Goodbye Tiger Stadium

Tiger Stadium was the best place I ever watched men play baseball. When I was a teen my family lived near Detroit and during those years in the 1980's I not only learned to root for the Tigers, Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson, Jack Morris, Chet Lemon and Sparky, but I learned to love their home park: Tiger Stadium. Of the 100 or so games I went to at Tiger Stadium, I sat in the upper deck for just about all of them, right on top of the action. Left handers like Gibby and Darrell Evans were a treat to watch. With what seemed like little effort they would pull a fastball up into the right field porch, sometimes clearing the roof. Old pictures of Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, Pittsburgh's Forbes Field, and Philadelphia's Shibe Park look a whole lot like Tiger Stadium: double decker stadiums where the upper deck was right on top of the action. The former three have been lost to history forever decades ago, an now, foolishly Detroit is tearing down their treasure.

There was a time I would be red hot with anger and sadness because of what's happening, but now I feel more nostalgic for the past and sorry for my old home than bitter. It's up to the people who live there to decide what to do with the corner of Michigan and Trumbull. Detroit today is an economic disaster. Homelessness and helplessness effects too many people there. They need hope and need to both hear and experience the gospel. My prayer is that the Spirit will guide my brothers and sisters in Detroit to a brighter future. If tearing down Tiger Stadium is a step in that direction, that's wonderful, I am skeptical of that however. But of course God can turn the skepticism and cynicism of people into miracles. The Pharisees were nostalgic about their old time views as well and pretty skeptical about Jesus' gospel.

Goodbye Tiger Stadium.