To Politicians, It’s a Stadium; to Baseball Fans, It’s History

Beloved Tiger Stadium lives on after Detroit voters rejected a proposal last week to use city coffers to fund construction of a new baseball stadium.

Which brings to mind the ballpark’s rich history.

Authors Mike Betzold and Ethan Casey in “Queen of Diamonds: The Stadium Story,” write about the time Ty Cobb brawled with Babe Ruth.

The Tigers and New York Yankees were playing in then--Nevin Field on June 13, 1924, when Tiger pitcher King Cole hit Bob Meusel.

“Both benches emptied and Cobb and Ruth rolled in the dirt at home plate,” the authors write. “Some of the fans tore seats from their concrete moorings and threw them on the field. About 1,000 patrons joined in the brawl, which lasted 30 minutes. The game was forfeited to New York.”

Add stadium: In 1991, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which publishes the most important endangered sites in the United States each year, cited Tiger Stadium, the first time a sports facility was so designated. Others on the ’91 list: Walden Pond, Independence Hall and Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland.

Trivia time: Tiger Stadium turns 80 on April 20. It shares the status of being the major leagues’ oldest ballpark with what other facility?

Who would believe it?: Bruce Schoenfeld writes in the Sporting News that Michigan Coach Steve Fisher discusses his team’s chances in the NCAA tournament “with the reluctant honesty of a scientist who has seen a UFO.”

Survey says: Coming the week of April 20 on the television game show “Family Feud”: The Laker Girls vs. the Knick City Dancers.

Travel tip: The beauty of the World League of American Football, writes San Jose Mercury News columnist Bud Geracie, is that you can be in Sacramento one day and Barcelona the next.

Running around: Brian Diemer, talking in the NCAA News about his routine as a world-class steeplechaser and manager of a family landscape business: “If I didn’t have the deadline of practice, I’d stay at work too long.”

Add Diemer: He is an assistant track and field coach at Calvin College, a Division III school in Grand Rapids, Mich. “Coaching has been a blessing. This way, I get my workouts in.”

Bookmarks: Don Hamilton of Kingston, Mass., is the oldest member of the 1992 U.S. shooting team at 62. Klaus Franze, 18, of Claremont is the youngest.

Trivia answer: Fenway Park. Chicago’s Comiskey Park was the oldest until it was demolished.

Quotebook: CBS commentator Al McGuire on Harold Miner: “He goes through so many things at the foul line, I think I’m watching Macbeth.”