15_249_15

From a fan’s standpoint, the thing that I like is you can see the game from anywhere you are in the ballpark if you’re walking around the concourse. The concourses are open so you can always see the game. I don’t think many ballparks have that where you never lose sight of the game as you walk all the way around it.

—Dan Dickerson, Detroit Tigers radio broadcaster

Eddie Cicotte, a right-handed pitcher who once threw 346.2 innings in a single season and recorded 29 wins in another, may best be remembered in the Chicago White Sox community as one of the “Eight Men Out,” but in Detroit, he may be remembered as “The Tiger who disappeared into Cobb’s shadow.”

In 1905 the Tigers acquired Tyrus Raymond Cobb, and 3,900 hits, 2,088 runs, and 869 stolen bases in a Tigers uniform later, Cobb’s name alone was bought for $70,000 by Connie Mack, owner of the Philadelphia Athletics, where Cobb spent the last two seasons of his career padding records that would take three-quarters of a century to break. Despite 13 batting titles, a triple crown, an American League MVP award, and all-time records in more than 90 offensive categories, Cobb was never able to capture a World Series title. Seven years after Cobb joined the team, Tiger Stadium opened where it would stand for a remarkable 88 seasons. While Cobb never rode the victory parade float down Michigan Avenue, other great Tigers players, like “Hammerin” Hank Greenberg (’35, ’45), Al Kaline (’68), and “Trammellandwhitaker” (’84), helped Detroit to its four respective World Series titles. Had Tiger Stadium remained open past the ’99 season up ’til today, it would have stood alongside Boston’s Fenway Park as the two oldest ballparks in the majors, and as a centenarian, have received a complimentary jar of Smuckers jelly courtesy of NBC’s Willard Scott. Instead, on April 11, 2000, downtown Detroit’s latest addition, Comerica Park, opened its bronze-statue-guarded gates.

Unlike Tiger Stadium, which was famous for its center-field bleachers, the Tigers’ new home of Comerica Park opened the outfield up to views, fan friendliness, and a flair for Tigers’ past. Lead radio play-by-play broadcaster and former Tiger Stadium parishioner Dan Dickerson reflects on the old feeling Comerica offers: “Having kind of grown up in the center field bleachers at Tiger Stadium, there is that similar view in straightaway center field because the field is set down a little bit. You can go out to those statues in left center, which, to me, is a true feature of the ballpark. Then, if you turn around and look at the field, you’re on the railing. If you go to a game, you’ll notice there’s always somebody on those railings looking in because that’s kind of the old Tiger Stadium view. It’s a great view. I’ve been out there just to look at it and remind myself what that view was like. I’ve always liked that feature of Comerica Park.”

It’s arguable that the view looking back in to Comerica Park doesn’t hold a candle to the view looking out. Dickerson adds, “Another unique feature is you walk in and you see a city landscape out beyond center field. They aligned this ballpark to have home plate in the northeast corner to take advantage of the view of looking downtown. Say what you will about the abandoned buildings, but there really are some beautiful buildings downtown. I think there’s a certain feeling you get when you walk into a ballpark. Like Safeco Field—the first time I walked in, I thought, ‘Wow! This is something.’ I think a lot of people get that same feeling walking into Comerica Park and they see the city skyline. It’s a great view, and it just sets the whole feel and atmosphere of the ballpark.” While government bailouts of the GM Corporation have helped ensure the GM Renaissance Center isn’t added to the list of abandoned buildings in the Motor City, the no-man’s-land which is Comerica Park’s straightaway center field could probably house an abandoned building within its depths. Dickerson adds, “The size of the outfield is probably the biggest thing players have talked about. From a hitter’s perspective, the gaps are big. It’s actually not a bad ballpark for a hitter. It’s not a big home run park like a couple of ballparks. If you’re an outfielder, left field is huge; 340 down the line, and the gaps are large in left center and right center.” At a staggering 420 feet to straightaway center, very few in baseball can lay claim to as much real estate as those patrolling Comerica Park’s outfield. Austin Jackson, who delved into the park’s abyss for four and a half seasons before being traded to Seattle and its almost-as-expansive Safeco Field, may find his new surroundings a little less taxing on both the legs and the mind. Dickerson notes, “I talked to Austin Jackson about the ground he has to cover. It’s a lot and I’m sure players admit to that right away. I’ve walked out there enough times, and when I look in, those gaps are big. Right field angles out to right center, and the wall gets higher.”

