First Game

04-25-1901

Last Game

09-10-1911

Capacity
(Yearly Attendance)

1896-1900

5,000

1901-1909

8,500

1910-1911

14,000

Field Surface

Grass

First Night Game

None

Location

North

Cherry Street

South

Michigan Avenue

East

Trumbull Avenue

West

National Avenue

           Charlie Bennett was a popular catcher with Detroit for eight seasons in the NL until he lost both legs in a railway accident in 1894. The park, which came to be called Charlie Bennett's park, or simply Bennett Park, opened in 1896 as the home field of the Detroit Tigers of the Western League. The park was located at the Northwest corner of Michigan and Trumbull in the city of Detroit. In the late 19th Century, Detroit was then not yet a major U.S. urban area. The site of Bennett Park was not large - consisting of a land plat of 3.3 acres. Other Deadball era ballparks occupied larger sites ranging from 5.7 acres (Ebbets Field in Brooklyn) to 9.6 acres (Hilltop Park in New York). Bennett Park was built of wood in 1896 and originally had a seating capacity of 5,000. It was expanded for the 1901 season and capacity was increased to seat 8,500 fans. The park was modified and seating expanded a number of times after 1901, before being demolished to make way for Navin Field after the 1911 season. Unlike many of the other contemporary wooden ballparks, this one never burned. The original structure consisted of a covered grandstand, which extended past third base and about as far as first base. In addition, uncovered stands extended down the LF and RF lines in foul territory. Home plate was in the SE corner of the site and the LF line ran West to East-thus LH batters got the afternoon sun looking at them down the LF line. This aspect of the park could not have had too great an impact as one batter named (Ty) Cobb hit fairly well in his Bennett Park seasons. In later years the grandstand was extended to about the foul poles and additional seats were added in foul territory in 1901 and 1908.

          The site was only a portion of the land used for the next ballpark (Navin Field) built at this location. Because the shape of the land plat was a trapezoid and not a rectangle, the field was oriented at more than 90^o in LF and less than 90^o in RF. In the original configuration the corner where the LF and RF fences met (to the left of dead CF) there stood a clubhouse and a groundskeeper's shed - both in-play. The only OF bleachers in the park were in RF and these not until the 1907 season. These shallow RF bleachers extended from about RC to within about 60 feet of the RF foul line. Other bleachers existed from which to view games, however they were outside the park. These were "wildcat bleachers" built on the roofs of homes or barns on National Avenue and behind the not very tall LF fence. Not until the 1911 season were inside-the-park LF bleachers added in front of, and thus blocking the view from, the wildcat bleachers. These inside-the-park bleachers were shallow in depth and extended from the LF line most of the way to LC. With this and the prior seating additions, capacity was increased from 8,500 in 1901 to 14,000 by 1911. These capacity figures were exclusive of many standees as could be squeezed into the OF for big games. Also, before the 1911 season the clubhouse and groundskeeper's shed were removed from CF and a short diagonal CF fence was placed adjacent to the LC scoreboard. The popularity of the park as an advertising venue may be judged from the double-billboards making up the fence in LC in the last years of the park's existence.

          The first major league use of Bennett Park was by the Tigers for their 1901 Opening Day. The Tigers sent the overflow crowd home happy that day with a memorable 10 run rally in the bottom of the 9^th inning to defeat Milwaukee 14-13. In addition to its regular season use, Bennett Park was the site of three World Series: 1907-1909.

          In its early years of use as a major league ballpark, Bennett Park was roughly typical in size, capacity, and configuration of the pre-Classic wooden ballparks found in America during the first decade of the 20^th century. After all the bleachers were installed in the outfield by 1911, Bennett Park now possessed a smaller-than-average playing field and became a hitters park with home run park factors for 1910 and 1911 of better than 150. Amongst American League parks only Boston's Huntington Avenue Grounds was a better home run hitter's park during these two seasons.

Dimensions

All data was estimated from photos and the known dimensions of the land plat.

* Leftcenter (LC) was 420
** Straightaway rightfield (RF) was 315 and rightcenter (RC) 326

Bennett Park A Historical Analysis by Ron Selter ©