Are you tired of the snow? Tired of the cold? This should help.
(yeah, I kind of like the Always a Tiger campaign)
Category Archives: Fan Experience
Comments on the experience of being a Tigers fan, including views on Comerica Park and fan relations.
Granderson’s Celebrity Shoot Out – 2009
It looked to be another successful event for Curtis Granderson and his Grand Kids Foundation. Depite some awful weather, there was still an impressive turnout of both fans and celebrities at Lake Orion High School.
Granderson assembled and impressive roster of celebs and athletes with Michigan ties. The biggest in name value was probably Kid Rock, who did his best Rumeal Robinson impression as he knocked down two free throws with no time remaining to tie the game. It was also his birthday and the crowd sang Happy Birthday.
Curtis served as referee and made sure everyone scored. Miss America Kirsten Haglund and Project Runway dude Joe Faris (who played basketball like you’d expect from someone on Project Runway) were allowed to shoot free throws until they made it. Dana Jacobson knocked down a shot on her own (yes I phrased it that way on purpose).
Lloyd Carr appeared to be really enjoying his time as a coach standing up and yelling directions. He was joined on the Blue sidelines by Marcus Thames who was also smiling (but he just signed a new contract so that might have been it). Braylon Edwards once again put on a show, throwing down some big dunks before losing to Jamal Springs Nelson in a overtime dunk-off.
I’m not sure what the attendance figure was, but it appears that the weekend was successful enough to set up a college scholarship in addition to supporting the work already being done in the inner city schools. If you’d like to donate, or for more on the Grand Kids Foundation, you can check out the website.
Tigers 2009 Caravan Schedule
With Tigerfest right around the corner, that means the Winter Caravan is about to hit the road too. This year the team is sending out a Metro Bus and a Detroit Bus. Some events are open to the public, as denoted by the “open to the public” phrasing. So if you want to see some Tigers before the season starts and you can’t get to a sold-out Tigerfest, here are some opportunities.
Continue reading Tigers 2009 Caravan Schedule
Help a centerfielder out
Official Tiger of DTW and Billfer, Curtis Granderson, will be hosting his second annual charity basketball game. The game supports the Grand Kids Foundation, which in turn supports Michigan’s Inner City schools.
Continue reading Help a centerfielder out
They don’t care who my Tiger is anymore
News out of Comerica Park is that the Who’s Your Tiger campaign has come to an end. It had been 3 years and they probably got more mileage out of it than could have been expected. But I’ll kind of miss it. The campaign and the resurgence of the franchise went hand in hand. As the team became successful it was a way for fans to identify with Tigers and was pretty damn effective. Between Who’s Your Tiger, Hockeytown, and Going to Work, Detroit sports teams have done a nice job of latching on to their fans. Do you believe in now?
Tigers make some ticket price hikes
The Tigers are adjusting some prices, on some games. The following areas won’t see an increase to their base ticket prices: Outfield Box, Right Field Grandstand, Bleachers, Kaline’s Corner and the Upper Level. That comprises 70% of the capacity. The base price is the key here because the team will have premium pricing for 21 of the 81 games.
The variable pricing will apply to the three-game series with the Cubs and Red Sox, and Friday and Saturday games in June, July, and August, and Opening Day.
Basically it seems that the team is trying to make the majority of games affordable to a majority of the people while trying to get a little extra revenue on the premium seats. Given the economy any price hike isn’t going to be received well, but considering the increase in payroll that the team committed to last year and this year, this seems to be pretty minimal.
Those who get season tickets will still get discounts and be immune to variable pricing.
Individual game tickets will go on sale March 7th.
Tigers TV Notes
A couple of items from FSN Detroit:
DIRECTV Channel Change: DIRECTV has shifted many of the regional sports network channel locations. FSN Detroit has moved to channel 663. The previous channel, 636, is still active for a couple of weeks. When tuning to Ch. 636, it instructs viewers of the move to 663.
Saturday at Tampa Bay: This Saturday’s game at Tampa Bay will be joined in progress at 7:06 pm, in accordance with MLB broadcast rules (game time is 6:10). MLB rules prohibit local telecasts for Saturday games starting after 1:10 and prior to 7:05 pm Eastern time – the exclusive window for the FOX Saturday Baseball Game of the Week. Major League Baseball granted FSN Detroit permission to join the Tigers-Rays game in progress immediately following the exclusivity window. FSN Detroit will re-air the Tigers-Rays game in its entirety at 10:00 PM.
