Detroit Tigers Opening Day 2000

The Detroit Tigers’ first Opening Day in Comerica Park in 2000 was snowy, cold, and ushered the next century with a victory.

April 12, 2000, was one of the most historic home Opening Days in Detroit Tigers history. For the first time since 1912, the Tigers were not playing at Michigan Ave and Trumbell. A strong amount of fans did not want to see a new ballpark. However, some opinions were changed on that cold, April day.

One of the biggest complaints about Tiger Stadium was the steel beams that blocked views of the field. As people poured into Comerica Park, they quickly realized there was a clear sight of the action on the diamond. You still had the “well, back in my day, I paid X amount for a ticket” person but for Mike Ilitch, the new ballpark was going to generate $10 million dollars in revenue a year. That was something Tiger Stadium was not able to do. And he was going to need the money for what Randy Smith was trying to do.

In the winter of 1999, the Tigers would make the biggest trade during the Randy Smith era, trading for slugger Juan Gonzalez. He already set a tone by not showing up for a January 28th press conference as the Tigers were prepared to give him the biggest contract in team history at eight years, for $140 million dollars. Gonzalez did not want to discuss the contract until the end of the season. For his only Opening Day as a Tiger,  he did not play. He sat the bench to recover from a sore hamstring.

The pregame activities included then MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and former Michigan Governor John Engler speak to the 39,168 who showed up to brave the game-time temperature of 40 degrees. Prior to the game, the crew had to clean up the snow that fell in the outfield. The tarp was down on the infield so neither team did batting practice.

Brian Moehler would take the hill against a very good Seattle Mariners squad, led by Lou Pinella. Here’s the Opening Day lineup for Detroit

1. Luis Polonia (DH) (80 games in 2000, would end the season with the Yankees)
2. Gregg Jefferies (2B) (41 games in 2000, would be his final season in baseball)
3. Bobby Higginson (LF) (he would have his best season since 1996, hitting 30 home runs, batting .300) 
4. Tony Clark (1B) (limited to 60 games due to injuries) 
5. Brad Ausmus (C) (His final season in Detroit before he was traded again at the end of the season to Houston, again.)
6. Dean Palmer (3B) (The final healthy season for Dean Palmer in a Tigers uniform as he would play just 97 games combined the next three seasons)
7. Karim Garcia (RF) (Brian Johnston talked about how bad the trade was for him in his recent piece on Luis Gonzalez, he was shipped to Baltimore in June.) 
8. Juan Encarnacion (CF) ( bWAR season of 1.9) 
9. Deivi Cruz (SS) (Best season as a Tiger, bWAR of 2.6, hit .300) 

Jefferies was making the start instead of Damion Easley because he was injured. That was his first start at second base since April 26th, 1991 as a member of the Mets. He had two hits that drove in a pair of RBIs.

Bobby Higginson would drive in a pair of RBIs himself with a triple. According to Baseball-Reference, that was his first since June 17th, 1998 against the Twins. The bullpen would combine for three innings of shutout baseball with Todd Jones having the usual rollercoaster of a save.

He allowed a leadoff walk to Mike Cameron then striking out Alex Rodriguez. Then John Olerud would single, advancing Cameron to second. Then, he would strike out Edgar Martinez and would retire Jay Buhner on a groundout to second base to end the game and pick up his second save of the season.

The home opener in  2000 was special to me because the Tigers had a new place to play and based on the buzz from the Juan Gonzalez trade, I thought at the time the Tigers could contend in the AL Central. The stage was set for better days ahead.