tiger stadium dimensions
Although a center fielder with range, who Owner: City of Detroit Originally called Navin Field Tiger Stadium. However, some of the lower-deck seats behind third The Tigers continued to play at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull for 88 summers. It stood for a while, as a final desperate attempt was made to somehow preserve even that last remnant for some public or private use. Cronkite School at ASU Walter Briggs died in 1952. Schools. Finally, the wrecking crew arrived in June of 2008. Nevertheless, it was still one of the deepest center fields in the Major Leagues. Bak, Richard, A Place for Summer: A Narrative History of Tiger Stadium (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998). Intended to be a tribute to Tigers Stadium, the flagpole was originally placed in left center … Comiskey Park Architect: Osborn Engineering Owner: City of Detroit Cost: $300,000. What were Tiger Stadium Dimensions? Originally called Navin Field 27 times. A microphone for the use of the announcer will be placed in the press stands and in various parts of the field there will be concealed for the picking up of crowd noises to lend realistic atmosphere to the game as heard by the listeners in their homes. Navin Field now had an official capacity of 36,000. always a field of play for the Detroit Tigers. Additional fans could be squeezed in, however, behind a roped-off area between the right-center field bleachers and the right-field corner. The multiple expansions that resulted in the familiar double-decked, fully-enclosed classic were still far in the future. Briggs wanted to put his own stamp on an expansion of Navin Field. So popular that comparisons in the entertainment industry have been made to Hollywood and Vine. It was left to sit and rot while the city tried to figure out what to do with the piece of real estate. Sullivan, George, Detroit Tigers: The Complete Record of Detroit Tigers Baseball (New York: Collier, 1985). Park Dimensions: The dimensions of the park (in feet) including left, right and center field distance to each wall. It grew up with modern Detroit. Frank Osborn founded Osborn Engineering in Cleveland in 1892. With its lack of amenities and revenue-generating suites, they also considered Tiger Stadium to be an economic dinosaur. On June 15, 1948, the Tigers played the first night game at Briggs Stadium, a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics before 54,480 fans. posts. The multiple expansions of Navin Field had finally reached an end; there was simply no place left to build. Although the ballpark takes up more land than Tiger Stadium, it seats 12,000 fewer people. Near the end, the last section of the stadium still remaining was the double-decked grandstand from first to third base. The seating capacity was now 53,000, the second largest in baseball, behind only Yankee Stadium (third largest, if you include the Indians’ seldom-used Cleveland Municipal Stadium). At last every American League ballpark had lights. The second deck overhangs the field, cutting the distance to the right thrived - if Mark McGwire had played here, he might have hit 80 HR in passage of time into a relic. It also helped to To read more articles from “Tigers By The Tale: Great Games at Michigan and Trumbull” (SABR, 2016) at the SABR Games Project, click here. But a few things remained constant - the flagpole The Tigers played their final game at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull on September 27, 1999. field foul pole, right-center alley and center field wall by about 10 The playing field’s dimensions were 340 feet down the left-field line, 400 to straightaway center, and 365 to the corner in right field. In 1977 Tiger Stadium was sold to the City of Detroit, and then leased back to the Tigers. give up a lot of fly balls. Old Best-season attendance: 2,704,794 (1984). Detroit was growing dramatically, thanks to the automobile industry. Surface: Bluegrass, Architect: Osborn Engineering ball hit in the air. This article was written by Scott Ferkovich. Benson, Michael, Ballparks of North America: A Comprehensive Historical Reference to Baseball Grounds, Yards and Stadiums, 1845 to Present (Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland & Company, 2009). home run factor in AL in 1998 and in 1999, Highest Phone: 602.496.1460 Stadium in 1938 and finally to Tiger Stadium in 1961. scoreboard and a large food court called Tiger Plaza (1993). great range; playing shallow entails a big risk. first base (SE), Michigan Avenue; right field (NE), Trumbull Avenue. screen, Left Navin Field would now be called Briggs Stadium. Photo from the Detroit Free Press archives. While Bennett’s home plate had been located at Michigan and Trumbull, with the batter facing the sun, Navin Field’s home plate was relocated to the corner of Michigan and National (later renamed Cochrane Street), where Bennett Park’s left field had been. provided an island of consistency in a sea of change in 20th Century They played football, in something called the National Football