Tiger Stadium

I went to Tiger a few years before the stadium closed (1993). There was talk about closing the stadium but plans for the new park had not been made official yet. We sat on the third base side in front of a support beam. Tiger was an older park that didn’t need huge support beams since they weren’t supporting 5,000 skyboxes. Plus the upper deck seats were almost flush with the lower seats. This team was when the Tigers had serious home run power; Fielder, Tettleton, and Deer. During the game I saw, Cecil hit a shot that cleared the 440 mark in center. Deer had a home run too. They played a good Twins team with Puckett, Hrbek, and Dave Winfield. The Twins took the lead in the 8th and Aquilera got the save.

Tiger was unique in that they had cyclone fencing separating the cheap general admission seats the rest of the stadium. Of all the parks I have visited, walking the 300 yards from the bus to the stadium gates was the most scared I’ve ever been walking into a stadium. For starters, the tour company put us in hotels in Canada rather than stay in Detroit. As the bus pulled up to the park, street vendors pushed their way onto the bus. The area was crowded with people who were not there for the game.

During the game itself, a fat guy decided to run across the field. He started on the third base side (not too far from where we were sitting) and ran to the right field bleachers. Since he was really out of shape, by the time he got to the RF wall he was too tired to climb the fence. He was escorted off the field in shame. This action, however, inspired another fan who was in much better shape. Starting from roughly the same location, he made it to the RF wall and cleared it easily. At this point, the security guards got to the fence but they weren't nearly as quick getting over so the fan runs up the stairs and into a tunnel leading to the concession area underneath the seats. About 5 minutes later, the fan runs out of another tunnel – still being chased by security – across a few sections and back into another tunnel. We didn’t see him again after that but I’d like to think he got away.

One more odd thing about my experience at Tiger. In the next section over from us there was a biker/prison looking guy with his 'special needs' brother. I didn’t talk to them but I assumed they were brothers due to their ages, interactions, just the two of them going to a baseball game, and no other logical explanation. What caught my attention was near the end of the game when they were leaving, the biker/prison guy grabbed his brother in a bear hug and carried him out that way. It’s not something you see every day. What was really odd about this is that I swear I saw them again years later at a Padre game at Jack Murphy Stadium.