The best way to get there – There ISN’T one. Not to be negative, but downtown D-town is a pretty confusing drive for anyone not familiar. Heck, I worked downtown for 2+ years, and I STILL am not totally comfortable with it. Best parking deal, however, is the Ford Field parking garage. $10, you’re in a monitored garage that’s clean, and only a block away from the park.

Best food item: Italian Sausage w/ peppers & onions. In the words of Dr. Evil “They’re breathtaking”.

Best seats: Rightfield grandstand: Getting to heckle JD Drew, Jermaine Dye, and Vlad Guerrero while in prime home-run-ball-catching real estate, and not having to worry about the sun in your grill for 5 innings (hi there, leftfield) make these the best seats in the house.

Best thing about the park: The backyard barbeque atmosphere. With the wide-open concourses, the statues in left-center field, and the Pepsi Porch (among others), it’s extremely inviting to those who want to mill around the entire park during the game, preferably with a cold beverage or two in your hand.

Detroit has to be one of the strangest Downtowns I’ve ever been to.. the weirdest part about it is that nobody down there seems to know (or are just not friendly to visitors) where things are. here’s the story:

I’d been to Tigers Stadium a few times, but had never been to Comerica (once we took a bus from the hotel, ended up on Woodward and walked about a mile and a half to the Staduim …that was, um.. interesting… ). My buddy and I decided to go down (or up from Cleveland), do some gambling and catch a ballgame. First we didn’t really plan so well and only had a map quest thing to get us to Greek Town. There was construction everywhere and we got detoured… and lost. We must have asked 50 people where Greek Town was, or at least Comerica Park. The number one answer was “I just work down here… I think it’s that way”.. and they pointed in a direction, everyone seemed to have a different direction they’d point to. Finally we found a cop and he directed us to the Casino. Well, after we lost our arses, it was time to head to the game. We hailed a cab, got in.. “to Comerica Park, please”. The cabbie literally turned around and said “hmmm… Comerica Park.. I think i know where that is…”. Needless to say it didn’t really instill confidence in us. Well, he proceeded to drive us all over town, ending at Tigers Stadium before calling his dispatcher and getting directions. It took us about 45 minutes to an hour to get there. (The guy was cool though and charged us only like 5 bucks) I could be wrong but isn’t it mere blocks away from the casino? We probably should have hoofed it. However it was april, 2002 and it was about 40 degrees outside.

The game was awesome though. We bought the cheapest nose bleed seats you could, and ended up behind home plate. First row. (There was about 2000 in paid attendance in the whole stadium. Really it ended up being about 1,995 because they had a contest and the 5 winners were taken by limo from center field to the red wings game.) We casually strolled down and sat behind the plate, the usher lady came down and i thought for sure we’d get evicted.. she looked at our tickets.. smiled and said have a nice time. We froze our butts off but the tigers won and the seats where awesome.

Overall I love the ballpark, i’ve been there several times since. I gotta say though i really enjoyed old Tigers Stadium. I don’t know how many of you have been to Jacobs Field, but it has to be one of my top 3 ball parks besides Wrigley (the atmosphere, my god) and Fenway (i had monster seats from my aunt.. tremendous) . It feels like you’re right on top of the field.. that’s how i thought of Tigers Stadium. Cozy (even though once i sat behind a pole). Comerica is more up and out.. i’ve had seats that felt like i was watching the game from a parking garage or something i was so far away. However i must say that i sat in those wooden lawn chairs (tiger’s den?) once and that was a pretty fun and relaxing way to catch a game. I’ve pretty much liked all the food i’ve had there, even the little ceasars pizza… however the beer lines and cost are out of control. it takes you two innings to get a 7 dollar beer.. it’s just not right.

Once you get off 75 and go straight parallel to the highway, I always turn left on Cass and drive back across the highway and park on the side of the road without paying a dime. I know Detroit has a criminally active reputation, but I’ve done this numerous times and never had any problems. Better yet, it’s about a five minute walk to the park. It seems too easy to be legal, but there’s never a ticket on my windshield!

As far as food is concerned, I am more old fashioned and prefer a big bag of peanuts with my beer(s), and the peanuts here are….well, they are peanuts.

I’d have to agree about every aspect of the RF seats that have already been mentioned. The AL has a lot of great stars at that position (Ichiro is back!) and it’s always nice to stay out of the sun as much as possible. I’ve always had a soft spot for buying standing room only seats and standing above the visitor’s bullpen also. It’s where Clemens pitched what was at the time his final game in Detroit as an Astro. Say what you want about him, but it was pretty neat to be within feet of him as he stepped out of the ‘pen. It was also nice to give Brad Lidge some business about struggling post-Pujols NLCS style (he didn’t take too kindly to it).

