The History Of Tiger Stadium

This book is a fan's love letter to baseball played at the Corner of Michigan and Trumbull, in downtown Detroit, first at wooden Bennett Park (1896-1911) and then at its steel and concrete replacement known by three names: Navin Field (1912-1937), Briggs Stadium (1938-1960), and finally, Tiger Stadium (1961-1999). The Cathedral at The Corner was where-together with our great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, siblings, children, godchildren, and friends-we have cheered our Detroit Tigers. Although the structure is gone, the memories remain. This book is a tribute to the characters on the field, in the stands, and those in the neighborhoods surrounding the ballpark, as well as to the broadcasters who brought the action to us when we couldn't be there. It is from those characters and those who knew them, loved them, or both from which many of the book's stories come from. Baseball is a game of statistics, their inclusion critical to the history told, but it's the back stories that give the book its humanity, humor, and liveliness.

On April 28, 1896, baseball fans traveled in horse-drawn buggies to watch the Detroit Tigers play their first baseball game at the site on the corner of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues. Starting out as Bennett Park, a wooden facility with trees growing in the outfield, Tiger Stadium has played a central role in the lives of millions of Detroiters and their families for more than a century. During the last century, millions of fans have come to Michigan and Trumbull to watch the Tigers' 7,800 home games, as well as to attend numerous other sporting, social, and civic events, including high school, collegiate, and professional football games, prep and Negro league baseball contests, political rallies, concerts, and boxing and soccer matches. A companion to the narrative history, almost two hundred rare photographs capture the spirit of 140 years of baseball in Detroit. A Place for Summer furnishes a sense of the relationship between the community, its teams, and the various fields, parks, and stadiums that have served as common ground for generations of Detroiters.

Michigan and Trumbull was the address for professional baseball in Detroit for 104 seasons. From 1896 when Bennett Park opened, until the last game at Tiger Stadium in 1999, Michigan and Trumbull was the most famous street corner in Michigan. This book takes you on a visual tour of baseball in the Motor City from the beginning of the Tigers franchise to the historic final game played at Tiger Stadium. Here you will find Tiger legends Cobb, Gehringer, Greenberg, Kaline, Lolich, Trammell, and others, many captured in never before published photographs.

An exhilarating, splendidly illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic. From the earliest corrals of the mid-1800s (Union Grounds in Brooklyn was a "saloon in the open air"), to the much mourned parks of the early 1900s (Detroit's Tiger Stadium, Cincinnati's Palace of the Fans), to the stadiums we fill today, Paul Goldberger makes clear the inextricable bond between the American city and America's favorite pastime. In the changing locations and architecture of our ballparks, Goldberger reveals the manifestations of a changing society: the earliest ballparks evoked the Victorian age in their accommodations--bleachers for the riffraff, grandstands for the middle-class; the "concrete donuts" of the 1950s and '60s made plain television's grip on the public's attention; and more recent ballparks, like Baltimore's Camden Yards, signal a new way forward for stadium design and for baseball's role in urban development. Throughout, Goldberger shows us the way in which baseball's history is concurrent with our cultural history: the rise of urban parks and public transportation; the development of new building materials and engineering and design skills. And how the site details and the requirements of the game--the diamond, the outfields, the walls, the grandstands--shaped our most beloved ballparks. A fascinating, exuberant ode to the Edens at the heart of our cities--where dreams are as limitless as the outfields.

Goodnight Tiger Stadium is a charming picture book written for children, but Tiger Fans of all ages are sure to enjoy it. It is filled with memorable events and happenings in and around Saturday Nights at LSU's Tiger Stadium, aka "Death Valley." It will be an ageless classic.

Examines in text and vivid photographs a thirty-year span of Detroit Tigers baseball, from 1920 to 1950. In the three decades between 1920 and 1950, the Detroit Tigers won four American League pennants, the first world championship in team history in 1935, and a second world crown ten years later. Star players of this era--including Ty Cobb, Harry Heilmann, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Mickey Cochrane, George Kell, and Hal Newhouser--represent the majority of Tigers players inducted into the Hall of Fame. Sports writers followed the team feverishly, and fans packed Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium) to cheer on the high-flying Tigers, with the first record season attendance of one million recorded in 1924 and surpassed eight more times before 1950. In The Glory Years of the Detroit Tigers: 1920-1950, author William M. Anderson combines historical narrative and photographs of these years to argue that these years were the greatest in the history of the franchise. Anderson presents over 350 unique and lively images, mostly culled from the remarkable Detroit News archive, that showcase players' personalities as well as their exploits on the field. For their meticulous coverage and colorful style, Anderson consults Tigers reporting from the three daily Detroit newspapers of the era (the Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, and Detroit Times) and the Sporting News, which was known then as the "Baseball Bible." Some especially compelling columns are reproduced intact to give readers a feel for the exciting and careful reporting of these years. Anderson combines historical text with photos in six topical chapters: "Spring Training: When Dreams are Entertained," "Franchise Stars," "The Supporting Cast," "Moments of Glory and Notable Games," "The War Years," and "The Old Ballpark: Where Legends and Memories Were Made." Anderson presents sketches of many fine players who have been overlooked in other histories and visits characters who often acted in strange ways: Dizzy Trout, Gee Walker, Elwood "Boots" "The Baron" Poffenbeger, and Louis "Bobo" "Buck" Newsom. Tigers fans and anyone interested in local sports culture will enjoy this comprehensive and compelling look into the glory years of Tigers history.