The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division.
The team was created in 1894 as a member of the Western League, which had been reconstituted at the time. They began their career at Boulevard Park, which was also known as League Park at the time.
Between Helen and East Grand Boulevard, near Belle Isle, was East Lafayette, formerly known as Champlain Street.
This decision to create Bennett Park on Michigan and Trumbull Avenues in 1895 by the team’s owner George Vanderbeck would serve as the team’s home base for nearly a century.
On April 13, 1896, an exhibition game was played at The Corner for the first time. 30–3 was the final result for the squad, now known as the Tigers, against a local semi-professional team known as the Athletics.
It was a 17–2 rout of the Columbus Senators in the Tigers’ inaugural Western League contest at Bennett Park on April 28, 1896.
The team loaned Rube Waddell to get professional experience at the end of the 1897 season. In the wake of his punishment, Waddell made his way north to pitch for the Blue Jays in the Canadian League.
As a minor league in 1900, the American League renamed itself the Western League, but the next year, it declared itself a major league, openly competing with the National League for players and spectators in four contested towns.
There were rumors that the team will relocate to Pittsburgh for a while. In 1903, the two leagues negotiated a new National Agreement and put an end to these speculations.
What Happened To Tiger Stadium In Detroit?
On September 21, 2009, the stadium’s destruction was completed, but the stadium’s real playing field remains at the corner where the stadium stood. The site was completely redesigned in 2018 to accommodate minor sports.
George Vanderbeck, the owner of the Detroit Tigers, commissioned the construction of a new ballpark at Michigan and Trumbull Avenues in 1895.
Bennett Park was the name of the stadium, which included an outfield wooden grandstand with a wooden peaked roof. Some of the outfield’s boundaries were simply delineated with rope at the time.