Spanish Broadcast: On August 9th FSN Plus will broadcast the game in Spanish. The Spanish-language coverage begins at 7:00 PM with play-by-play announcer Clemson Smith Muñiz and analyst Adrian Burgos, Jr. The English-language telecast of that night’s Tigers-A’s game with Mario Impemba and Rod Allen airs as usual on FSN Detroit and FSN HD. This is in conjunction with the Tigers Fiesta Tigres celebration.
On another note, if you haven’t yet, do check out Baseball’s Golden Age. Great stuff.
Great Moments in T-Shirt History
I apologize for the quality of the photo. It’s the best I could do with my camera phone. What you are looking at is a custom made (I’m assuming it’s custom made anyways) #49 Rod Allen T-shirt. The shirt on its own is a stroke of genius, but it is enhanced greatly by being paired with a custom made (I’m assuming it’s custom made anyways) no number Cobb T-shirt.
This duo ranks second in “best ball park wear” behind the guy I saw in 2004 with a duct taped VINA and number 9 applied directly to his back. Sadly there is no photo.
However their work will live on along with other T-shirt greats like this.
So thanks to two very creative gentleman I now have a post tagged with both Rod Allen and Ty Cobb.
Off Day Discussion: Thoughts on Comerica Park
It’s the first day off the Tigers have had in awhile. In the interest of sparking discussion that deviates a little bit from “The Tigers need to bench Gary Sheffield in favor of Brandon Inge” (which given the historical feelings about Inge I find to be a surprising sentiment) I thought we’d talk about the home of the Tigers.
For those of you who have been to Comerica this year, or in year’s past even, what are your thoughts on the place. Give me two: a)Favorite things about the park b)least favorite things about the park c)simple changes that could be made to make it better (I’m not looking for big reconstructions here, actually feasible things).
Favorite Things
- The concourse. It’s big. It’s covered (nice in the rain). You can still see the game. It’s something they really got right.
- The food selection. You have choices. While some might call it heresy to have anything but a dog, I like being able to get the Mucho Nacho, or a Pulled Pork sandwich in the beer hall.
Least Favorite Things
- Disinterested concession employees. I don’t mind lines due to the place being busy. What I hate are lines because the concession workers don’t seem the least bit motivated to get your order quickly. I know every stand isn’t bad, but it seems to be the rule more than the exception. The stand behind section 213 (where I sit) is one of the offenders.
- The under-utilization of the scoreboard. It’s better than it was, with more stats being shown. But I look at other places with comparably sized scoreboards and they communicate so much more information. Plus replays are hardly ever shown. The commercial to replay ratio on the video board is very heavily skewed to the former (ergh Chad Johnson from Lady Janes)
Things I’d change
- Go back to larger sized beers. I’m willing to pay for more. But the 16oz cans are a joke, especially in the 32oz cups. Bring back the 32oz beer!
- Better utilize the scoreboard. It’s touted as one of the biggest. Use it!
Junkballing: Just a link dump
No rhyme, reason, or subheadings. Just a quick link dump as I watch Jair Jurrjens carve up the Pirates.
- Kaline or Clemente: Joe Posnanski tackles who was the better sixties right fielder.
- Tigers interested in Cordero?: Ian points to a report that the Tigers inquired about Chad Cordero during spring training. I don’t make too much of this because A)I get the impression the Tigers inquired about every reliever. B)Jim Bowden probably wants Rick Porcello in exchange. and C)It sounds like he’s the second coming of Fernando Rodney’s shoulder.
- Pitching coach or therapist? It’s about the Mets, but Stephen (yeah, the Stephen from the comments) pens a piece looking at the role of a pitching coach. It’s good. And long. But good.
- Tigers respond to fans. Sam Hoff, who contributes the “Inning” pieces here sent a request to Dave Dombrowski and Dombrowski followed through. The story is at Sam’s blog.
- Vindicated or Vindictive? Yeah, listen to Jose Canseco. I’m sure it’s all on the up and up.
- Joel Zumaya still likes Guitar Hero. Mmm, yeah. In one respect I feel for the guy that he can’t play a video game without it becoming a story.
