I have been feeling by inspired by Detroit lately and I am waiting in anticipation for Tiger baseball. And when I think Tiger baseball I think of two things: Ernie Harwell and Tiger Stadium. And after many attempts to convey my love for Tiger Stadium this finally came to me at 11 o'clock at night during an episode of King of Queens. So here it is.
Michigan and Trumbell:
All you are now is a rusted gate
Standing there like a ruin of Rome
Yet you do not fall
Because the roots beneath you
Are stronger than any bulldozer
The ground you are supplanted on
Is the most important ground
This city has ever known
Your ground used to be where
Pinch Hitters and
Ballplayers roamed
You used to be reserved
For legends
You were home to
Cobb
Kaline
Lolich and
Morris
Now you are home to
Weeds
Bottles and
Trash
The overgrown grass
Now replaces the grandstand
It sways back and forth
Parodying the humans
Who sat there during
Those championship runs
In ’35 ’45 ‘68 and ‘84
They weeds take the place
Of the thousands of people
Who witnessed “The Bird”
Electrify a team
And talk to be a baseball
On a pitcher’s mound
That is as flat
As the remaining field
That surrounds it
They are the on lookers now
But not for icons like Willie
But for everyday people like Steve
Who go there on Sundays
To play pick-up baseball
On you the ground
That used to be reserved
For immortals
They find utopia on you
Shagging fly balls in the outfield
Stretching a single in a double
And doing their best Gibson
Impersonation as they round first base
You are now their Field of Dreams
A place they never dared stepping on
In their adolescence
But as adults
You are their weekend sandlot
To them you are not enclosed by a fence
You are still the vestibule you once were
You are still Tiger Stadium
I am feeling immensely inspired to continue to write about Detroit sports all night. We shall see how this goes.
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