I like Comerica Park. I do not like when people call it COPA. But the park is nice. It is nothing like Tiger Stadium, which I think is what makes it work. Tiger Stadium could not have been recreated and in all honesty should not have been recreated. People didn't love Tiger Stadium because it was the nicest ball park in the world, but because it connected the past with present. The Field connected the fans to the greatest football and baseball players to ever play the game, to boxing greats, rock and roll legends, and presidents and foreign dignitaries alike. The ground was hallowed ground. And as much as I hated to see it go, the choice was made to move the team to a new stadium. Comerica Park or as it is affectionately referred Comerica "national" Park. Tiger Stadium was just that - a Stadium. Comerica Park is - you guessed it - a park. Tiger Stadium looked like a wearhouse, whereas COPA looks like a giant little league field. Tiger Stadium enclosed you and shut out the outside world (which in Detroit it probably not a bad thing) and Comerica is open to the skyline of a Detroit that owner Mike Illitch is almost single handedly revitalizing. Where Tiger stadium linked you to the past inside the foul lines, Comerica links you to the past with a handful of museum-esque columns with pictures, memorabilia, and other artifacts from each decade the Tigers have donned the olde english D.
Comerica Park is nothing like Tiger Stadium. And I guess that's alright with me. Pictured above is the program from the last game at Tiger Stadium (right) and the first game at Comerica (left). My favorite thing about the programs is that even though they are only one game apart the last game program cost $10 and the first game program cost $12. I guess that's the price you pay.
