Comerica Park

Comerica Park is another in the line of the picturesque throwback era ballparks situated in the heart of downtown.

Comerica’s all brick exterior is circled by stone tiger heads with a baseball between clinched teeth. The two main entrance gates, both down the right field line, are guarded by huge tigers with menacing scowls.

2009 Tigers Home Schedule

Although not as omnipresent on the inside, Comerica Park does have brick in the one place it is most likely to be noticed: the area extending from either side of the tree-lined hitter’s backdrop.

When watching the game on TV, the brick dominates the backdrop and takes up large portions of what’s visible on the screen. But when you actually watch a game at Comerica in person, you hardly notice it.

The brick wall serves as a Tigers Wall of Fame, with last names of six Tigers immortalized on the wall in left-center. On the concourse above, there are six 13-foot sculptures of former Tiger greats Al Kaline, Hal Newhouser, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Ty Cobb, and Willie Horton. Aside from Cobb, who played before there were numbers, the other five have their retired number etched in the brick directly below their statues.

The last names of Tiger legends that played before numbers were worn adorn the right-center field stretch of brick. A notable exception is the name Harwell, for the famed Tiger broadcaster who retired following the 2002 season after 55 years in the booth.

The outfield concourse that stretches from left to right field is also a good place to watch the game for a couple of innings. One surprising thing about Comerica Park games at night are the large flocks of seagulls that frolic in the outfield grass during the game.

Comerica Park has many other distinctive features, although not all of them are original. The first thing you notice when you look out towards the playing field is the huge scoreboard in left field. At ten stories and 147 feet high by 202 feet wide, it is the largest in baseball. The idea was borrowed from Cleveland’s Jacobs Field jumbotron, which was the biggest until Detroit copied the feature and made theirs slightly bigger.

Sitting atop the scoreboard, on either side, are a pair of orange and black tigers, whose eyes flicker green when a Tiger hits a home run and during the classic Survivor song “Eye of the Tiger.”

The light towers are in the form of toothbrushes, just like those at Jacobs Field. While Tiger Stadium’s distinctive bank of lights can still be spotted from most places in Detroit, Comerica Park is only visible from a short distance. The field is dug below street level, so the ballpark doesn’t appear to be very large as you approach it from the outside.

Directly above the hitter’s backdrop in center field is the General Motors Fountain, which remains dormant during the game unless a Tiger homers. It is used before and after games when it spurts water streams that are choreographed to music.

The fountain is also the centerpiece of the fireworks show that occurs after every Tigers Friday night home game. Spraying water up to 150 feet high, the fountain is programmed to changing lights as well as music. If you sit in the upper deck, you can easily see the cylinder shaped headquarters of General Motors directly behind the fountain that it sponsors.

When I first heard the name Comerica Park I had no idea what Comerica was. Actually a bank, it sounded circus-like to me and inside the stadium you’ll find a pair of carnival rides to follow up on that notion.

There is a merry-go-round with 30 hand-painted tigers in the middle of the circular food court and for further amusement, there is a 50-foot high Italian-made ferris wheel with 12 cars shaped like baseballs. The cost to ride each is $2, except on Sunday when kids 14 and under get to ride for free.

As for the ballpark fare, there were a number of Little Caeser’s pizza stands throughout the ballpark, no surprise since the team’s owner made his millions by founding the chain in 1959. The cola of choice was Pepsi.

As all new ballparks do, Comerica had a restaurant located on its premises, albeit a McDonald’s, which is open to the general public before games, but jacks up its prices and caters to fans only during the game.

You can, however, actually watch the game without having to pay admission if there is a sparse crowd. You can easily see the field and most of the action from the street running behind Comerica in right-center. Only if there are lots of fans in attendance walking about the concourse will your sight be obstructed, which was not the case at the first two games I saw.

Fans that do pay to watch the game get a complimentary copy of the Detroit News, which prints a special baseball-only Comerica Park sports section. The paper was very thorough in its coverage and had some good feature pieces on both the Tigers and the visiting team.

The ballpark is framed by the downtown Detroit skyline from center to right field. A building beyond the right field foul pole has a large sea-themed mural with dolphins and whales as the prominent feature. Directly behind the third base grandstand is the new home of the Detroit Lions, Ford Field, which will host the 2005 Super Bowl.

While nobody will miss the Lions’ former home, the Pontiac Silverdome in the nearby suburbs, baseball fans still wax nostalgic about Comerica Park’s predecessor, Tiger Stadium, which still stands at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull. The two ballparks are a short walk from each other, separated by only 1.37 miles, but Comerica has the dubious distinction of replacing the baseball cathedral and registered Michigan historic site that hosted Tiger baseball for 103 years, 88 of them as the ballpark that officially changed its name to Tiger Stadium in 1961.

Although I never saw a game at Tiger Stadium, I made the short pilgrimage by foot to see “the grand Old Lady at the corner.” Unfortunately, Tiger Stadium has been left to decay since the Tigers played their last game there on September 27, 1999. Owned by the city, but maintained by the Tigers, the ballpark is not open to the public and consequentially there are no tours.

Tigers owner Mike Illitch, a former minor league player for Detroit in the 1950’s, abandoned Tiger Stadium because he felt it didn't have enough luxury suites and he couldn’t control parking revenue. Apparently to make up for lost time, parking isn’t cheap at the new ballpark. I saw nothing for less than $10 and the Comerica Park parking lots charged $20.

Despite his baseball background, Illitch has spent the bulk of his finances on talent for the Red Wings, which he also owns, and while the hockey team has been winning Stanley Cups, the Tigers haven't had a winning record since 1993, when Sparky Anderson was still their manager. Unfortunately, the Tigers' losing ways has alienated the proud Detroit baseball fandom and attendance at Comerica after the first season has been sparse.

Although I think Comerica Park is a lovely ballpark in a great setting it has the misfortune of replacing one of baseball's cathedrals, and until the Tigers become perennial contenders it is unlikely Detroit will warm up to their new ballpark.

- Written by Graham Knight in 2002