Fifteen years ago today, the Detroit Tigers closed the book on Tiger Stadium, which first opened on April 20, 1912.
I covered the final game at The Corner for CBS Sports -- an 8-2 Tigers victory over the Kansas City Royals -- and wholeheartedly broke the "no cheering in the press box" rule when Detroit's Robert Fick put an exclamation point on a bittersweet day with a mammoth 8th-inning grand slam that nearly left the ballpark.
In honor of that last visit with "our old friend," here's my top Tiger Stadium moment:
My favorite sports figures ever are Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell.
No need to explain why for avid Tigers fans.
For the others, Lou and Tramm were terrific ballplayers and, to the best of my knowledge, gentle human beings off the field during their lengthy tenure in Detroit.
My first-born son is named after the longtime Tigers double-play combo. Louis Alan Happy was born on Dec. 15, 1998 -- six years after a date at Tiger Stadium with my future wife.
Shannon and I weren't even engaged at the time. We had met just a few months earlier at Towson University in Maryland and we're paying a summer visit to my family in Michigan. Of course, I had to take her to my favorite hometown stop, Tiger Stadium, during our stay.
Longtime double-play combo Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker were a staple at Tiger Stadium from 1977 until the mid-1990s.
It must have been early June, middle of the week, a night game. As we watched Tramm and Lou turn yet another double play, I told Shannon about my man crush on them, how I wanted to have a son named Louis Alan one day.
I'm not sure what she was thinking at the time. She simply smiled and said, "That's nice."
It was nice of her to agree to the name years later -- after the courtship, engagement, wedding, move back to Michigan and, finally, months of waiting to know if it was a boy or a girl.
Now that you know how much I admire Lou and Tram, here's my top Tiger Stadium moment:
It happened on May 22, 1995, my 31st birthday. My dad took me to an afternoon game, Tigers-Mariners, at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull to celebrate. We had upper-deck box seats on the porch in right field and arrived hours early to watch Tigers batting practice.
Slight of build, still boyish face, Tigers ballcap turned backward on my head, I probably looked like a teenager to the group of Tigers players, including Whitaker, on the warning track below.
Don't recall who hit it, but one of the Tigers launched a long ball toward us, and I could tell it wouldn't quite reach the seats. I extended my left arm over the rail, twisted my glove hand to the right and snatched the ball in the pocket of my Wilson Ron Cey mitt just before it hit the facing of the upper deck.
As I reeled my catch all the way in, Whitaker looked up at me and shouted, "Nice catch, kid!"
Indeed it was -- made even better by one of my sports idols acknowledging it.
By the way, Louis Alan Happy, at the tender age of 21 months, attended his first baseball game during the final weekend at Tiger Stadium and tasted French fries for the first time in the food court on Michigan Avenue before the game -- another lasting memory.
