Spring Training Stadium Showcase: Joker Marchant Stadium
2015 marks the 79th season the Detroit Tigers have conducted spring training in the Central Florida city of Lakeland. No MLB franchise has spent more consecutive years in the same spring training locale. Since all the way back in 1934, the city of 100,000 people (located 35 miles east of downtown Tampa and 51 miles west of downtown Orlando) has been synonymous with Tiger baseball. With this being the case, Detroit's spring training facility is aptly named Tiger Town.
Since 1966, the Tigers have played their Grapefruit League games at Joker Marchant Stadium (pictured upper right and below), on the grounds of Tiger Town. Situated 2 miles south of Interstate 4 and 3 miles north of downtown Lakeland, the ballpark is a Tiger fan's dream, starting with the fact that the venue sits at the intersection of Al Kaline Drive and Willie Horton Way, named of course after the pair of legendary Tiger outfielders. The sign representing this very unique set of perpendicular roads is visible below.
An additional interesting aspect of Tiger Town features the assigned parking spots for former and current Tiger luminaries. Check out the below shots of the places where the aforementioned Kaline, former manager Jim Leyland and current skipper Brad Ausmus park their rides.
In addition, here are iFolloSports.com original articles and videos, displaying Tiger stars Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander signing autographs at Tiger Town.
