MY FIRST GAME - PART ONE OF TWO 

By The Heckler

Living in close proximity to Detroit has always provided easy access for The Heckler to attend major league baseball games. Growing up, as part of my time playing ball from the time I was four-years-old (beginning with T-ball before graduating into good ol’ hardball) through to my mid-teens, one snapshot in time stands out as purely magical. Only eight-years-old, our entire league was afforded one special day where we all headed over – en masse – to Tiger Stadium to catch a live game. Now, as previously mentioned, The Heckler really can’t recall if this was his first game or not – in all likelihood it was – but this is without question my most-memorable earliest experience. After all, it isn’t everyday a kid actually gets to be on the same field Ty Cobb played on. Man, I wish there was video of this somewhere!

The day is Tuesday, July 3, 1979.
The Detroit Tigers versus the Toronto Blue Jays. Tiger Stadium.

As if heading to my first Tigers game wasn’t enough, a truly special treat was in store for our group on this hot summer’s night, as we were presented the opportunity to carry out a large Canadian flag onto the field for the opening ceremonies. The date dropped conveniently between Canada Day (July 1) and the Fourth of July for the United States. Two nations’ pride flowed freely.

With the opponent being the upstart Blue Jays, people thought (naturally) that we represented Canada and all it had to offer – including their third-year baseball team. One problem however – I was a die-hard Tigers fan (and still am). The last thing I was out there representing was some expansion team. My club had history! My club had World Series pennants! My club also played on real grass, which I will forever remember having the opportunity to walk-on, thanks to this night.

My team also ended up getting completely spanked – but more on that a little later.

We first gathered in the bowels of the centerfield bleachers before stadium officials opened the gates, soon embarking on the long walk to the infield, each of us carrying two handfuls of this gigantic flag that covered the entire infield. See, this wasn’t some flag-on-a-pole type of deal. This was a horizontally-held mammoth of a flag, and it was our job to get it up near home-plate and stand proudly of our nation as both National Anthems were sung. Thankfully, we made it without incident (which is actually surprising given some of the ballplayers that were on my team, which, that year, may or may not have included John “Two Scoops” Vince – but that’s another tale for another day).

Before we knew it, our job was completed and the anthems were over, having barely had a chance to realize it would be the only time in our lives we would have such an auspicious opportunity. I barely remember getting a chance to look around, to be honest. Quickly, we headed off the field from whence we came and reached our seats in the left-field grandstands, where immediately several players began chanting “Let’s Go Blue Jays” amongst other nonsense, all in support of Toronto. “Do these guys even know baseball?” I remember thinking. “The Tigers are going to kill Toronto tonight. They stink.”

That was the plan, anyway. But we all know how humbling baseball can be, where even the best hitters fail seven times out of ten. Rest assured, the Tigers could have used more of them “failures” on this night.

CHECK BACK LATER FOR MORE AS WE REALLY OPEN IT UP ON THIS OBSCURE BASEBALL TIME CAPSULE! ONLY ON BASEBALLBIGMOUTH.COM! GOT A FIRST GAME STORY OF YOUR OWN? SHARE’EM BY USING THE COMMENTS LINK UNDERNEATH THIS POST!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 12th, 2006 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Baseball History, Ballpark Memories, Tiger Stadium, MLB Game Stories, Waxing Nostalgic, Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.