Sixty-three years ago today, on July 6, 1960, I went to a major league baseball game for the first time.
I remember quite a few details and with the help of Baseball Almanac I’ve been able to add a few more
facts about that day.
Where that game happened might be a surprise. It wasn’t a Reds game. It wasn’t an Indians game. It
was a Detroit Tigers game at what was then known as Briggs Stadium, which was re-named Tiger
Stadium a year later.
We used to spend a lot of time in the summer at my grandfather’s farm in Paulding County in those
days.
Detroit was the closest major league team at the time that was chosen for a vacation. And there was
probably a sentimental reason Dad chose Detroit. It was where he saw a major league game for the first
time. That day in the summer of 1930 the Tigers played the Yankees and he saw Babe Ruth hit a home
run.
So, there we were in a 1958 turquoise and white Chevy (no seat belts or any other safety equipment) –
Dad, Mom, soon to be 9-year-old me, and my 5-year-old brother John – heading to Detroit.
The first feeling I remember upon arriving at the stadium was confusion.
The only place I had ever watched a baseball game was at a high school diamond. And televised games never showed the exterior of stadiums.
So I was expecting to see green grass and outfield fences immediately. All I saw was a building with high walls, all painted white.
I remember asking my Dad if we were at the right place. “This looks like a factory,” I told him.
I was assured that I would see green grass once we got inside and I did. I remember Tigers legend Al Kaline hit a home run. Not quite a Babe Ruth round tripper, but pretty good.
I remembered the Tigers lost to the Kansas City Athletics, later to become the Oakland Athletics. Baseball Almanac provided the score, 6-4, that I had forgotten. It also reminded me that it was a well-attended game for a mid-week day game with 18,325 fans in the stadium.
The family trips to baseball games began to head south to Cincinnati the next year and for the rest of the 1960s and 1970s.
But it all started with a trip to Detroit, which turned into something I probably never imagined 63 years ago. I have watched major league baseball in 36 stadium around the country and 11 spring training stadiums in Arizona.
And even with those numbers I still can’t match my brother, Mike, who has stadium perfect attendance. He has seen a game in every major league park currently in use.
Here’s my list, in order: Tiger Stadium, Crosley Field, Riverfront Stadium, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Wrigley Field, Anaheim Stadium, Dodger Stadium, County Stadium, Toronto Exhibition Stadium, Fenway Park, Royals Stadium, Oakland Coliseum, Candlestick Park, Skydome, Comiskey Park, Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Metrodome, Kingdome, Jacobs Field, Three Rivers Stadium, Busch Stadium, Comiskey Park II, Camden Yards, Comerica Park, PNC Park, Miller Park, Coors Field, Bank One Ball Park, Great American Ball Park, SBC Park, Busch Stadium II, Citizens Bank Park, Safeco Field, Nationals Park, Target Park.
