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| The Ballpark by David Anthony The morning sun sparkles on the dew of the fresh cut infield. Red dirt, newly swept and moistened, surrounds bleach white bags and lines of chalk. Bleacher seats cleaned and readied for the spring day patrons. The Ballpark in its game day perfection, welcomes fans and players to worship. Not a single discolored blade of grass in a field so soft, so level, so inviting to the barefoot outfielder. Light poles stand as watchers of the field, ready to cast down their light to further play into the night. Billboard lined walls mark the distance to greatness as players taking batting practice strive for its goal. Stands fill breaking the silence of the ballpark as venders sing their songs: popcorn, peanuts, cold beer. Cheers of appreciation sound as each team scores but the final out only brings some happiness. Game over. Trash lays scattered throughout the now empty bleachers. Paper cups blow across the disturbed dirt and crooked chalk lines. An Erie silence takes over as dark shadows of the night take over the park. A lighted scoreboard stands as judge and priest showing the results of the day, in the cathedrals we call ballparks. |
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| -- ------------------------------- -- Dreams of restoring the roar of Tiger Stadium continue Neal Rubin, Detroit Free Press - March 29, 2006 |
| Praying for a Tiger Stadium renewal and paying for it are two very different things. George Jackson says that for all he's heard about finding a purpose for the abandoned ballpark, no one has spoken fluently in dollars and cents.
As chief development officer for Detroit, not to mention CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., Jackson's desk is where the buck stops when it comes to notions about the stadium. There's a wide sentiment that his desk is where everything else stops, too -- that the city is so intent on flattening The Corner that it has never honestly considered any plan that did not involve dynamite. Not true, Jackson says. "At no time have I seen the city say, 'Let's take a lackadaisical approach to the stadium.' Every proposal we have received, every one, we have thoroughly evaluated." What prompted this latest discussion was an old proposal Sunday from a new source, Southfield mortgage banker Harry Glanz. In his capacity as a dad, coach, baseball zealot and co-founder of Capital Mortgage Funding, Glanz wants to see Tiger Stadium pared back to 15,000 or so seats and used for ballgames, meetings, conventions and shopping. Glanz called the mayor's office twice to offer his idea and maybe even his financial clout. No one called back. He dialed in again Monday morning. As of late Tuesday, the person in charge of not returning calls was still batting 1.000. In the meantime, readers have tacked some very good amendments onto his original pitch -- and Jackson has reassured one and all that the city remains open to suggestions. Ideas, get your ideas here Some of the ideas "have provided a bit of levity," Jackson says, like the one that would have jammed $400,000 condos "into the existing stadium structure, complete with the lights." But even the better bits of architecture, he contends, have lacked foundation. "Can you do it in such a way that it's economically feasible? That's what we're looking for." Jackson points out that "with re-adaptive use of a ballpark, the options are very slim. That's the reason most old ballparks get torn down." The stadium's fans say this ballpark is unique. The original Comiskey Park in Chicago was leveled to provide parking for its replacement. Other recent demolition victims in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were charmless, largely unloved and barely three decades old. Tiger Stadium dates from 1912 and gets fan mail from Texas. It's "one of those iconic places that all Americans should want to preserve," writes Wes Reeves of Amarillo. "Some places would kill to have that kind of historic asset in the middle of their city." Several readers pointed out that the stadium could also host soccer, football, concerts and even cricket -- anything to keep the income stream flowing year-round. Kenneth Hafeli of Westland proposed relocating the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame there from its current accommodations, a corridor at Cobo Center people only walk through if they're lost. There's little doubt that Tiger Stadium would be a prime destination for corporate events and traveling teams of 12-year-olds. The question is whether there's enough money in those things to keep parts of the ballpark upright. "I'm still not giving up hope," says Jackson, who rode the bus to Tiger Stadium as a kid. "We have something we're looking at now that seems a lot more realistic than what we've seen in the past five years." He can't give details, but it's comforting to think the city is interested enough to hold conversations. If someone in the mayor's office could pick up the phone, things might get downright encouraging. You can reach Neal Rubin at (313) 222-1874 or nrubin@detnews.com. |
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| The baseball experience JOHN M. CRISP - Scripps Howard News Service - March 29th, 2006 |
| Here in Texas, many baseball fans are looking forward to Opening Day in a new way this year, after the pleasure of watching the Houston Astros make their first trip to the World Series last October. True, the Astros made a quiet exit from the series in just four games, but after 40 years of waiting, for many fans that hardly mattered. It was a good year for baseball in Texas.
Late in the season I saw the Astros play the Milwaukee Brewers in Houston's Minute Maid Park, an attractive modern ballpark built along traditional lines, the perfect setting for a quiet, relaxing afternoon of baseball. Well, not exactly quiet. The murmur and occasional roar of the fans were pleasant and nostalgic sounds, but the electronic supplements to the natural crowd noise _ the music between innings, the electronic encouragement to yell or clap, the bugle call _ at times were deafening. Literally. I happened to have a decibel meter with me: the electronic interludes _ between innings, between batters and sometimes between pitches _ often reached decibel levels in the mid-to-upper 90s. How loud is 90 decibels? It's the level of sound you'd experience standing close to a power mower. A chain saw reaches 100 decibels. Most organizations concerned with hearing loss agree that hearing damage begins at around 85 decibels. The extent is proportional to the time of exposure, but the damage itself is cumulative and irreversible. In short, if you're spending much time at most major- or minor-league ballparks, according to many organizations and agencies concerned with hearing, you're experiencing at least some hearing loss. For most people, the damage is probably minimal, but it accumulates with the damage that occurs elsewhere in our very loud and electronic culture. Here are an observation and an outlandish suggestion: Many ballparks have adopted a model common in our culture, a total entertainment package that allows for virtually no "dead air." Every lull is filled with electronic diversion, from music, to video on the outfield screens, to crowd-participation videogames. Baseball, however, of all our modern games, is probably the most traditional, the one most closely and most logically linked to pre-electronic days. It's a game that rewards concentration while the teams are playing and then provides a natural break every half-inning, the pause when nothing much appears to be happening, but which is very much a part of the traditional rhythm of the game. This is when you contemplate what's happened, or discuss it with the fan next to you. It's a time to relax before the tension and focus of the next half-inning. The pitcher warms, the next batter studies the pitches, and the outfielders throw impressively long, pure-white arcs across the green grass. You might get a hot dog. A committed fan will fill out the box score and consider the next three batters. Unfortunately, the modern, over-stimulated mode of baseball doesn't provide much time for this sort of traditional rhythm. Perhaps the game has to evolve, but it could be that in its attempts to fill every pause with entertainment, much more is being lost than just the ability to hear. Here's the outlandish suggestion: Perhaps two or three times a season, ballclubs could experiment with a game in the traditional mode, without electronic music or video. Hire an organ player. Let the fans regain control of their own cheering. They could call it "Hearing Preservation Night" or "Traditional Baseball Night." I'm guessing the fans wouldn't stay away because they're not entertained every moment or directed when to clap or cheer. In fact, they might actually enjoy using the pause between half-innings to relax or to instruct their children and themselves in the subtleties of the game. Here's Edward Abbey expressing a very old-fashioned sentiment on the subject: "Baseball is a slow, sluggish game, with frequent and trivial interruptions, offering the spectator many opportunities to reflect at leisure upon the situation on the field. This is what a fan loves most about the game." Unfortunately, these opportunities are virtually extinct in the modern game. (John M. Crisp is a professor in the English Department at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. E-mail jcrisp@delmar.edu.) |
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