Some hope
Okay, so I had one subheading. Craig Colwell, who comments here as Craig in CA and is organizing the Tigers/Giants outing, recently wrote a piece for his local paper. He said I could publish it here as well. I figured we’d could use a little reminder of how excited we were all of 3 days ago.
Hope Springs EternalCraig Colwell
People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.
~Rogers Hornsby ~
The last week of March, for millions of people young and old, brings forth feelings that are equal to those felt by a child counting down the last few days before Christmas. For me, two words sum up this time of year, Anticipation and Hope. The anticipation of Opening Day, and the hope that maybe this year we’ll win it all.
The baseball season is about to begin. The highs and lows of the previous season have been locked away in a closet since late last fall, otherwise they would combine to eat away at my heart and the hearts of baseball fans everywhere. Oh sure there is the occasional peak at the internet and the sports page, to see what the front office was up to. As fans we try to live normal lives during the winter months. The off-season allows our families time to forget our behavior of the previous season. We do a good job most of the time but there are those moments when you’re at the school play or out to dinner with friends when you quietly wonder why Leyland didn’t pitch Kenny Rogers in St. Louis. There is the moment when you pretend to ooh and ahh at the splendor of the Mountains on a family ski weekend, when you’re really oohing and ahhing over the prospect of Cabrerra, Ordonez, Renteria, Sheffield, Polanco, Guillen and Granderson in the same line up. Just between us, I have watched the last inning of the Tigers winning the American League Pennant in 06’ more than a few times this winter. Don’ tell my family, they’re still a little sore that I moved the Mac into the dining room so we could watch the final innings of the Tigers’ east coast games on mlb.com.
As I’ve gotten older my fanaticism is no longer only about my beloved Tigers, but about the game as a whole. Forget about the steroid scandal and the fact that that the American League uses the DH. For me baseball is about helping out with my daughters’ softball teams, hoping to foster a love of a game that has meant so much to me. It’s about loving a game that was so good to my parents in their final years when traveling and getting out on the town were no longer options. Baseball is there for you everyday from April until October. You become intimate with your home team. Baseball is theatre played out over 162 games mixing drama, comedy, and suspense. It’s getting beyond the intense hatred of the Yankees and the Red Sox and realizing that without these despised rivals the game would be diminished.
Opening day is my own personal holiday, it’s a day of hope, it’s a day of reconnection with my childhood, it’s a day to remember and honor a gift given to me by my parents, the love of baseball. For me, all the season’s past don’t combine to equal the season about to begin. You can bet that I have already blocked out the days the Tigers will be in the Bay area.
Getting ready for Opening Day
Here we are on the eve of Opening Day eve. Here’s some information to get you ready for the festivities:
Tickets
Good news for those of you still looking for tickets, the prices appear to be dropping fast on Stubhub. You can now get pairs together for less than $100 a ticket. Most of these are in the newly erected risers. But there are also relative deals on better seats, like infield box for $179 per ticket.
Of course there isn’t time to ship these, but Stubhub offers an on site ticket pick-up location.
Getting There
It’s Detroit and it’s spring time. The robins are back and so are the construction barrels. MDOT has directions and maps for getting to the stadium.
Continue reading Getting ready for Opening Day
Tigers add more seats to Comerica Park
The Detroit Tigers have added 778 seats to Comerica Park, which will increase the ballpark’s seating capacity to 41,782 on Opening Day.
The seats have been added on risers along the main concourse behind existing seating sections and in newly created auxiliary sections on the Dew Deck/Pepsi Porch in right field. The seats in the new locations will cost between $12-$25 each and be available for all home games on the schedule, with the exception of Opening Day. Seats in these locations for the home opener against the Royals on March 31 have already been sold.
“With the unprecedented demand for Tigers tickets in 2008, we have been looking for opportunities to increase our seating capacity without impacting the aesthetics of Comerica Park,” said Tigers President, CEO & General Manager David Dombrowski. “These additions will provide more fans an opportunity to enjoy Tigers baseball this season.”
New Seating Locations & Costs
Riser Sections at 112, 113, 141, 142, 143: $25
Riser Sections at 144, 147, 148: $15
Riser Sections at 104, 105, 107, 109 & Auxiliary Sections on Dew Deck/Pepsi Porch: $12