Sunday, October 21, 2018

Comerica Park Guided Tour

We took a guided tour of Comerica Park in the morning and went to the game on the same night. The park was only a ten minute walk from our hotel, which was a solid tip from our concierge last night because apparently game parking can cost $30-$40! Yikes!
 
 
 
 
 Comerica does not offer advanced ticket sales for guided tours, so we had to get to the park a few minutes prior to the tour to buy tickets. They were only $5/each, which makes this tour our cheapest tour to date! Our tour guide was Bob and he was delightful. Super knowledgeable about the park, team history, and baseball. Our first stop was to the Pepsi Porch, which he referred to as his office because that's the section he ushers for during games. Here, he gave us a little background information regarding Comerica. It is twenty years old (but you wouldn't know it - the owners take excellent care of it and are constantly making updates to it) and boasts the second largest outfield (second to Kauffman in Kansas City). The scoreboard is the seventh largest in the league (the largest belonging to Progressive in Cleveland). And speaking of the team's owners, they bought the team from the owner of Domino's Pizza. How did they make enough money to be able to buy a baseball team? They're the originators of Little Caesar's (pizza, pizza)! Fun fact: they also own the Detroit Redwings.
 
 
 
 
From the Pepsi Porch, Bob escorted us to the wall behind right center field, where all of the camera men have to wear black because it's in the batter's eye. They have a pretty good view, eh?
 
 
This is a home run ball hit the night before:
Can you spot it?

These statues are of the Tigers who've been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The artist left subtle details in each statue that represents something special regarding each player's career. For example, Ty Cobb's statue has the slightest hint of three crowns at the base to represent his Triple Crown win.

Scattered around Comerica are little displays like this called "centuries." The display covers the history of Detroit and the team 1900-1910. The Ford Model T was the car to have during this time period, therefore the wheels at the base of this particular display are from an old Model T!
 
The Championship Club costs $85. That's it. Upon hearing this news, we couldn't help but feel like we poorly planned this trip. Seeing as how it includes a kick ass view of the game and an all you can eat buffet, we probably would've saved money on the deal!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This Ferris wheel costs $2 to ride and was custom made in Italy.
 
 
Our next stop was the press box.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This side belongs to the broadcast team:
 
 
Just before it started to rain, Bob brought us onto the field and into the dugouts.
 
 
 
This is the first time on a tour where we got to sit in both the visiting team's dugout and the home team's dugout. Visiting side:
 
 
Tigers' side:
 
Our last stop on the tour was to visit the Ernie Harwell statue. Ernie Harwell was the Tigers' broadcaster for 42 years and is the only broadcaster in history to be traded for a player.
After our tour, we stopped to take photos outside the stadium with the big kitty and popped into the team store to buy our hats for the night's game. We got 25% off our purchase so Serena's hat ended up being $15 and Lisa's was $19.
 
 
We ate lunch at the Tap Room, the restaurant/bar attached to the stadium. Here, we enjoyed the infamous Buffalo Cauliflower, which is a whole fried cauliflower tossed in buffalo sauce. It was delicious and we highly recommend it!
For the rest of our photos from the ballpark and game, be sure to visit our game blog post.

2 comments:

  1. thanks for all the photos! #72 in the dugout is a good one of you 2 :)

    Looked like the dugouts have a lot of room, maybe more than other dugouts

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