Tigers!

On my first evening in Detroit I hit up the Tigers game. It was great!!

I was staying at a Holiday Inn (platinum style!) in downtown Detroit, so it was only a short stroll over to the park. Downtown Detroit isn’t doing too great. There were probably 6 or 7 buildings that I walked by that were boarded up with signs advertising “Cheap lease!” Some of those boarded up buildings were skyscrapers – extra sad. There were broken windows and a fair amount of graffiti, but overall it was a pretty clean environment.

Despite the financial doom and gloom, the park was bustling with activity. I got there just after 5pm when will-call opened. I approached the window and asked for my tickets. Stupidly, I approached the ‘players will-call’ window and the guy behind the counter was none-to-pleased that I made a mistake. His frustrations at my mistake changed to a bit of respect when he looked at the tickets.

“hm. These sir, are very good seats.”

And that they were! I was just a few rows back from home plate on the Tiger’s side in the shade. The view was spectacular. I ordered a $3.75 Lemonade and got to watching. Superstar Jackson was pitching for the Tigers and he was stupidly good. He was still throwing 95+ mph pitches into the ninth inning. The Tigers won it, 4 to 2.

A few things about the park. The tigers everywhere are just totally totally awesome. There are two on top of the score board in full color. It seems that whenever a player reaches home plate the eyes of the tigers glow green. Awesome! The crowd wasn’t as energetic as the Red Sox crowd. Occasionally the organ at the baseball diamond would start a riff to get people clapping for a rally… and the claps would just kinda fade to crap as soon as the organ stopped. I remember Fenway fans having a bit more spunk.

Overall a great game and a beautiful park.

I strongly recommend that anyone who finds themselves in Detroit check out the baseball park, it’s a really fun experience.