Bennet Park was named after Charlie Bennett, that formerly existed in Detroit, Michigan, at Michigan and Trumbull. It was home to the Detroit Tigers. The ballclub began to play here in the minor Western League with a 17–2 win over the Columbus Senators on April 28, 1896. That league was renamed the American League in 1900 but was still officially a minor league. The AL declared itself a major league starting in 1901.
Bennett Park was home to the first nighttime baseball game in Detroit. On September 24, 1896, the Tigers played their last game of their first season at Bennett Park, an exhibition doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds. Tigers owner George Arthur Vanderbeck had workers string lights above the stadium for the nighttime game. Nighttime baseball did not return to Detroit until June 15, 1948, when the first game under the lights was played at Briggs Stadium.
The ballpark sat 5,000 when it opened in 1896 and was gradually expanded to 14,000 by the time it was closed after the 1911 season. When the American League became a major league in 1901 the ballpark seated 8,500, the smallest park in the majors. Private parties built “Wildcat” bleachers on the rooftops of houses behind the left field fence, to the chagrin of Tiger ownership, since people paid to watch games from those bleachers but the Tigers did not get revenue.
The park was noted for its dangerous playing surface, with cobblestones beneath the dirt and sometimes protruding over the dirt.
This small ballpark enjoyed some big success, as the Tigers and their young sensation, Ty Cobb won three consecutive pennants during 1907–1909. However, their success ran out in the post-season on each occasion, when they lost to stronger National League teams in the World Series. This ballpark was hallowed ground to fans of the Chicago Cubs, as it was on this site in both 1907 and 1908 that the Cubs clinched their first two World Series championships.
Between the 1911 and 1912 seasons, the Tigers acquired the rest of the block, demolished both the wildcat bleachers and Bennett Park, and built Navin Field on the same site, though the new stadium was shifted by 90°, with home plate where the left field corner had formerly been.
The Red Sox come back to beat the Tigers 13-11, overcoming a nine-run deficit in the Bennett Park contest. Duffy Lewis’ tenth-inning grand slam proves to be the difference in the game that also featured Ty Cobb’s first bases-loaded round-tripper.
On October 14, 1908 The Chicago Cubs, lead by Hal Chase, appearing in their third straight world series, in front of the smallest crowd in World Series history, behind the strong pitching of Orval Overall, beat the Tigers, 2-0 in just 85 minutes to capture the Fall Classic, 4 games to 1. Overall allowed only…
On April 25, 1901, the Detroit Tigers make an incredible comeback in their American League debut. Down 13-4 in the bottom of the ninth, the Tigers score 10 runs in their last at-bat to defeat the Milwaukee Brewers, 14-13. Frank Dillon drives in the game-winning run with a double.
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