What’s the best way to get there?:
This changes every week depending on the construction. At times its been so bad that I’ve just taken Michigan Ave all the way down to the stadium. I will say that if you manage to find your way down you can park at the new Greek Town Casino parking garage for free and walk your way to the stadium (only takes about 15 minutes).

What are the best spots to hit before or after the game?:
I’ve posted about this before, but my favorite pre-game bar is the Detroiter on Beaubien near Greek Town. Great beer (try the Magic Hat #9), good atmosphere, amazing burgers (The namesake burger is a 1/2 pound with bacon AND ham on it). Best food I’ve ever had downtown, handsdown, is the Sweetwater Tavern on Congress across the street from St. Andrews Hall. Bugers, fish, and amazing wings, definitely worth the visit.
Real cool apparel store near old Tigers Stadium is the Detroit Athletic Company on Michigan Ave. Its in Cork Town right in the shadow of the stadium so it’s worth the trip just to see the old place one last time before its gone.

What’s the best concession stand item in the park?:
Mucho Nacho stand near the carousel. Arguably the best nacho value in the park, your choice of toppings. Be warned that it may be considered socially irresponsible to eat these nachos if you are with loved ones or have plans later in the day.

Where’s the best place to sit?:
My favorite seats in the ball park are the pavilion seats in left field. For 15 $, only three dollars more than upper reserved seats, I don’t have to walk up any stairs and get a great view of the field and front row view of the bullpen. You can ask Zumaya how the arm is feeling and ask Todd how it feels to be the best closer in the bigs (I’m being serious about this. He is my favorite closer, which brings ridicule from all of my friends).

What’s the one thing you like about the park more than anything else? What makes it feel like home to you? What makes you feel like it’s the best place in the bigs to catch a game?
I’ve been to a few ball parks (Yankee Stadium, Fenway, Coleseum, AT&T,Jacob’s) other than Comerica and their is just something about coming home to the city and the people of Detroit. I’ve been around some pretty nasty fans in other cities (NY fans can say some pretty hateful things to a guy wearing Tigers gear) and have really never seen or heard Detroit fans get too nasty with visitors. Of course there are some exceptions, people with a few too many cocktails, but those people usually get shut up pretty quick at games. Possibly because we’re just happy to have people visiting and spending money in the city, but I think Detroit people are some of the nicest in the country.
With that said there is just something right about sitting in the stadium and seeing friends and families enjoying an evening out in such a economically struggling area. Curtis patrolling the vast expanse of center field, Marcus seeing how many home runs he can hit before Leyland sits him, and watching the best middle infield around. This team has a good feeling around them, the play with a lot of determination and hard work. They make it fun to watch.

The perfect day in my world is not on a sandy beach somewhere…it’s parking at the greektown Casino about noon, sitting down at the 1-2 no limit hold ‘em for about 4-5 hours (getting a few adult beverages in of course) then getting on the people mover and paying 50 cents to be dropped off a block over from the park..oh yeah and because you parked at the casino you do not have to pay anything for parking..Then I make my way to Co Pa…Get a Little Cesar’s pizza pizza..and probably another adult beverage and head down to the 1st baseline sitting 4-5 rows off the field..oh yeah did I mention Verlander was pitching game 7 of the World series? Go Tigers!!

What’s the best way to get there? Car to Greektown free Casino Parking. A short walk saves $10-15. Easy in off 375, fairly easy out onto 375.

What are the best spots to hit before or after the game? Cheli’s is the trendy spot but has damn good chili. Great beer at Detroit Brewing Company, Town Pump is a decent spot.

What’s the best concession stand item in the park? Hot Dog w/ mustard or Sausage w/ Pepper’s Onions, which is hard to resist. A bag of fresh roasted nuts from Rocky’s (Eastern Market) is great. There cheaper then the stadium and not stale.

Where’s the best place to sit? I have a package in the upper deck over looking home plate. That’s a great view of the field. I like to watch the little things in the game like shifts, pitches, etc… The negative is being away from the field and there are a lot of “first timers” or “band wagoneers” on some days.

One of my favorite things about the park is how open the concourse is. If you have ever been to Wrigley field you can see the big difference for fan experience. I like to stand on the concourse and watch part of a game from time to time.

One thing I hate are those silly daquari’s in those stupid cups. A PSA for the guys who drink them. Grab a beer! You look ridiculus!