Bennett Park

The land at Michigan and Trumbull Avenues in Detroit had served as a hay market, a dog pound, and a public picnic ground before the ballpark went up. That past didn't leave. Cobblestones from the old market sat beneath the infield dirt, and they worked their way to the surface often enough that the playing field was notoriously dangerous — a routine ground ball could meet stone at any moment.

Bennett Park opened on April 28, 1896, for the Western League's Tigers; major-league baseball arrived in 1901, when the Detroit Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 14-13 on April 25 before 10,023 people. The park was named for Charlie Bennett, a Detroit catcher who lost both legs in a train accident in 1894 and returned each spring to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Seating started at 5,000, reached 8,500 by 1901, and grew to approximately 14,000 by 1910 as the Tigers' following built.

What Grew Around It

Beyond the left field fence, the houses stood close enough that private parties built bootleg bleachers on their rooftops and charged admission. Fans watched Tigers games without paying the Tigers. Between 1907 and 1909, Bennett Park hosted three consecutive World Series — the Tigers won three straight American League pennants and lost all three, twice to the Cubs and once to the Pirates. Nearly half a million fans came through the gates in 1909 alone.

The Turn

Ty Cobb hit a grand slam at Bennett Park on May 13, 1911, in the park's final season. After that year, the Tigers tore down the wooden park and the bootleg bleachers with it. They built Navin Field on the same site, rotating the field 90 degrees so that home plate sat where the old left field corner had been. The location at Michigan and Trumbull would hold Detroit baseball for more than a century. Bennett Park was the first to stand there.

Reporting: Baseball Almanac, Wikipedia, Retrosheet. Park data: MLB StatsAPI and Retrosheet, via the Fever engine.