20 YEARS AGO. THE LAST GAME AT THE CORNER
An EXCLUSIVE feature presentation. Going up tomorrow, Friday, September 27. A day remembered. A special day in Tiger history.
The Final Game at the Corner. 20 years ago. As it happened. Only on Motor City Radio Flashbacks
THE MAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH. WHO IS HE?
We recently heard from him! And his name is Doug Pettinga.
We asked Doug if he would like to share some of his memories of the Last Game at Tiger Stadium, September 27, 1999. He shares special memories of his family at the Corner. Before and after the last vestiges of the old historic stadium was torn down, September 19, 2009.
Doug wrote, “Hey Jim – I’m following up on our Facebook conversation about the photo of me on your FB announcement about the presentation on 9/27.
Per your suggestion, I threw together more info than you need. The document is attached. Please feel free to use any or none of this.
I’m just a Tiger’s fan who’s honored to have been a small part of the legacy of this team and this stadium.”
Presented today in it’s entire form as he wrote it, a special THANK YOU to Doug Pettinga for sharing his personal thoughts, Tiger Stadium memories on Motor City Radio Flashbacks!
“GOODBYE OLD FRIEND…”
IT HAS NEVER MATTERED TO ME if the Tigers are having the worst season in their history or if they’re in a pennant run. Don’t get me wrong, ’84 was awesome, but I’m a baseball fan and a Tiger fan cut from the cloth of my father who was the same. His Tiger was Al Kaline. Mine is Kirk Gibson. While we love to see our favorite team being successful on the field, it really has never mattered if they win or lose. Listening to Ernie on a small transistor radio in our backyard on a warm summer evening is what matters. Spending an afternoon at the old ballpark in the stands with the program in my hand keeping track of the box score is what matters. Paint peeling and rust starting to show everywhere. Bonding with my father over decades and sharing in the greatest game ever invested . . . THAT is what matters. At least that’s what matters to me.
(Besides growing up a diehard Tiger fan and going to lots of games over the years, I have a unique connection to old Tiger Stadium and the last day they play professional ball there. Below are several stories that include the last day at the stadium and the photo you shared.)
WORKING AT TIGER STADIUM
I’m the owner of a video production company, but back in the late 90’s I worked for other production companies to learn the craft. Because I could barely support myself financially early in my career, I supplemented my income by working at Tiger Stadium in the Scoreboard Operations Department. It was the dream job for a baseball fan to have. It didn’t pay well, but I didn’t care. I was either in the position of running a camera, which usually put me in the scoreboard box hanging off the upper deck along the 1st or 3rd baselines. (incredible view by the way) or I would work way up high in the control room running the antiquated “computer” that controlled the balls/strikes/inning/outs and player number for the jumbotron and the scoreboards throughout the stadium. They called that position “The Turret” because it was like sitting in the turret of a WW2 bomber . . . without the threat of impending death by enemy fire part. It was very cramped, you sat much lower than the rest of the production team up against the glass of the control room, the equipment was very beat up and at least 30+ years old (I really have no idea) and you had to crane your neck way around to the left and down to keep an eye on the umpire behind the plate to hopefully accurately see his call on every pitch.
Well, I may be able to say that I am one of the few people ever on the planet to get yelled at by Ernie Harwell. Yep. And it was well deserved. It was 1997 and the Tigers were playing whomever and I was running the turret. I always prided myself on being quick on the button to reflect the umpire call to the scoreboard. And all the umpires delivered their hand gestures a bit differently, so you had to pay attention. To help us out, we had Ernie’s broadcast playing in the control room near the turret, so I could hear his analysis of each call, which was from a way better vantage point than I had. So, on that day there was a series of exciting plays that distracted me. It got really exciting. You gotta remember, I’m a fan first, so while I’m getting paid to do my job, I also loved to just be there and watch the game from that super high, but unique vantage point. Over the span of a few plays, I ended up with my face against the glass and hands off the turret as an engaged fan. I wasn’t keeping track for the scoreboards. This only happened once and here’s why. Ernie shook me out of it by mentioning during his broadcast that the scoreboard operator was asleep at the switch because the stats inside the stadium did not reflect what was happening. It was brief and to the point, but yes, I was yelled at by Ernie Harwell during a live broadcast. And then, of course, I was really yelled at by my boss, Rick Church, who at the time was the Director of Scoreboard Operations. Right after Ernie made his comment, I hear “PETTINGA!!!! WAKE UP!!!” Oh, I was awake then, that’s for sure, but it wasn’t because I was ever sleeping in the first place. I was just a fan who got too much into the game and forgot where I was. Ha! I met Ernie years later during a video shoot we did at his home and reminded him of this moment. Kindly he offered this thought, “Son, you are not the first to put your guard down. It’s hard not to when you love the game.” He was right. Man, was he right.