Adding to the cardiovascular overkill that is Comerica Park’s outfield is the way the stadium was built. Dickerson notes, “The upper deck is set back a little further. It’s a little more open behind home plate than at other ballparks. You’ll hear outfielders comment about how, because of that, the perspective is different when a ball comes off the bat. It’s pretty tricky to read sometimes. I think day games are a little tougher than night games to read the ball off the bat than it might be at other ballparks where the upper deck is a little closer to the field. It’s a unique dynamic. The gap between the lower and upper deck also plays into it because of the wind. The wind goes between the two decks and it can create some problems for the outfielders. That can be a little tricky as well.” While outfielders may have to relax their eyes when guessing a fly ball—like staring into a stereogram image trying to find a sailboat, a bunny, or a bunny riding a sailboat—Comerica Park is a multi-acre science experiment for pitchers. Detroit Tigers aces Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, over a combined 15 pitching seasons, accumulated 234 wins, two Cy Young awards, a Rookie of the Year, and an American League MVP with the aid of Comerica Park. Dickerson explains the two pitchers’ heightened sense of security: “Power pitchers tend to be more fly ball pitchers than ground ball pitchers, and I do think Tigers pitchers know how to take advantage of that. They know when they’re facing a power hitter, and they pitch him away, it’ll be hard to hit it out. You’d have to miss your spot badly, or they would have to put an incredible swing on the ball to get it out. I’m not sure they change their pitching style a ton at home, but I also think, in key situations, there’s probably some comfort knowing you can pitch to the big part of the field and that there’s room for your outfielders to go make a play.” Whether or not the outfielders get an extra nice Christmas card from Verlander and Scherzer remains to be seen, but there’s no question that if some mistletoe hung from the batter’s eye in center field beyond the 420 mark, Verlander and Scherzer would be kissing it after each start.

Welcome Back to the Postseason

While Verlander and Scherzer have brought the Motor City to a World Series (2012) and three straight American League Championship Series appearances (2011–2013), it was another “ace” in 2006 who helped bring to fruition what Dan Dickerson calls “one of the greatest turnarounds in baseball history,” starting with game 3 of the American League Division Series against the New York Yankees. Dickerson comments, “In 2006, it was the first time the Tigers had been to the playoffs in 19 years. They were playing the mighty Yankees. The Yankees had won 97 games, and the Tigers won 95, but, if you go back, it’s amazing how heavy a favorite most people considered the Yankees to be in that series. But the Tigers split the first two in New York, and then headed back home for game 3. It was Kenny Rogers against the Yankees and it was one of the greatest pitching performances you will ever see.” Kenny Rogers, then in the 18th season of his 20-year career, had his fair share of memorable moments, such as pitching a perfect game during the strike-shortened ’94 season as a Texas Ranger and winning a World Series in 1996 during a two-year stint with a “core four” of these ’06 Yankees. For 18 seasons as a “non-Yankee” in the American League, Rogers likely wished not to see the pinstripes staring back at him on the mound. Dickerson continues, “He didn’t have good numbers in his career against the Yankees with an ERA around 9.00. He didn’t have good numbers against anybody in that lineup the Yankees were throwing at him, so you could tell the Yankees weren’t too concerned about going back to Detroit 1–1 with Kenny Rogers on the mound for game 3. But Kenny completely changed his pitching style for that game. He was a crafty lefty at that point in his career, but he geared it up and it may have been the last big game of his career. It was like he left everything on the table. He powered up into the low ’90s with his fastball and completely dominated the Yankee lineup, and the place was just electric. He would come off in the half inning pumping his fist. The emotion was written on his face. When he came off the mound in the eighth inning, they were done. It was just an incredible moment. He was fired up. The crowd was fired up. That wasn’t the clinching game, but they won that game because of him and then clinched it the next day in game 4. That was a great series win, but in terms of an individual performance, that’s one of the best games I’ve seen since the ballpark opened. The Tigers were back in the postseason for the first time in 19 years, and he rose to the occasion—changing his game plan and his style for one game because he knew he had to do something different. It was a remarkable performance. I always think of that game.” While Rogers had two more gems in him that postseason, it was another traveled veteran who would return the Tigers to their first World Series in 22 years, in game 4 of the American League Championship Series.

