For the last year or so I've been researching a book about baseball in Detroit in the 1890s, just as the Tigers were making the transition from a minor-league to a major-league club. Actually, I'm ending the narrative in 1912, just as the team has abandoned Bennett Park for brand-new Navin Field. Everything was on a much smaller scale then, but in many ways not a helluva lot has changed in 100+ years. Greedy owners, fawning fans, celebrity athletes, even constant bitching about overpriced beer and lack of parking. Still, lotsa fun revisiting 1895 and 1907 and hanging out with the likes of George Vanderbeck, Germany Schaefer, and a bunch of other guys lost to time.
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