We always have called this place
The Ballpark. If you live in Detroit or nearby, if you live some place in
Michigan, you understand. Calling the place where baseball games are played,
The Ballpark – that is pure Detroit.
The Ballpark, it was Bennett Park, site of a former haymarket at the corner of
Michigan and Trumbull, where Ty Cobb broke in as a rookie 100 years ago this
summer and soon would play in three World Series with the Tigers.
It was Navin Field, at the same corner, where Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg and Mickey Cochrane played in a World Series lost in 1934 and a championship won in 1935.
It was Briggs Stadium, a new name
for the same building, where the Tigers played in two more
World Series in 1940 and ’45.
It was Tiger Stadium, same building, new name again, where Al Kaline played flawlessly in
right field and Denny McLain pitched his 30th victory and the Tigers
won two World Series in 1968 and 1984.
The
Ballpark is where memories and history were passed from generation to
generation. Where your great-grandfather saw baseball for the first time as a
lad and explained the game to a son or daughter; where through the ages, from
before Ty Cobb to after Al Kaline, the tradition traveled on and on.
It
is now Comerica Park, with its view of the city, a new site for baseball, the
sport that remains an integral part of a city’s heritage. The Ballpark,
where Detroit’s image endures.
-- Jerry Green
Click on any gallery below to view the images for sale
