The remains of Tiger Stadium are getting tossed around Detroit's City Council like a hot potato.
A nonprofit group has been circling the bases trying to find $15 million to save part of Tiger Stadium before the wrecking ball cracks the outfield wall. A council agreement with demolition companies gives the nonprofit group until June 1 to raise part of the money - $369,000 to save the dugouts and homeplate.
I wish the corner of Michigan and Trumball could be turned into a museum. Baseball (before Tiger Stadium even) has been played there since 1895. Where are we in society and where is the state of baseball when we could lose the baseball history of Tiger Stadium and Yankee Stadium in the same year?
Last year Schneider Industries auction house was given permission by the city of Detroit to sell some pieces of Tiger Stadium. From what I read online, Schneider was not prepared for the web traffic and their site crashed in the early hours of the auction.
The opening bid on a pair of seats was $279.00... not bad, considering that Yankee and Shea Stadium bidding will be 2x that amount! (Steiner are you listening?) I wish I had known about this a year or so ago. I'd rather have some of these pieces in my house than in a Michigan scrap pile.
Tiger Stadium's fate deserves better, Tiger fans deserve better, and the history of the game deserves better. Detroit needs to get its act together and preserve this historic landmark before it becomes home to another house project or casino.
A more detailed city council battle story was posted today on the Detroit News web site. That is where I found a lot of this information.
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1 comment:
This is sad, sad news.
I know a few friends who got seats from the auction.
I can still remember the drive up to Tiger Stadium when I was a kid.
I'll always remember Erinie Harwell calling games at the corner.
A Detroit Tigers museum would be a great idea. The Tigers have been around since 190X, imagine the history they could put in there. You could tour the stadium, you go up to where Reggie hit the HR in the upper deck, run the bases, I could go on and on.
As a lifelong Tiger fan this is really going to be sad if the stadium can't be saved.
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