I remember attending games with my family as a child, although my earliest memories were of a stadium called Brigg’s Stadium. But I don’t know if I ever visited while it was called Brigg’s. They changed the name to Tiger Stadium in 1960 and I don’t remember being there at that age, but I do remember listening to games from there on the radio. I remember not being happy with the change of names, Brigg’s just sounded better, kind of like Wrigley, or Fenway, or Ebbet’s. However, later in my life I learned that the owner of the Tigers between 1938 and 1960 was Walter Briggs Sr. and he was dead set on keeping black players out of baseball. It is said that he only allowed black fans into the stadium in seats within inferior obstructed-view sections and the Tigers didn’t field their first non-white player until 1958, six years after Briggs’ death. In June of 1958, the Tigers acquired and played Dominican-born Ozzie Virgil, Sr. as their first non-white player which was 11 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier for the Dodgers. Yes, I remember Ozzie Virgil Sr. This made Detroit the next-to-last team to integrate ahead of only the Boston Red Sox. I’m not sorry for the name change anymore.
The players I remember most were of course Hall of Famer Al Kaline, Jim Bunning, Charlie Maxwell, Harvey Kuenn, Frank Larry, and Don Mossi. The team was usually a perennial 7th place finisher, but they were mine! However, in 1967, the Tigers made some changes that made them real contenders. They had a real shot at the World Series but the 60’s was the decade of “Burn Baby Burn” and many of the cities were devastated by race riots. The Harlem riots in 1964, the Watts riots in 1965, and the Detroit riots in 1967 changed the face of the baseball seasons for nearby clubs. Games were postponed or relocated to other venues.
The 1967 Tigers were contenders until the last day of the season. Detroit, Minnesota, and Boston were neck-and-neck but Detroit had rain make-up games that forced them to play back to back doubleheaders. If they could win all four games, they would be American League Champs and headed to St. Louis for the Series, if they could will 3 of the games they would play Boston in a one-game playoff. But they won the first game each day and lost the second. I attended both doubleheaders. I couldn’t wait for 1968 to come around.
The ’68 season was magical! I went to 18 games that year, a 13 win and 5 lose champagne for me. I was at the stadium to see Denny McLain win his 30th game of the year (hasn’t been done again since) and was there the night they clinched the pennant! The Tigers went on to win the World Series in seven games thanks to great pitching by Mickey Lolich (winner of series games 2, 5, and 7) and the team never giving up after being down 3 games to 1. The last time they had won the series was 1945 and next wouldn’t be until 1984.
As for the hot dogs, best I ever had! The vendors in the stands had this large cooler-like metal box at their waist, suspended by should straps and a strap around there back to help them with the weight of the hot dogs, hot water, and buns within it. The “cooler” had two compartments accessible through doors on the top. One door covered the hotdogs in hot water and the other protected the buns as they were steamed by the hot water in the other side. Oh, and they had small containers of mustard and ketchup with a wooden spoon to spread you choice of condiments on your dogs. You will never see (or taste) this again. I’m sure today’s customers would die of foodborne diseases if they ever brought this back. I don’t know how I’ve lived this long without bike helmets, drinking from hoses, or eating Tiger Stadium hot dogs.
Washington DC and Baltimore
My next venture into MLB Ballparks was in 1970 when I was stationed at Andrews Air Force Base (AFB). The Senators were the team in DC and they played at Robert F Kennedy Memorial Stadium. The stadium was home for two MLB teams during its history, the Senators through 1971 and the Washington Nationals from 2005 through 2007. I did not see the Nationals there. In 1972, the Senators were relocated and renamed the Texas Rangers.
I remember a few players from that team, Del Unser, Frank Howard Toby Harrah, and Denny McLain they had acquired for the Tigers. The biggest name was the Manage, Ted Williams. He didn’t have much talent to work with but he was a much better player than a manager.
The other stadium within driving distance of Andrews AFB was Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. I can’t remember being more uncomfortable in any stadium than I was in the bleachers in Baltimore. Nothing but wooden planks. No backs to the seats, no indentations for your butt-cheeks, nothing. And the hotdogs were terrible. Buns were dry and the dogs were awful. I never ate a second dog after that first one. The team on the other hand was great, if you could like another American League team, and I couldn’t. The team was made up of the likes of Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson (both HOFers), Boog Powell, Davie Johnson, and four-20 game winners Dave McNally, Pat Dobson, Mike Cuellar (HOFer), Jim Palmer (HOFer), and HOF Manager Earl Weaver. Tough to beat that line-up!
