The damned Yankees.
Ty Cobb broke in at The Corner against the Yankees — the same place where Lou Gehrig and Whitey Ford later saw their Hall of Fame careers end. It’s where legendary sluggers Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle belted their longest home runs, where an unknown utility player put an end to baseball’s longest afternoon with his only big-league homer. The Yankees were the guests when television was introduced to The Corner in 1947, and again a generation later when that same medium made a national phenomenon out of a certain bird-like pitcher. The boys in pinstripes were on hand when the Tigers initiated Sunday ball at The Corner in 1907, and they were the attraction 40 years later when the largest crowd ever to attend a game there was shoehorned into Briggs Stadium.
“It was always a good series between the Yankees and Tigers,” the late Tom Tresh, a native Detroiter who played for both clubs in the 1960s, once recalled. “I think both teams respected the other. We all knew that we were in for a battle that day. Since I was from Detroit, playing at Tiger Stadium was a big thing for me. A lot of my friends and relatives were always there, so the games were magnified and meant more to me.”
The teams began meeting in 1903, when the Yankees (then known as the Highlanders) replaced the Baltimore franchise in the American League. Between then and 1999, the Tigers’ last season at The Corner, the two winningest franchises in league history squared off more than 900 times on the Tigers’ turf. With the Yankees in town, “there was always extra excitement,” recalled Rocky Colavito, who played four summers in Detroit (1961-64) before ending his career as a Yankee in 1968. “You had two teams going at it with good power and good pitching. It was just a great time to play baseball.”
Appropriately, the list of memorable moments in the home half of the Tigers-Yankees rivalry begins with Cobb. On August 30, 1905, the skinny 18-year-old rookie dug in against New York’s Jack Chesbro at Bennett Park. After spotting Chesbro two strikes, Cobb ripped a run-scoring double off the grizzled spitballer, the first of 4,191 hits he would accumulate during his 24-year career.
Later in the series, the Georgia Peach attempted to steal second with a head-first slide. Waiting with the ball was a crusty ex-Tiger shortstop named Kid Elberfeld, who gave the rook “the teach,” sticking his knee into Cobb’s neck and rubbing his nose in the dirt. Cobb got up sputtering and red-faced, as the home crowd and veteran players hooted and laughed.
Two year later, a more mature Cobb was in the outfield as the Tigers, en route to their first pennant, played their first Sunday game at Bennett Park. For years the local “blue laws,” which prohibited amusements on the Sabbath, had forced the Tigers to arrange home dates outside city limits. There were no police raids on this Sunday, however, as the mayor and police chief were part of the record crowd of 9,635 on hand to watch the Tigers trim New York, 13-6.
The combination of Cobb, Sunday ball, and a winning team allowed owner Frank Navin to tear down wooden Bennett Park after the 1911 season and erect Navin Field in its place. The 23,000-seat concrete and steel facility, expanded over the coming years into Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium, became the site of some hotly contested games between the Tigers and Yanks.
Ty Cobb broke in at The Corner against the Yankees — the same place where Lou Gehrig and Whitey Ford later saw their Hall of Fame careers end. It’s where legendary sluggers Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle belted their longest home runs, where an unknown utility player put an end to baseball’s longest afternoon with his only big-league homer. The Yankees were the guests when television was introduced to The Corner in 1947, and again a generation later when that same medium made a national phenomenon out of a certain bird-like pitcher. The boys in pinstripes were on hand when the Tigers initiated Sunday ball at The Corner in 1907, and they were the attraction 40 years later when the largest crowd ever to attend a game there was shoehorned into Briggs Stadium.
“It was always a good series between the Yankees and Tigers,” the late Tom Tresh, a native Detroiter who played for both clubs in the 1960s, once recalled. “I think both teams respected the other. We all knew that we were in for a battle that day. Since I was from Detroit, playing at Tiger Stadium was a big thing for me. A lot of my friends and relatives were always there, so the games were magnified and meant more to me.”
The teams began meeting in 1903, when the Yankees (then known as the Highlanders) replaced the Baltimore franchise in the American League. Between then and 1999, the Tigers’ last season at The Corner, the two winningest franchises in league history squared off more than 900 times on the Tigers’ turf. With the Yankees in town, “there was always extra excitement,” recalled Rocky Colavito, who played four summers in Detroit (1961-64) before ending his career as a Yankee in 1968. “You had two teams going at it with good power and good pitching. It was just a great time to play baseball.”
Appropriately, the list of memorable moments in the home half of the Tigers-Yankees rivalry begins with Cobb. On August 30, 1905, the skinny 18-year-old rookie dug in against New York’s Jack Chesbro at Bennett Park. After spotting Chesbro two strikes, Cobb ripped a run-scoring double off the grizzled spitballer, the first of 4,191 hits he would accumulate during his 24-year career.
Later in the series, the Georgia Peach attempted to steal second with a head-first slide. Waiting with the ball was a crusty ex-Tiger shortstop named Kid Elberfeld, who gave the rook “the teach,” sticking his knee into Cobb’s neck and rubbing his nose in the dirt. Cobb got up sputtering and red-faced, as the home crowd and veteran players hooted and laughed.
Two year later, a more mature Cobb was in the outfield as the Tigers, en route to their first pennant, played their first Sunday game at Bennett Park. For years the local “blue laws,” which prohibited amusements on the Sabbath, had forced the Tigers to arrange home dates outside city limits. There were no police raids on this Sunday, however, as the mayor and police chief were part of the record crowd of 9,635 on hand to watch the Tigers trim New York, 13-6.
The combination of Cobb, Sunday ball, and a winning team allowed owner Frank Navin to tear down wooden Bennett Park after the 1911 season and erect Navin Field in its place. The 23,000-seat concrete and steel facility, expanded over the coming years into Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium, became the site of some hotly contested games between the Tigers and Yanks.