ASNN

detroit (this is the end)

Long in coming, I finally blog about the final park. This, of course, doesn't include Toronto, to which I HAD a ticket, but had to skip for lack of a passport, which was sitting safely in our "Important Papers" file at home.

Before the disaster that is Detroit, I wanted to offer an oh-so-exact numerical analysis of my experience at Fenway.

game: orioles at red sox (9/22/03)
park: fenway park, boston
game quality: 9
park mystique: 10
park beauty: 9
crowd ambience: 10
neighborhood: 7
food: 9
beer: 8

With apologies to Ron, Fenway was just (as I've said before) the best baseball experience I've ever had in my life. Everything about it was just right.

Contrast that with the Detroit Tigers game. Granted, I wasn't expecting much; I wasn't even in line to see the Tigers break the record for most losses (i.e., WORST TEAM EVER) in a season. Granted, I was on death's door with a nasty chest cold (which, four weeks later, I am finally shaking). Granted, I ended up leaving in about the fourth inning and getting lost around downtown Detroit (which, I might add, is absolutely unredeemable). Even so, Comerica Park in Detroit was one of the low points of my journey, a point that I felt obligated to fulfill, rather than privileged to visit.

Everything about Comerica Park felt strained. Some general thoughts:

• It felt more like a mall (to attract family types) than a real ballpark. The food court area along the third base stands sure lent to that feeling.


• The standing room in DEEP left-center field was kinda cool in that passers-by could just catch part of the game. Unfortunately, nothing in the game was worth catching.


• In what was an apparent desparate attempt to attract fans, a number of "old tyme" Tigers players were hanging out in the stands, signing autographs. It seemed like a reasonable thing for a storied ballclub to try to do to jumpstart interest in their new, pathetic team, but it just didn't do it for me, a visiting Schmoe.

To be honest, I don't even remember anything about the stinking game. I understand that after I left, the Tigers won in like 11 innings. I simultaneously congratulate them and celebrate the fact that the one game I walked out on wasn't an "historic" game in any sort of record-setting (in losses) way. The only benefit to attending the Tigers game was that I learned Labatt Blue (on tap) really isn't all that bad.

Posted by pcg at October 25, 2003 1:50 AM