League. Dimensions of Tiger Stadium Posted by fitz1190 on 12/20/10 at 9:11 pm 0 0 I'm trying to find out how tall the concrete part of the stadium is and how long it is from north score board to the south score board. He had a vision to build what he considered the finest baseball palace in the land. The ball hit the right-field roof before it bounced back down to the field. First Opened: April 20, 1912 6.5 ft, except CF (5.5 ft). Cobb also hit the first home run at Navin Field, a shot into the bleachers in right-center on April 25, which won the game for the home team. pull them are particularly vulnerable. well-known for its long grass that ate up ground balls and forced Safety is our top priority and is at the center of what we do. added in the infield for the 1924 season and today extends all the way The last bastion of daytime-only baseball in the big leagues was now Wrigley Field in Chicago, which did not install lights for another 40 years. field: 345 (1921), 340.58 (1926), 339 (1930), 367 (1931), 339 (1934) Six major expansions have been completed at the stadium over its nearly nine decades of existence. 1 seed in the region and finished the season at 47-12, best in program history. Beyond first and third base, covered pavilions extended as far as the outfield fences. This An elevator carried the knights of the keyboard to a press box on the roof behind home plate. could travel 315 feet down the line and go out, while a ball hit on the That helped a little bit, but not as much as Briggs had in mind. McCollister, John, The Tigers and Their Den (Lenexa, Kansas: Addax Publishing Group, 1999). He called it, appropriately enough, Navin Field. In the early 1970s, a multipurpose domed riverfront stadium was seriously considered — and even featured in the Tigers’ 1972 yearbook — but the plan fell through. The sign features our unique weathered barn finish which provides a Briggs wanted to build seating beyond the right-field wall as well, but it seemed an impossible task, given that it abutted hard against Trumbull Avenue. years. Contact SABR, https://sabr.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/BallPark-TigerStadiumDetroit.JPG, /wp-content/uploads/2020/02/sabr_logo.png, on hand to see the Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, “Detroit the Unconquerable: The 1935 World Champion Tigers,”, Tigers By The Tale: Great Games at Michigan and Trumbull. First-season The double-decked grandstand was extended down the first-base line to the right-field foul pole. warning track at night. Osborn saved the day by moving the right-field fence 42 feet closer to home plate. Area the overhang in right - the design of he park is such that a high fly ball (Ilitch was also a former Tigers farmhand, hitting .280 in four minor-league seasons in the early 1950s.) This book is a fan’s love letter to baseball played at the Corner of Michigan and Trumbull, in downtown Detroit, first at wooden Bennett Park (1896–1911) and then at its steel and concrete replacement known by three names: Navin Field (1912–1937), Briggs Stadium (1938–1960), and finally, Tiger Stadium … On Monday, April 15, 1912, at 2:20 A.M., the RMS Titanic, on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, sank after hitting an iceberg less than three hours earlier. In 1956 there had been a proposal for a 100,000-seat stadium for both the Tigers and Lions. This sign was inspired by concourse directional signs that once hung in Tiger Stadium. He finally had to give in to progress. warning track, catching home runs that might have been outs, and in play (in center field), standing 125 feet high; the bullpens down each The original stadium seated 24,000 fans, with grandstands on both sides of the gridiron. Since the upper deck was extended to Most of the TVs were placed inside bars, hotel lobbies, and department-store windows by the manufacturers, as a means of promoting the sale of their product. An emotional crowd of 43,356 was on hand to see the Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 8-2. In the days of Bennett Park, Frank Navin had to contend with the homeowners on the east side of National Avenue (beyond the left-field wall), and the south side of Cherry Street (beyond the right-field wall), who charged admission to “wildcat bleachers” they had built in their backyards. was in play; it was the highest outfield obstacle ever in play in With the Briggs family out of the picture, Fetzer in 1961 changed the ballpark’s name to Tiger Stadium. Last Tigers game: September 27, 1999 Not only were night games making it easier for workers to head to the ballpark after their day was done, another technological leap was making inroads into the American pastime. Tiger Stadium was now just another abandoned building among the thousands of others that dotted the bleak Detroit landscape. It was the site of All-Star Games in 1941, 1951, and 1971. Like a hulking white ghost at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull, the old ballpark refused to go away. Tiger Stadium opened in 1912, the same day Boston opened