Ticket Collectors * Recent Pickup - 1968 Detroit Tigers/Red Sox Opening Day Mystery

fmclaug11

I just purchased these 3 unused ticket stubs from the Detroit Tigers Opening Day game in 1968. The interesting thing about these tickets is that this game was scheduled for April 9th, but was postponed due to Martin Luther King's funeral. Does anyone know whether these tickets were still valid for the eventual opening day game which was held on April 10th? I'm assuming that would be the standard practice for postponed games...?

calaban7

I don't have an answer to your question , but those are a really neat pickup .---- Sonny

fmclaug11

So I've done some further research on the events leading up to opening day 1968 and still have some open questions. I'm hoping someone might have some further information to fill in the gaps.


Here's what I've found so far:

* Tigers home opener was originally scheduled for 4/9, but wasn't held until 4/10 (which was an open date on their calendar) due to MLK's funeral

* Tigers were already scheduled to play Boston again on the 11th to complete the 2 game series (which they did)



Here's where I need help:

* Tigers went to play in Boston on 4/16, which was Boston's home opener - but I don't see any mention of this game on the original Tigers schedule. So I'm trying to find out whether Boston's home opener was originally scheduled somewhere between April 4th and April 8th, but had to also be postponed due to MLK? Did the Tigers re-arrange their plans to pull ahead a different game to the 16th, so that Boston could squeeze in their home opener?

* I'd also like to confirm whether the 4/9 tiger tickets would have been honored for 4/10 (assuming yes given there was no other game scheduled on the 10th to conflict)

Ironmanfan

If you looked in an early Tigers program from that year, you could easily see when the opener was originally scheduled (most likely the schedule would be printed in it). If the 10th was an open date, I could see where they would accept tickets from the 9th as the valid ones. Perhaps the person who owned your tickets, could go on the 9th but couldn't on the 10th and therefore the tickets sat unused all these years.

IMF

Ironmanfan

Okay, I went to my reference library and pulled out my copy of the 1968 edition of Street & Smith Baseball which obviously went to print in early 1968 and in looking at the published MLB schedule, the earliest home date for Detroit was April 9th & 11th vs. Boston.

Hope this helps.

IMF

fmclaug11

Agree Ironman...they must not have been able to make it on the 10th. I was also able to find a newspaper article about the Tigers schedule in April 1968 which showed the 10th as an open date originally, so logic says they would have just used the same tickets for the game on the 10th.

What I'm more intrigued by now, is why the Tigers went to play the Red Sox on the 16th when this date wasn't listed in the original April schedule. My only guess is that Boston's home opener was also postponed (implying it was originally scheduled before April 9th), but I haven't been able to find any confirmation of this.

Ironmanfan

<< <i>Agree Ironman...they must not have been able to make it on the 10th. I was also able to find a newspaper article about the Tigers schedule in April 1968 which showed the 10th as an open date originally, so logic says they would have just used the same tickets for the game on the 10th.

What I'm more intrigued by now, is why the Tigers went to play the Red Sox on the 16th when this date wasn't listed in the original April schedule. My only guess is that Boston's home opener was also postponed (implying it was originally scheduled before April 9th), but I haven't been able to find any confirmation of this. >>



According to that 1968 Street & Smith, the Tigers were scheduled to play in Boston on April 15 & 16 (earliest home games)

IMF

akuracy503

I had a similar mystery with a red sox ticket from 1912.
I found that the Boston Globe was a great resource to reference.

perhaps you can gather valuable info if you researched the Detroit news publishing's archives for 1968.

tennesseebanker

Hey Guys, I use this link to reference a lot of tickets I do research on. It shows the Tigers played Boston on the 10th & 11th. Hope it helps with your research............

Baseball Reference

fmclaug11

Thanks once again Ironman for the information on those Boston dates. I had found a Detroit area news article online which recapped the April schedule and there was no mention of those games so I thought perhaps they weren't originally scheduled. Now I know that they were... It also explains something I had found on the Boston Globe archive yesterday which mentioned something about a rainout on the 15th, which is then how their home opener ended up on the 16th.

Appreciate the help and advice from everyone.