Detroit’s Civic Holiday

By Mark Brown/Citizen Columnist-Associate Managing Editor

No matter how many times Detroit has been to hell and back over the years, the city still has some great traditions that make it look good before an audience that spans North America. One of them is Opening Day.

The first home game of the season for the Tigers has been an occasion in Detroit for over a century. Why? Because it’s a sign that spring has sprung. It’s a new beginning…a clean slate…optimism for the season ahead. The Tigers are, after all, the boys of summer. Once in a while, Opening Day delivers on its promise and the Tigers have a terrific season. Other times, not so much. But each year, it’s the same, a chance for a new beginning.

The Tigers have kicked off their home seasons at three ballparks since 1901: Bennett Park, Navin Field (which became Briggs Stadium, then Tiger Stadium), and Comerica Park. At the turn of the previous century, fans came out early in their Sunday best and stayed late. Over the years, Opening Day became an all-day street party in the Corktown neighbourhood, with bars opening early and staying open long after the final out was recorded. There were also tailgate parties and listening parties, as people without tickets gathered around a radio to hear the play-by-play of the action happening within the hallowed walls of Tiger Stadium. If Opening Day was a general indication that spring was here, the voice of Ernie Harwell was the specific indication.

Once the Tigers moved to Comerica Park, most of the action moved downtown, where I believe it belongs. The stores are open early, the streets are crowded with people wearing orange and blue, Grand Circus Park is jammed with music and merchandise booths, and welcome messages are displayed on the marquees of the grand theatres that dominate Woodward Avenue. The bars and restaurants continue to be jammed from sunrise until well after midnight. It’s gotten to the point where on Opening Day there are more people without tickets watching the game in the bars than the 45,030 inside the ballpark on Monday.

The most recent Opening Day I attended was in 2011. On that day I passed through Corktown on the way downtown. The bars are still there – so are the tailgaters, even though Tiger Stadium is now “long gone.” My usual parking places for games had been unavailable for hours already, so I settled for a garage on Fort Street near Joe Louis Arena. I walked the one-kilometre distance to the stadium, even though the weather was chilly and still misty with rain. Trekking to Campus Martius, then up Woodward Avenue, there were people coming in and out of the stores and restaurants with big smiles on their faces. The closer the stadium appeared, the more people there were, many of whom probably didn’t even have tickets to the game.

The Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals 5-2 on that day in 2011. But I found myself being entertained by watching grown men struggle to keep their footing as they climbed toward their seats. You could tell those were the people that had been out drinking since 7 a.m. There was a drunken clown in my row having a loud discussion with someone in front of him, comparing Austin Jackson to Curtis Granderson. But in the 6th inning, there was a guy two rows ahead of me who whirled around and threatened to beat the guy sitting behind him.

With the afterglow of Monday’s opener fading – the Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins 4-0 – the one thing that will never fade is the memory of happy baseball fans carrying on a centuries-old tradition. With all due respect to Toronto Blue Jays fans, Tigers fans are unmatched for optimism and passion as the dawn of a new season arrives.