Comerica Park/Detroit Review

Our family took a road trip out to Detroit to catch two of the three games (Friday and Saturday) of the Twins/Tigers series...we also indulged in some other activities...here's some insight and information regarding our trip:

* Comerica Park is already ten years old (amazingly)...here's what I took away from the park from our two nights of experiences:

- We sat in the outfield bleachers on Friday night...the sound system is horrible out there. It's muffled as if your trying to listen to an AM station in a parking ramp. If you want a good experience, pay the extra money (as we did on Saturday) for seats along the 1st or 3rd baselines. Ideally, you'll probably want to sit on the 3rd baseline due to better scenery with the skyline of downtown.

- Detroit basically just ripped off the idea of the water show display they have in dead center off of Kansas City. It doesn't run as frequently as it does in Kansas City, but I thought it was pretty lame on their part to incorporate that feature into their park when these two teams are in the same division. Can you imagine if Toronto or Tampa builds a new stadium and puts up a "green monster" in left field? No, because that would be stupid...you have years and years of baseball history in the city of Detroit and the best you can do is copy Kansas City...??

- The scoreboard is huge, but it already seems outdated. Along with two tigers prowling on the top (pretty cool), they have three separate screens that provide general information for the fans. Two of those three screens are of Metrodome quality with the orange/yellow bulbs providing very basic information. The third screen provides pictures and replays (although no replays were played on Friday night for some reason).

- They do have a Carousel and Ferris wheel that are tiger/baseball themed in the ballpark. The kids loved it, but if your a parent and don't want to miss the action of the game...you might want to get to the game early to get the rides out of the way because the only connection you have to the game during the rides is the sound of the crowd.

- If the Twins were still playing in the Metrodome...I probably would've enjoyed my experience a lot more, but now that Target Field is in play Comerica just seemed to lack in a lot of areas...specifically, creativity.

* My daughter desperately wanted a tiger claw (think...foam #1 finger) after seeing a kid roaming around in the stadium with one. She was throwing a fit, because I refused to buy her a claw with the Detroit emblem stamped on it. Well, I eventually caved in and bought her a pink and blue claw. Since that purchase...Twins haven't won since.

* True story: On Saturday night, we were sitting by father or grandpa/son or grandson combo...not really sure. The father/grandpa (fifty years old is being generous) is talking about video games and specifically about MLB The Show. He starts off by saying how "realistic" it is and parlays that comment into a story how he had Verlander (his starting pitcher) pitching in the 11th inning still and he gave up two walks and a bloop hit to load the bases. The next batter hits into a triple play to get his Tigers out of the inning. What's worse...the "fifty year old" man playing video games or the fact that he thinks this sequence of virtual baseball events was anywhere near "realistic"...??

* Detroit has black squirrels.

* We attended a Division II football game...Wayne State was hosting Ohio Dominican. Wayne State's campus is immersed right in the city of Detroit. My son claims it was his favorite part of the trip, my wife is still questioning me why I dragged everyone to that event. We did break a "rule for a family attending a sports event" though...we left the game early (with around 3 minutes left in the game)...I usually shun people who leave early. However, that game had little to no action. The best part was the announcer calling one of their wide receivers..."Donald Yellow Shoes Brown on the catch"...because of the fashion statement with the neon yellow cleats.

* The family went bowling (bumpers were in play). My daughter somehow gets the ball stuck half way down the alley. Her twin brother gets a spare. She wants to quit half way through, he wants to bowl double (his turn and her turn). She wants to take home the ugly bowling shoes to keep, he wants to take the bowling ball. Yet, they have an inseparable bond with each other that I'll just never know.

SBG