28 years ago, my father greased a wheel or two and handed me the greatest Christmas present I've ever received.
It was 1982, I was 12 years old and sitting next to the tree was a green, wooden-slat-backed seat from Tiger Stadium. Growing up in suburban Detroit, I always wanted one present for Christmas: Tiger Stadium. The seat was as close as any young Tiger fan could hope for fulfillment of that far-fetched wish.
Ever since, save for a few overpriced chances here and there, few of these seats have come free until today. Marc Himelstein, Authentics Manager for the Detroit Tigers, is offering baseball fans everywhere a 2nd chance to own these seats.
Marc can be reached at via e-mail at marc.himelstein@detroittigers.com. The cost has been set at $399 per seat.
Expensive? Perhaps, but these aren't the Coleman Young-mandated blue plastic seats I grew up in the stadium with. The divisive, acrimonious former mayor of Detroit became enamored with the 1975 renovation of New York's Yankee Stadium and the ocean-blue seats installed as part of that makeover. As such, when 'The Corner' was remade in 1977, the original green was removed, replaced by a plastic blue and orange motif.
These seats date back to when the now-demolished stadium was originally named Navin Field and populated by stars like Harry Heilmann, Mickey Cochrane and the 'Georgia Peach' himself, Tyrus Raymond Cobb. Maybe you're partial to the Briggs Stadium days of 'Prince' Hal Newhouser, 'Hammerin' Hank Greenberg, Al Kaline and George Kell. And yes, the Tiger Stadium era is relevant to these chairs. The 1961 pennant chase between the Yankees and Tigers, which included the single-season homerun record chase waged by Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. Willie Horton and the 'Sock It To Em' Tigers of 1968, Mantle's 535th homerun, Reggie Jackson's signature homerun from the 1971 All-Star Game and the magical 1976 season from Mark 'The Bird' Fidrych.
Few remnants survived from old Comiskey Park in Chicago, the Polo Grounds in Harlem or Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Most of the original seats and memoribilia from the original Yankee Stadium is MIA, and Boston's Fenway Park and Chicago's Wrigley Field aren't going to be dismantled anytime soon.
'The Corner' was one of the last grand houses of baseball. As many of these stadiums were stripped of their original wares via deconstruction or renovation, few people involved with the game or the collectibles market realized their future value. Often, they were piled into massive pay-loaders and dumped into landfills.
Here's perhaps a final chance to be a 'Picker' from one of the most famous addresses in baseball history and pluck a piece of honest-to-goodness Americana.
Regards...
~Longtime Tiger fan T.C. Cameron is an unabashed baseball fan living in the Mid-Atlantic. Since relocating to Maryland, Cameron has become a fan of the Baltimore Orioles, Oriole Park at Camden Yards and American League history.
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