TOUR OF TIGER STADIUM
Another interesting story about working at this ballpark was from my first day on the job in scoreboard operations in 1997. The director, Rick, took me on a tour of the stadium. After a few questions into our conversation, he knew I was not just a young kid who wanted a job in production, but a baseball fan who also wanted to be closer to the game. So the tour took us to the press box, to the old boxes way up in the roof section, to the locker room, into the dugout, onto the field and inside the scoreboard in centerfield. I was in awe. I got to see places in that park that the average fan would never get to see. At the end of the tour Rick turned to me and paused to take in this amazing ballpark and he said, “Amazing isn’t it?” And my response was, “Oh yeah. That was an incredible tour.” And he said something like “Good. I took you to those places because I know you’re a baseball fan and you know what a special place this is. And I don’t want you to venture into any of them again for as long as you’re working for scoreboard operations. We have very strict rules about who can go where and also where it’s not safe. So we have scratched your itch. Do we understand each other?” My response was a firm, “Yes, we do.” I never went anywhere I wasn’t supposed to go while I worked there. I didn’t need to. Rock already took me there. What a day!
VIDEO FOR THE FINAL GAME
In 1999, I was working for Mort Crim Communications. Yes, THE Mort Crim who was an anchor on Channel 4 for as long as I can remember (Best boss I ever had). His company was contracted by the Tigers organization to come to the ballpark over the course of 3 consecutive days and record fans individually saying the names of 3 Tigers that had played at the Corner since the team became a team. As you can image, that’s a lot of players. So the assigned me to be the producer/director and we set up a camera, lights and logo backdrop inside Tiger Plaza along Michigan Avenue and fans would line up to be a part of this. We had 3 old Tiger names on each sheet of paper and we would randomly grab these sheets and have fans read the names looking right into the lens. Pretty simple. The plan was to have this loooooong video play on the jumbotron inside the stadium a couple hours before the start of the game as fans and media were coming in.
THE FINAL GAME AT TIGER STADIUM
Right when tickets went on sale for the final game, I stood in line to get seats for my Father and I. He was overjoyed that I invited him to this last game at the place that held so many memories for both of us. My Dad brought along his old baseball glove that was the same glove he’s used since he was 15 years old. I have lots of photos of it and I still have the glove. He also wore a Tiger baseball hat that I have never seen anywhere ever. It has a radio inside it, ear plugs that came down and a small antenna that extended to the sky. He would listen to the radio call while he watched the live game. (I have photos of this hat and I still have the hat).
The night before the game I told my Dad I was going to make a sign that said “Goodbye Old Friend…”. He was down with that. The day of the game we got there early and walked around. There were only a few hundred people in the stadium at this point and the media was getting their shots of the empty field and stands that had not yet been filled with the crowd. On the big screen a video was playing . . . It was the Tiger names video I produced. What a great tribute to the players that played at this great ballpark. What an honor to be a part of that moment.
We made our way down behind the plate between the dugout and netting and with my Dad standing next to me I held up the sign. A photographer saw it and turned quickly to us and started snapping a few shots, then a videographer turned around and did the same. Then another and another and another until what seemed like the whole crowd of media was snapping shots from different angles and videographers were composing moved panning down off the light banks and down to the sign. It was quite overwhelming for a minute. My Dad stood there with me up my side. And off in the distance in center field on the jumbotron was the video that I produced playing for the other fans in the stadium.