Magglio Ordonez spent eight years in a Chicago White Sox uniform playing outfield for “the Good Guys,” batting .307 with 187 homers. Coming over to the Tigers before the White Sox’s magical ’05 championship season, Ordonez had only been to the playoffs once, back in 2000, when his team was swept by the Seattle Mariners. In 2006, with his Tigers just one win from the World Series, Ordonez hadn’t exactly been the long ball type recently, hitting just one home run in his first 32 plate appearances against the Yankees and the Oakland Athletics. Leading off the bottom of the sixth in game 4 of the American League Championship Series, with the Tigers up 3–0 in the series but trailing 3–2 in the game, Ordonez lined a home run off A’s starter Dan Haren to tie the game. Turning the ball over to both teams’ bullpens, the score remained 3–3 until the bottom of the ninth. Two quick outs by Marcus Thames and Curtis Granderson suggested the game would go to extras and the Tigers’ celebratory champagne would have to temporarily be put on ice, but two straight singles by Craig Monroe and Placido Polanco had the winning run in scoring position for Ordonez. When another single would have sufficed, especially to the “Motown Abyss,” Ordonez launched a walk-off three-run home run to left field that would have likely “left” old Tiger Stadium. The Tigers were back in the World Series, and Comerica was literally rocking. Looking back on the moment, Dickerson notes, “I think a lot of people remember the ALCS clinching game against the A’s because of the way it ended. Not many series have ended on a walk-off home run. It’s amazing how many people still talk about that home run and hearing the call. It was a very fun moment. Unexpected? Absolutely. It was completely unexpected to me, and I think you can hear the surprise in my voice when I call that home run. There were two men on and two men out and Ordonez’ specialty seemed to be that opposite field single to get a run home. He made that an art form. His power was down at that point in his career, and he just didn’t hit many home runs. He hit an absolute no doubter. You plan for that clinching moment—that call—but you can’t plan that. That was truly a great moment because they were going to the World Series for the first time since ’84. I still remember when he hit that, where we were sitting in our booth, you literally could feel the stadium shaking. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about how loud it was when he got to home plate.” Though the Tigers would eventually lose the World Series in five games to the St. Louis Cardinals, the “edit button” on many Tiger fans’ memories arguably stops on Ordonez’s walk-off moment.

From “Mags” to “Miggy”

There are six “Han Solo-esque” statues beyond left center field of Tigers’ greats from the past, including the already mentioned Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg, and Al Kaline, as well as Charlie Gehringer, Willie Horton, and Hal Newhouser. Should the league ever protest the unfair treatment of non-pull hitters and demand the 420-foot wall be brought in to a more practical depth, there just may be enough room to add statues for Tigers like Verlander, Ordonez, and, most important, two-time American League MVP, Miguel “Miggy” Cabrera. In what was hardly a Cicotte/Cobb balanced trade, after the ’07 season the Tigers acquired Cabrera and pitcher Dontrelle Willis as part of a (then) Florida Marlins biennial fire sale. In his seven years with the Tigers, Cabrera has hit 252 home runs, averaged nearly 200 hits, and become the first triple-crown-winning hitter since Carl “Yaz” Yastrzemski in 1967. Despite having to play a corner infielder’s version of musical chairs over the past few seasons, Cabrera continues to chalk up MVP-worthy stats, which, coupled with the starting pitching of Verlander, Anibal Sanchez, and David Price; the hitting of J. D. and Victor Martinez; and the defense of Rajai Davis, may bring that elusive fifth world championship to Detroit.