American Eats: Michigan. Tiger Stadium.

Like Maryland, I’m going with a sports venue here. Unlike Maryland, it’s not despite a plethora of choices.

I have been to Michigan twice; in 1993 and in 2015. More Than Anything Else, I remember the hot dog at Tiger Stadium.

Tiger Stadium was home to the Detroit Tigers from 1912 to 1999. It was a large, cavernous ballpark that had seen its better days pass by when I went to visit in 1993. The concourses were small. The bathrooms reeked of urine and lord knows what else.

The neighborhood had also seen better days. We ended up parking in a lot where you wound up blocked in on three sides by a building and the rest of the way by cars. It was a very sketchy situation, made palatable only by the fact that we were there during a day game. While Detroit is known now for being practically abandoned in parts, things weren’t quite *that* bad back then.

I remember eating a hot dog. It was nondescript. I remember nothing else about the Tiger Stadium food. But I remember the game, a wild 17-11 Orioles loss to the Tigers in a game started by Fernando Valenzuela.

The game was memorable not for the hot dog, but for the same reason catching games at Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, and even the rotting cesspool RFK Stadium was; to see at least one game at one time in one of the sports’ grandest ballparks. It was an experience, more so than any hot dog, that was to be remembered.