Fenway Park, but baseball had been played on the site since 1896, five years before the Tigers or the American League existed.Navin Field, the original name of the park, was built on the site of old Bennett Park. Ballpark Team Opened Capacity Cost Turf Dimensions; American Family Field: Milwaukee Brewers: 06/04/2001: 41,900: $382 Million: Grass: 332-L, 400-C, 325-R: Angel Stadium 440 feet away from home plate, the deepest in any ML park, but the power Last Tigers game: September 27, 1999 Surface: Bluegrass. No white knight appeared, however, and by September 2009, the demolition was complete. re: Dimensions of Tiger Stadium Posted by TigersOfGeauxld on 12/24/10 at 11:44 am to ConchTiger quote: …in the spring of 1990 a terrorist cell of Muslim computer science students exacts a brute force hack into the computer system of the Counter-Anti-Terrorism … benefits: Left-handed pull The new development includes the 8,500-square-foot headquarters and … On June 3, 1947, the Tigers televised a game from Briggs Stadium for the first time, a 3-0 Yankees win. Who Played Here: Detroit Cost: $300,000. This short porch in right field would over time become one of the signature features of the stadium. The left center power alley was a rather short 365 and the right center alley was 370. The humble ballpark of 1912 had been transformed into a truly grand stadium. Construction workers were able to finish the new ballpark in time for Opening Day 1912 at a cost of $300,000. at the nearby Pontiac Silverdome). Comiskey Park Tiger Stadium was a large square with rounded corners, a nice old park Bennett Park was demolished shortly after the Tigers played their final game of 1911. The humble ballpark of 1912 had been transformed into a truly grand stadium. infielders to charge frequently. double factor in AL in 1998, Highest A giant, hand-operated scoreboard in left field kept patrons informed of out-of-town scores. Since the new distance to right field was now 325 feet, the first row of the overhang was a mere 315 feet from home plate. Back on the NFL front, the Detroit Lions were drawing crowds of 25,000 to their games at University of Detroit Stadium. On July 3, 1938, it was announced that the Lions would henceforth play their home games at Briggs Stadium. The 1910 census gave the city’s population as 465,766. The company pioneered in the use of reinforced concrete and built municipal and industrial facilities throughout the country. 1962, Frank Howard in 1968, and Cecil Fielder in 1990 have managed the Just like that, 88 years of baseball history at Tiger Stadium had come to an end. Left In 1901 Johnson changed the circuit’s name to the American League, and declared it a second major league, in direct competition with the established National League. He now had the entire square block bounded by Michigan Avenue to the south, Trumbull Avenue to the east, National Avenue to the west, and Cherry Street to the north, all to himself. The outfield wall was unusual in that the fences did not curve at all - The Tigers are an MLB team that is part of the American League Central Division. Simply put, the upper deck would have an overhang extending 10 feet closer to home plate than the first row of the lower deck. Some will have the logo on the other side, some as shown on this side. It marked the first-ever postseason action at the stadium. They arranged to play their home games at University of Detroit Stadium, and changed their name to the Detroit Lions. target. Ballparks Database created by Kevin Johnson and designed for the internet by Dan Hirsch, … field: 8 ft (1940), 30 ft (1944), 10 ft (1945), 20 ft (1950), 8 ft Hawkins, Jim, and Dan Ewald, The Detroit Tigers Encyclopedia (Chicago: Sports Publishing. But there were many sections of the park, mostly those in the outfield lower deck, where spectators could not see this scoreboard. attendance: 402,870 (1912). Frank Navin died in 1935, and Walter O. Briggs, an auto-body magnate and lifelong Tigers fan, purchased the team for $1 million from Navin’s widow, Grace. leave the field for his own safety. The post-World War II years were a witness to the budding partnership between baseball and television. around the park, giving Tiger Stadium the only double-decked bleachers in In addition, the right field roof hangs approximately 10' over the Lowry, Philip J., Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of Major League and Negro League Ballparks (New York: Walker & Company, 1993). Baseball began being played at this location in 1896 when Detroit owner Arthur Van Der Beck bought the club and constructed a 5,000 wooden ballpark. Tiger Stadium Dimensions: Left Field at Tiger Stadium was at 340 feet. Flag The stadium’s dimensions were now (and would remain) 340 feet to left, 365 to left-center, 440 to center, 370 to right-center, and 325 to right. Stadium-Comerica Park: history & Memories ( Laingsburg, Ohio: Kent State University,. Along with the thick infield grass opened, the Detroit Lions football team, is located next door front! 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