

I remember Biergarten got hosed a few years ago when some moron who owned the building next door decided to knock it down and ruined their building.  Of course, being Dearborn, the guy just did what he wanted with no permits or whatever.... I hope they leave that space empty.  There's plenty of open buildings available for a new business.  Not sure who owns it now.  

 

[Biff Mayhem]

12 hours ago, RandyMarsh said:

I was too young to see any of the good Tigers teams there so my fondest memory was seeing my then favorite player and team Ken Griffey Jr. and the Mariners(as a teen they were the coolest team of that era) there. This was in the summer of I believe 99, Luis Gonzalez hit a would be HR only for Griffey to seemingly come out of nowhere to rob it. The buzz in the stadium was incredible and still the greatest defensive play I ever seen live. 

I remember that oh too well. Jr was "must see" in his prime.

[chasfh]

I clearly remember my first Tiger game at Tiger Stadium. It was my eleventh birthday, a night game in the middle of July. It wasn’t my first time there. I had gone to a Lions game before, in November. It was about 15 degrees, I was a skinny little kid, and I froze my tuchus off. I barely remember the experience. I guess I’m largely blocking it from my memory.

The two things I remember most about the stadium: (1) how colorful it was, mostly the green, for a kid who saw games only in black and white on TV at home. Coming through the tunnel to the seats was magic. And (2) the overwhelming smell of cigars. You could tell this was a place for men. That made me feel more grown up at the time.

Also notable about that game is that it was the only one I ever went to in which Ted Williams had a duty to perform. He was manager of the Rangers that season.

The game itself was pretty exciting. After going down 3-0 in the first, the Tigers came back for the win. There was also a controversial bunt single attempt in the ninth that may have single-handedly sealed the division win for OBT that season. There’s a write-up about that game here: https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-11-1972-tigers-win-critical-game-on-close-call-in-ninth/

[Motor City Sonics]

36 minutes ago, oblong said:

I remember Biergarten got hosed a few years ago when some moron who owned the building next door decided to knock it down and ruined their building.  Of course, being Dearborn, the guy just did what he wanted with no permits or whatever.... I hope they leave that space empty.  There's plenty of open buildings available for a new business.  Not sure who owns it now.  

 

He tried to buy them out and they weren't selling so he decided to go ahead and knock down his building without permission (and the city told him not to do it) but he did it anyway.    The whole saga is still ongoing.    That happened to the UFO Factory right by the old Tiger Stadium.   The owners bought it when it was worthless and some jackass wanted to put condos there when it became more valuable, but they didn't want to sell, so he basically took a wrecking ball and deliberately slammed their building and destroyed it.   They didn't give up however and have rebuilt.  

[chasfh]

9 hours ago, RandyMarsh said:

I get the open concourse and sightlines was all the craze at the time so you weren't going to just build a carbon copy of Tiger Stadium like the Yankees did but I wish they incorporated some aspects of the park, like maybe having one side of the outfield have the bleachers and overhang of Tiger Stadium like how Texas did with their old park.  

They tried a few things like the flagpole in the field of play, but they bailed on the super deep left field fence after just one year, I think. Brilliant move by the organization to essentially trade the farm for Juan Gonzalez and then put him in a place where he couldn’t do the one thing they signed for to do.