Showing posts with label detroit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label detroit. Show all posts

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Comerica Park

Comerica Park
2100 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, MI 48201

September 21, 2018

Since we did the guided tour of the park earlier that day, we didn't have to get to the game too early. We got there around 6:00 for a 7:10 pm game time. After snapping our countdown photo outside the gates, we headed inside to take all of our photos of childish things.
 
 
 
 
The Big Cat Court turned out to be where all of the best things are, but we'll get into more on that later. We stopped here specifically to ride the tiger carrousel for $2.
 
 
From here, we knew we wanted to ride the ferris wheel, so we headed in that direction. On the way, we passed the FOX Sports guys.
And also, this crap:

 
 
The ferris wheel was close by and also cost $2.
 
 
 
 
 
Someone recommended to Lisa that she get the margarita yard stick. She loves margaritas, so this felt like a no brainer. She ordered the Tiger Fuel, which is basically creamsicle flavored. Unfortunately, she can't tell us if there was rum or tequila in the drink because the woman at the counter was the rudest woman that we met in the entire trip (everyone else has been super, super nice) and had zero information. Plus, Lisa could hardly taste any alcohol. The drink cost $11 and there was no Detroit logo on the cup, which was disappointing.
We had taken a guided tour of the ball park earlier that day and wanted to say hello to our tour guide, Bob, so we headed up to the Pepsi Porch where he was stationed.
 
 
It was almost game time by this point, so we rushed to get to our seats. The pitching matchup was Ian Kennedy against Francisco Liriano and the game was total trash. Just trash. It was a painful first half to watch.
 
The sad part is that no one was at the game. It's such a beautiful park and there's no one there to enjoy it. We understand that the team is bad, but there's so much to do and eat at the park! And there really isn't a bad seat in the house.
 
In the 4th, a group of Chevy's race around the field.

After the race, we decided to find food. Lisa read an article that talked a lot about a brisket stuffed corn muffin and she knew she had to have it. Most of the people we talked to at the game, including Bob, agreed that we would most likely would find it in the Big Cat Court (even though none of them actually heard of it themselves). In the Big Cat Court, Serena got excited about a lot of things - the Greek stand's loaded fries, specialty hot dog stand, Gurnsey's ice cream stand (which served legit ice cream in a helmet cup instead of soft serve), and a fried food stand that offered Nutella and apple pie stuffed egg rolls and elephant ears in addition to the traditional chicken fingers. There was a lot. But no stuffed corn bread.

Serena was torn between the loaded fries or the hot dogs.
 
 
She ran excitedly back and forth between both and ended up settling on the hot dogs. While she stood on line, Lisa went in search for the corn muffin. Torn between the An Ode to Detroit and Mac Daddy Dogs, Serena ended up buying both. And then eating both. For $6.75 each. The hot dogs themselves were okay, but the mac and cheese and brisket was delicious.
 
 
Lisa returned from her search disappointed. No one had been able to help her find the corn muffin. In fact, one employee directed her back to the Big Cat Court. She was starting to wonder if this was an urban legend. She vowed that if we did find it, she'd share its location with the masses so that others wouldn't suffer as she suffered. Finally, one employee at the hot dog stand actually knew what she was talking about and solved the mystery.

So here it is. The secret. The brisket stuffed corn muffin can be found at Beer Hall near section 134 and the ferris wheel. It cost Lisa $7.50.
Unfortunately, Lisa wasn't in love. The brisket and cheese really sat on top of the muffin instead of stuffed inside the muffin like advertised. The brisket was chewy, but the muffin was very good. She also felt like there needed to be more brisket in order to meet the expectations she had hyped it up to inside her head.

As if all of the food we ate wasn't enough, before we headed back to our seats, we decided we needed ice cream because it was real and not soft serve. For $6.50, we got three scoops in a helmet. The ice cream was delicious, but we feel like they needed more variety in their flavors: vanilla, chocolate, raspberry vanilla swirl, butter pecan, cookies n cream, and mint chip. Five of the six flavors are vanilla-based. It's just a little odd.
The Tigers nearly had a walk off, but then f*cked it up with two outs and men on first and second. It was depressing. The final score was 4-3. We stayed after to enjoy the postgame fireworks.
 
 
 

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.