A Pause in the Action
Near the end of 1972, I was ordered to Germany for over 3 years so I didn’t get to go to any new MLB stadiums. Then in 1976, I was re-assigned to Norton AFB in San Bernardino, Ca, just an hour and a half drive to either Angels Stadium or Dodger Stadium
Los Angeles, the City of Angels (and Dodgers)
I think I went to Dodger Stadium first because, well it was Dodger Stadium! The team was always a contender with the likes of Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax and the infield of Garvey, Lopes, Russell, and Cey. They were together for over eight years. Add in Dusty Baker, Rick Monday, and Reggie Smith and you had a great team to watch. As for the stadium, it was nice, if you could get there. Traffic was always terrible and if you wanted to see the first pitch, you better leave early. Once you arrived, getting to your seat was easy because the locals tended to arrive in force around the 3rd inning, no joke. I understand why they filed out of the stadium in the seventh or eighth inning, getting out of the parking lot and out of the Chavez Ravine area was going to be a long, slow process. Now, as far as the Dodger Dogs are concerned, I hated them. I thought they had a “sour” taste to them. Another place I never had a desire to buy a second dog. But they did offer exotic foods for a baseball venue, like sushi!
Once again, a second stadium was within driving distance from the base, Angel’s Stadium in Anaheim. The Angels had some real talent as a team with the likes of Nolan Ryan, Frank Tanana, and Bobby Bonds, but they didn’t have enough “horses” to win consistently. As for the hot dogs, they weren’t memorable so I guess they were edible. The stadium was nice but a lot of that had to do with its location. You know, southern California (Orange County), surrounded by Pacific Ocean beaches, Disneyland, Knot’s Berry Farm. Hard to beat that location!
San Diego
I was discharged from the Air Force in November of 1976 at Norton AFB in San Bernardino, CA so I kicked around there for about a year until I got an offer to work in San Diego for a retailer that was expanding and needed people to help them open about 70 stores in the Southern California, Arizona, and Texas area. Because of my electronics background from my service training, they hired me. This opened the opportunity to see another ballpark, San Diego Stadium.
The teams I remember in San Diego weren’t that good but they had some great players. I specifically remember Dave Winfield, Randy Jones, Kurt Bevacqua, Jay Johnstone, Rollie Fingers, and Mickey Lolich (out of retirement). Unfortunately, all hot dogs are now coming from vendors packaged in foiled paper with little packets of ketchup, mustard, relish, and sometimes onions. Nothing to talk about any more on the hotdog thing. Near the end of the 1980 season, I transferred from San Diego to Tucson, Arizona. There weren’t any major league teams there except during spring training. The Cleveland Indians had the training camp there at Hi Corbett Field. During the summer, the Houston Astros triple A (AAA) club, the Tucson Toros, played their Pacific Coast League games there. In 1982, at one of the few games I saw at Hi Corbett, I watched JR Richards attempt at making a comeback after suffering a stroke in 1980. I was rooting for him although not a fan of Houston. He had one of the fastest fastball in baseball but it wasn’t any more and his control was gone. I hoped it was just a bad day, but he never regained his ability and was forced into retirement within the next couple of years.
Dayton Ohio
In January of 1986, I transferred to Dayton, Ohio, which opened up opportunities to visit many other baseball venues. First on the list was Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. The stadium was known as one of the original “cookie cutter” or “concrete donut stadiums” because of there shape and adaptability to house baseball and football with little modification. I didn’t realize RFK Memorial, San Diego Stadium and Baltimore Memorial Stadiums were considered to be of that ilk.
The Reds had a number of HOF players in Pete Rose (maybe), Dave Parker, Tony Perez, and Barry Larkin. Other notable players were Eric Davis, Davey Concepcion, Tom Browning, and John Franco. The team was pretty exciting to watch at the time with Parker, Davis, and the manager Pete Rose. Mostly, it was just a 40 minute drive to the ballpark. As for the hot dogs, they had a couple of Brats that were pretty good and you could get Skyline chili on the dogs, burgers, or/and fries. Made for an exciting culinary experience, I must say.
