By Blaidd Drwg
Detroit doesn’t exactly have a reputation as a tourist destination, but the city is really missing out on an opportunity here with old Tiger Stadium Site, something akin to the movie, Field of Dreams.
In case you don’t know the story, here is my really short version:
– Tigers build shiny new ballpark.
– City, not knowing what to do with historic old ballpark, demolishes it.
– Fans come to site of old ballpark to see what is left of it, see the field is still intact (albeit overgrown) and decide to play a pickup game on it.
– Owner of the site threaten fans to get off the property.
– Fans ignore owners and spend their time and money to clean up the field and host regularly scheduled games .
– Owners continue to threaten fans
– A group of Chevy employees offer to volunteer their time and money to maintain the old site as a ball field for youth teams.
– Owners of the property tell them to bugger off.
A couple things you might not know about the old Tiger Stadium Site:
– It is in a lousy part of town
– The city has no idea what to do with it and no money to do anything with it anyway
– There are a lot of abandoned lots in the neighborhood
– People still come to the site to see it, including former ballplayers
Seems like a no-brainer here – you have the opportunity to draw people somewhere that they would not otherwise go, have someone maintain the property for you without you having to put any money into it and you will actually improve the neighborhood. How does this not make sense?
While not the greatest movie, Field of Dreams does provide us with something that I think is appropriate here, spoken by the great James Earl Jones playing Terrance Mann:
Ray, people will come Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won’t mind if you look around, you’ll say. It’s only $20 per person. They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they’ll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.
I for one would come, to play catch on a field that some of the greatest players in the game once roamed; to sit and watch a game at a place I visited many years ago; to hear the echoes of the late, great Ernie Harwell calling one last game.
To the city of Detroit, build it – people are already coming. Do the right thing.
FlatbreadGarden 