Comerica Park

Detroit, MI

Chicago Cubs @ Detroit Tigers

July 8, 2001

The Road Trip

We'd leave Toronto Sunday morning, it was about a 4 hour ride to Detroit. We left enough time to stop at the duty free shop right before crossing the bridge from Windsor to the U.S. They had some good deals on booze so we stocked up and headed for customs. Mike had also bought a Toblerone for his girlfriend and tossed it the cooler hoping that it wouldn't melt. We were questioned at customs and told them about the booze; they asked if we were all 21. The agent then asked "What else?" kinda like a trick question to catch you off guard. Mike piped up with "Chocolate bar" from the back seat and we were waved to pass. We didn't have anything illegal, it was just funny in an innocent sort of way that once we said we had a chocolate bar, we were all clear to enter our homeland. Detroit was only a few minutes from the border. We parked at some independent lot amongst a bunch of run down buildings and headed for the park.

Getting Tickets

Sammy warming up between innings.

We were able to get tickets through openseats.com from a U Mich. student who had a boatload of tickets near the right field foul pole. We were able to get them for less than face value and ended up with great seats on a beautiuful day, close enough to beg for Sammy Sosa to toss us a ball in between innings. He always tosses his warm up ball into the stands as the batter comes to the plate. We got there a little late to evaluate the scalping situation but attendance was way down at Comerica this year so cheap tickets should be available.

The Stadium

Comerica Park would prove to be a very well designed venue with easy access to the food and souvenir booths, great views from anywhere in the park, and some impressive stone tigers around the park. There is also an area with some rides and stuff to keep the kids amused. This park has a similar look and feel to the Jake but may be even better thought out. We would have loved to had the chance to take a tour of this park and reccommend that if you go, save some time for that.

Comerica boasts the larget scoreboard in MLB and it is a bit less commercial than the one at the Jake, well, maybenot but the tigers on top are way cool! General Motors has some sort of picnic area in center field, again much like the Jake. The one drawback to Comerica is the location, not far from old Tiger Stadium and in a bad part of town. Though we didn't anything that we'd call a good part of town in Detroit.

Pros: Beautiful park, well designed, fan friendly

Cons: Bad area of town, don't stock enough programs (read on...)

The Game

Spray bottle similar to Dauber's

It was sweltering hot this day. You'd think Dauber was training to work for a burn victims unit because after saving the day in Cincy with his water babies suntan lotion, at Comerica he pulls out this water squirt bottle / fan combo. It was similar to the one pictured except it has a baseball shaped tank inseatd of this BYU one. This would probably be key not only to our survial today, but we met this bald shaven guy Peter in front of us who probably would have spontaneously combusted (and burnt the rest of us) if Dauber didn't give him frequent mistings to cool him down. If we brought a bag of these with us we could have sold them and paid for our trip.

This guy Peter was a big Tigers fan and was as entertaining as the game itself. His mother was there and she ended up showing us his baby pictures so we could make fun of him. It was a real blast. We asked where to go to get something to eat after the game and he suggested a restaurant called Pegasus which was in Greektown a few blocks away. We had flaming cheese as an appetizer and the food was great.

We were fortunate to get another action packed game and Sammy Sosa would show us what the true meaning of "MVP' is as he would put in a monster day for the Cubbies. He hit 2 homers, one in the 3rd and one in the 5th, both with 2 outs and there was no question once the ball hit the bat that he'd be started his home run trot before exiting the batter's box. The big debate would be whether he should have been credited with a 3rd homer as Macias launched one deep to right field; Sammy ran back to the track, lept at the wall, got his glove on it, and then slam dunked in for a home run. Without the tip-in it probably would have hit the wall a foot from the top and been a double.

This was a fairly exciting game and a fun crowd but would nearly turn tragic as Dauber went to the souvenir stand in the 7th to get his token program and would come to find that there was not a single program left for sale in the entire building. What's up with that? There were only 38,000 fans and the program is not even bound specifically for that game. This would be the first game on our journey that Dauber wouldn't have a program for but he was determined. After the game we camped out at the exit and actually attempted to "scalp" a program. Is this the most ridiculous thing?!?!? We explained our sob story to any fan that would listen and eventually got someone to give up their program for double the cost. We've heard of beer sales ending in the bottom of the 7th but never programs...

No, the ACTUAL game...

Lima would picth a pretty good game expect when Sammy was at the plate (how many other pitchers have had similar fates?) and turn it over to the bullpens where Gil Heredia would do enough damage to setup his counterparts to allow 3 runs in the 7th (charged to Heredia) as the Tigers would win the battle of the bullpens. Sammy's 2 bombs made the game and we were able to see Anderson throwing some heat in the nearby pen. The Cubs would prove to have the worse picthing staff on this day in an overall battle of mediocrity.

Thrill Factor: (3.5/5)

CHICAGO CUBS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg E Young 2b 3 2 1 0 1 1 0 .269 Deshields lf 5 1 2 1 0 1 1 .400 S Sosa rf 2 2 2 4 2 0 0 .312 Coomer 1b 3 0 0 0 1 0 2 .276 R Brown dh 4 1 1 0 0 0 3 .255 R Gutierrez ss 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .280 C Patterson cf 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 .227 Cairo 3b 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 .281 Girardi c 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 .212   Machado c 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 .300 Totals 31 6 7 6 4 5 7

BATTING: 2B - Deshields (1, Lima); R Brown (4, Lima). HR - S Sosa 2 (29, 3rd inning off Lima 1 on, 2 out, 5th inning off Lima 1 on, 2 out). S - R Gutierrez. SF - C Patterson. RBI - S Sosa 4 (83), Deshields (1), C Patterson (2). 2-out RBI - S Sosa 4, Deshields. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - Cairo 1, R Brown 2. GIDP - Coomer. Team LOB - 5.

BASERUNNING: SB - C Patterson (2, 2nd base off Lima/Fick); E Young 3 (17, 2nd base off Lima/Fick 2, 3rd base off Lima/Fick).

FIELDING: E - Cairo (7, ground ball); C Patterson (1, bobble).

FIELDING: DP: 1 (Halter-Easley-R Jackson).

WP - K Wood. IBB - S Sosa (by T Jones); Easley (by Fassero). HBP - E Young (by Lima).
Pitches-strikes: Lima 95-63; T Jones 29-11; D Patterson 13-9; M Anderson 11-9; K Wood 112-66; F Heredia 11-5; Van Poppel 2-2; Fassero 22-11; Farnsworth 17-12.
Ground balls-fly balls: Lima 9-6; T Jones 1-2; D Patterson 3-0; M Anderson 1-0; K Wood 1-11; F Heredia 0-0; Van Poppel 0-0; Fassero 0-0; Farnsworth 1-0.
Batters faced: Lima 26; T Jones 6; D Patterson 3; M Anderson 3; K Wood 30; F Heredia 3; Van Poppel 1; Fassero 5; Farnsworth 3.

UMPIRES: HP--Alfonso Marquez. 1B--Steve Rippley. 2B--Mike Winters. 3B--Ted Barrett. T--2:59. Att--38,729. Weather: 80 degrees, sunny. Wind: 7 mph, left to right.