July 11, 2007

Tiger Stadium verdict delayed

After a contentious public hearing on Monday, the Detroit city council decided to hold off on a decision on the demolition of Tiger Stadium until the city planning commission meets again to discuss the plan tomorrow. (Though the Detroit Free Press described the hearing as including "a handful of demolition opponents," most other sources say the public comments were 50/50 pro and con razing the 95-year-old ballpark.)

This week's Metro Times has a nice recap of the Tiger Stadium redevelopment story so far, which it describes as "one of those nightmares where you run and run and run but get absolutely nowhere." Bonus points for the headline, though points off for the painfully overextended sports metaphor that closes the piece:

The game's not over yet for Tiger Stadium, but it looks like we're in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and a full count. There's still time to see if the preservationists can get a game-saving hit, but they'll need to see something better than the spitballs that have been thrown at them so far.

If they were having spitballs thrown at them, wouldn't that walk in a run? Or is a walk not as good as a hit in stadium development politics?