Four Summer Days In Four American Cities: Nothing But Baseball, Hot Dogs, and Highway Driving With My Two Sons – Post #5: The Eyes of the Tiger(s)

During the long drive from one of last year’s World Series cities (St. Louis) to the other (Detroit), we talked on and off about the Motor City's inability to relate to the American marketplace despite it’s historic inventive prowess regarding the coach on wheels.

The best mileage cars are either Japanese or Korean. Toyota is head and shoulders above everyone else in hybrid technology. And, unfortunately for Detroit, the Asian car makers have little competition – still.

The pretty obvious conclusion is that across the Pacific they don’t have to deal with union strangleholds and gagging union pensions. Very sad, and the exodus from the motor city due to dwindling jobs in auto manufacturing is not only obvious, it’s also taking its economic toll on the area.

Another Detroit “distinction”: in San Francisco, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Pittsburgh, you find the featured ballpark statuary to be a key player or players in the franchise.

In Detroit? Statues of TIGERS! (top and left) You mean Ty Cobb doesn’t deserve a bronze likeness?? To each his own, I guess.

Comerica Park itself is quite nice. It’s on par with many of the newer parks. One sparkling feature is that they often play the hit song “Eye of the Tiger” between innings, and when they do, the eyes on the scoreboard tigers shine brilliantly green. A nice touch.

However, only a downtown skyline, with lots of obviously empty office space, is its backdrop (photo below); there’s no adjacent water as in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and, of course, San Francisco, where you can hit a home run into the Bay (a “splash hit”).

The game we saw, however, was quite another story. It was a spectacular, well-played, 13-inning marathon between the hometown Tigers and the visiting Boston Red Sox. Each team had opportunities to win, but neither could convert to lock it up, either in regulation or in any of three extra innings.

Finally, in the bottom of the 13th inning, Pudge Rodriguez lined a shot into right center just beyond the diving Coco Crisp to score the winning run. These were two first class, first-place teams playing like it was the last game of the ALCS (which it very well might be in early October). Neither would give an inch through the entire contest.

To Detroit’s credit, there ARE some great things at Comerica Park. Gregg, in his blog, mentioned the large, functional food court (like in many shopping centers) with a carousel in the center for kids of all ages to enjoy.

Midwest ballparks are VERY “family-oriented,” and that’s great. They even stress over the P.A. system that anyone using foul language will be removed from the park. Wow. I don't recall that ever happening in San Francisco.

After the game we headed for an overnight in Toledo to get a jump on our drive to Pittsburgh the next morning so we could arrive in time for a Sunday afternoon game.