Actually, the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy has done a pretty good job of presenting a workable plan, raising local money, and lining up federal historical funds with the help of Sen. Levin. Go to www.savetigerstadium.org to find out more about their efforts and plans and what you can do to help. If you’d like to see my video and listen to my song about Tiger Stadium called “The Corner”, go to www.myspace.com/bquietmusic or the Major League Baseball site at: http://tinyurl.com/the-corner-MLB, you can also listen to a song about Ernie Harwell I wrote.

Ben Hassenger
Haslett, MI

Ian – showing that nasty photo from Week 1 of the Demo is a brutal memory of what was an assault on all of our senses this past summer, but it doesn’t really give any perspective. If we all (including Shyster-man) can take one giant step back and think about this, I think we might get a better understanding of what’s going on at The Corner.

http://www.aerialpics.com/G/TigerStadiumDemo.html

This series of photos should give you an idea of what it is that is to be saved – the original Navin Field footprint and the historic playing field, where Cobb and Wahoo Sam, Greenberg and Gehringer, Whitaker and Trammell all played. It’s actually a thing of beauty, and it’s not difficult at all to see it completely revitalized, for youth baseball, a baseball heritage center, community banquet hall, some retail and commercial office space.

While the City of Detroit has been intent on bringing the old girl down, historic preservationists see that restoration of the historic site is the best case scenario for creating a catalyst for economic development in Corktown, Detroit’s oldest neighborhood.

Saving one America’s classic baseball relics is truly unprecedented – Ebbetts Field, Polo Grounds, Forbes Field, Shibe Park – all gone, and so too will be Yankee Stadium by this time next year. If you don’t find that shameful, I suggest that as a baseball fan, a Tigers fan, you have no soul. This rare opportunity only exists because the value another vacant lot in SW Detroit is nada – so there’s no reason to be in such a hurry to bury it, not without a fight. It’s only money and as it turns out, not some insurmountable figure. The fact is that funds for the 2/3 of the $15M projects are in place.

Detroit needs healing, a reason to believe. Let it start at The Corner.

http://www.SaveTigerStadium.org

>> By the way, did you know that Think Detroit PAL has produced a team of 12-year olds that are defending champions at the national RBI (Reviving Baseball in the Inner City) Tournament? Make that the TWO-TIME defending champions. They deserve a home. It’s time to reconcile the city’s past with its future.