For months after that game my Dad and I received letter from family and friends around the state sharing clippings from their local newspapers with this photo. Some showed us both together. Some showed just me. The Detroit Free Press ran it on the 2nd Front Page of the paper on September 28th. I have copies of the paper from that day. What an honor it was to stand there with my Dad and be a part of this moment that is immortalized in photos that we still see popping up from time to time to this day. And the bottom line for me is that I didn’t want the stadium to ever be closed. I would have loved to see them renovate it.
WHEN THE FIELD WAS THE ONLY THING LEFT
I visited the stadium in the years after is closed, but never went in. I had friends who said they snuck in and played softball on the field while the stands were still up. I always wanted to do that, but never did. When the stands finally came down and all that was left was the field, I met some of the guys from the Navin Field Grounds Crew who were maintaining the field to keep it nice until the city might turn it back into some sort of baseball park. I would often go there before going to a game at Comerica and would play catch or take some hits from home plate with my own kids. I could still field the presence of the stadium. I had seen it from so many different angles. I loved telling my kids the stories of working there and the games with grandpa and the final game in 1999. It was still haloed ground for me as it was for thousands of fans who would still stop by to step onto the old field.
In May of 2015, my father turned 75 years old. At this point I owned my own production company and was finding success in my career. To celebrate this landmark birthday with my dad, I took my two young kids, my sister and my Dad to a game at Comerica Park. We all were wearing our white Tiger jersey’s. My son had Cabrera. My daughter had Verlander. I, of course had my Tiger, Kirk Gibson, but my Dad had never owned a jersey. His whole life as a fan, he just never bought one. We stopped by the Corner about 2 hours before the game and my Dad got to go onto the old diamond with us. He was walking with a cane at this point and had never been on the field at Tiger Stadium. We walked him carefully out to right field where Al Kaline played and we stood in about the exact spot where Kaline would stand waiting for a batter to pop one out to his position. We gave my dad his birthday gift, which was an Al Kaline Tiger jersey while standing where Kaline stood for all those years when my Dad watched him. We had a photographer follow us on this day, so we have some amazing photos. I could barely keep it together giving him this present. After that, we made our way back onto the diamond and my dad brought his old raggedy baseball glove. One thing to note is that as old as this glove was, it was still in incredible shape. We all had our gloves too and we played catch and took batting practice from home plate. My kids shagged the fly balls and the grounders. My dad even took a few swings at the plate and he connected. But my favorite part was just playing a simple game of catch with my dad. He stood on first base and I stood about where the 2nd basemen would play and we tossed the ball back and forth for as long as he had strength to do it. After that, he sat down on the bench and watched us hit and run and throw.
After spending time at the old field, we stopped in at Nemo’s for burgers. My Dad had been a vegetarian for the last decade, but he decided to have a burger on that day. We took the Nemo’s bus to the game at Comerica and we had the best time. The kids made signs that said “Grandpa is 75 years old today!” We were often on the big screen and paws even came by to pose with us for some wonderful photo ops. At times between watching the game and catching up with my Dad and sister, I found moments where I would just sit back into my chair and look at my kids and my dad and my sister and I would soak in the moment. THIS is what it’s all about. THIS is what matters. It was a perfect day.
In the years following that day, my dad would often bring up that day. We had a coffee table book made from the photos the professional photographer took. In May of 2017, my dad passed away. He had medical issues for as long as I can remember, but they had become more acute in these last few years, so his passing wasn’t a total shock. It made sense that the night that my sister called me and told me that I had better get out to Howell right away because my dad’s condition took a turn for the worst, I was at a game at Comerica park with a friend. I left the game immediately and made it out to Howell to briefly be with my dad before he slipped into unconsciousness and passed the next morning.
Baseball at its most basic core is just a game. I’ve heard it called “The child’s game”. Love that description. It’s a game that has given me decades of experiences and appreciation for the chance to slow down and take in moments as they come and to have conversation with the friends and family that are sharing in that experience with you. All while watching the best game on earth. So being even a small part of that legacy of fans who love these Tigers and loved that old ballpark is such a huge honor. I can’t express that any more deeply. But if you think about it, we’re all a part of that legacy because we all continue to tell the stories and recall the special moments. We’re still making the memories and we plan to for decades to come.
Doug Pettinga
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
P.S. My father’s name is Don Pettinga. I grew up in Dearborn, and currently reside with my family in Troy, MI.