While in Ohio, my job afforded me the opportunity to travel a little which in turn gave me the opportunity to visit a few other stadiums. One summer I got to travel to Dallas where I attending a couple of games in Arlington at Arlington Stadium, home of the Texas Rangers. They weren’t a very good team, remember they were the Washington Senators just a few years before. They did have Pete O’Brien, Charlie Hough, Kevin Brown, Bobby Witt, and Ruben Sierra. The stadium wasn’t like the venues I had visited up to then. I seem to remember there were advertisements on the outfield fences (a lot like todays parks) and all games started at 6 or 7 PM because of the heat. I don’t remember the hot dogs but I do remember the flying bug infestation! It was a real problem!
During my time in Ohio, I also got to visit Atlanta and see the Braves play at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. I actually drove down from Greenville, SC to the stadium after getting off of work to see where Hank Aaron had hit that historic home run. I don’t remember the game let alone any hot dogs I consumed, just that it was a long drive and I was happy to have seen a park with history I had seen on TV, the 715th career home run of Henry Aaron.
In 1990, I had the opportunity to visit one of the last old-time stadiums, Comiskey Park on the southside of Chicago. It was falling apart as a ballpark. Many of the seats were broken and the place was really dark and dingy. I think we were only weeks away from the last game. This was going to be my one and only chance to see this historic venue. Historically, this was the ballpark known for the “Black Sox Scandal” in 1919 when eight members of the White Sox were accused of a game-fixing plot against the Cincinnati Reds. Those eight Sox players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, were banned from all professional baseball activities, even though they were acquitted in a public trial in 1921. The scandal led to the dissolving of the National Baseball Commission and the appointment of the first commissioner of the MLB, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis.
I left the park after the game with many regrets. I regretted losing one of the old ball parks that reminded me of Tiger Stadium, that the history would not be preserved for younger, future fans to enjoy, and that the park was in such disrepair. It was very sad.
Northern California Trip
The last opportunity I got to visit any ball parks while working out of Dayton was a trip to the Silicon Valley. Two stadiums were near that I had not yet visited, Candlestick Park for the San Francisco Giants and Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, home of the Oakland Athletics.
I had one chance to visit Candlestick on this trip because the Dodgers and Giants had one game left before the went on the road, so I bought my ticket and headed for the stadium after work. It was a cold and cloudy day and as its reputation states, it started to rain just before first pitch. The umpires stopped the game after the first-half inning hoping for the rain to blow over, but it didn’t. Rain delay for about 45 minutes and game postponed. Didn’t get a chance to see the Giants come to bat or even order a hot dog. Just wanted to get out of the cold, wet weather. But I’m counting this as a visited ball park!
Two days later, the Oakland Athletics were scheduled to play at the Coliseum. I was there! Quite a bit difference in the weather. Blue sky with big billowing white clouds, still a little chilly and a few wind gusts but I was sure the game would be played. It was but it wasn’t very memorable. I don’t recall who they played or who won. It was a beautiful day and I can still remember how much warmer it was on that side of the bay than just two days earlier at Candlestick.
During my time in Dayton, I also got opportunities to visit parks for events other than baseball. While in Dallas, I got to attend an NFL game, Dallas Cowboys versus Cleveland Browns. Dallas skunked them I believe. Only thing I remember about that trip was that the stadium was in a “dry” county so you couldn’t by beer on Sundays in the stadium. However, the parking lot was across the freeway (just a foot bridge over the Interstate away) and was in another county so as you walked to the foot bridge, scalpers were selling tickets to the game and 6-packs of beer. It was legal to bring your own beer into the stadium, but you couldn’t buy it there. Only in Texas and Texas Stadium in Irvine.
I also got to see the Michigan Panthers of the USFL and the Detroit Pistons of the NBA play at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, just outside of Detroit. The football game used the stadium as expected but they divided the stadium in half with a giant curtain that would have been across the field at the 50-yard line for the basketball game against the Milwaukee Bucks. It was the largest attendance in NBA history at the time. I remember the press was asking the Piston fans to “wear leather jackets” if possible to accentual the “Bad Boy” reputation of which the Pistons were accused.