Words and music by Michael S. McIntyre and Dean Friscic. Copyright 2014, 2025. This song is fully human-authored. Suno was used for the production and vocals of the track.
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Story behind the song
Navin Field was the name used for the baseball park the Detroit Tigers played in from 1912 to 1937. It was later called Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium. The last game the Tigers played there was on September 27, 1999. Demolition of Tiger Stadium commenced in 2008 and was completed the following year. In the summer of 2010 a group calling itself The Navin Field Grounds Crew began maintaining the playing field that remained after the demolition, and started hosting vintage and youth baseball games there. A redevelopment plan for the site was approved by Detroit's Economic Development Corporation in 2014, which resulted in the construction of The Corner Ballpark, a small multi-purpose sports stadium that opened in 2018. Sadly, the decision was made to replace the natural grass of the playing field with an artificial surface even though The Navin Field Grounds Crew offered to continue maintaining the field for free. The members of The Navin Field Grounds Crew then moved on to maintaining Hamtramck Stadium in Detroit, one of only 12 surviving Negro league ballparks, and they now call themselves The Hamtramck Stadium Grounds Crew. Despite these changes, at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull, it's still the case that "youth teams are playing on the diamond Cobb and Ruth once knew."
Lyrics
At the corner of Michigan and Trumbull
They played the game for a hundred years
All the great ones stood at home plate
With the crowd roaring in their ears
Then they tore it all down but the field itself
And the flagpole in center field
So a group of volunteers got together
And gave the vacant lot its old appeal
The Navin Field Grounds Crew
Went out and started mowing grass
Painting lines, staking bases
The cops said they trespassed
But now youth teams are playing
On the diamond Cobb and Ruth once knew
What a thrill for them and all the women and men
On the Navin Field Grounds Crew
We remember Gator sliding into second
With a hot dog in his shirt
We recall Reggie's blast off the tower
And how he dropped his bat in the dirt
We remember Gibson's homer off Gossage
Back in 1984
And some recall the way a kid named Williams
Won the All-Star game before the war
The Navin Field Grounds Crew
Went out and started mowing grass
Painting lines, staking bases
The cops said they trespassed
But now youth teams are playing
On the diamond Cobb and Ruth once knew
What a thrill for them and all the women and men
On the Navin Field Grounds Crew
What a thrill for them and all the women and men
On the Navin Field Grounds Crew
