A highly ambitious construction schedule, a lot of 6 a.m. to midnight schedules and work by hundreds of talented building trades Hardhats will make sure Comerica Park is ready for action on Opening Day, April 11.

"I think it's going to be beautiful, and I'm proud to have been a part of it," said Glaziers and Glassworkers Local 357 member Don Shepperson.

His words of pride were echoed by several other building trades workers on the Comerica Park job, who felt good about being part of history - after all, the Detroit Tigers build ballparks only at a rate of one per century.

Construction on Comerica Park was in the home stretch last week, and as the Tigers have guaranteed all along, the home team will play its first game at the park on April 11 vs. the Seattle Mariners. "It's really impressive how the job came together," said pipe fitter Tom Allen.

The field will be ready, the seats will be in place, and the carousel and food court will be open for business, but the trades will be working in the ballpark long after Opening Day. A substantial amount of work will remain on the luxury suites, eight outer buildings on the stadium campus, and in numerous other areas.

A ceremonial groundbreaking was held at the Comerica Park site in October 1997, but substantial construction didn't start until about a year later when all the legal and political obstacles were overcome. The tight schedule has put a lot of pressure on the project's general contracting team of Hunt-Turner-White, the subcontractors and the trades, to get the job done.

The job will get done - but the fast pace and numerous change orders during the construction process have brought their share of aggravation and frayed nerves to many people involved in the project. The changes have also helped bump up the price tag of the stadium from the original cost of $260 million to more than $300 million.

The open air stadium off of Woodward across from the Fox Theatre will seat about 40,000 and is designed as a pitcher's ballpark. The dimensions of the field are as follows: left field line, 346 feet; leftfield power alley, 402 feet; centerfield, 422 feet; rightfield power alley, 379 feet, and rightfield fence, 330 feet.

Unlike Tiger Stadium, Comerica Park will have a generous number of bathrooms, wide aisles under the stands, and more concessions. It will also feature a walk of fame, a carousel, a ferris wheel, and a fountain in center field that will be synchronized to music.

The park is designed with a few quirks, including the flagpole in centerfield (it's a new pole, the one in Tiger Stadium was not moved), seating atop three buildings on Witherell Street, (a la Wrigley Field in Chicago) and outfield views of the game from Adams Street. There will be three main gated entrances to Comerica Park, each featuring attractions like a pair of 5,000-lb. bengal tiger sculptures, 80-foot high baseball bats framing the gates, and nice pewabic tile accents.

"If the fans feel the pride that this is their park, and a pride of ownership, then we've accomplished what we set out to do," said Tigers owner Mike Ilitch.

In the outfield, iron workers erected what's said to be the largest scoreboard in anywhere. The 180-foot wide structure is equivalent to the size of the face of the Fox Theatre Office Building facing Woodward Avenue.

The structure includes one video screen (42 feet by 24 feet), one large black and white matrix board with the line score (64 feet by 34 feet) and a color matrix board (42 feet by 24 feet). An old-time, out-of-town scoreboard has been placed at field level in the right-center field wall, and a pitch information board will show fans to the speed of each pitch thrown in the game.

"It's going to be beautiful," said sprinkler fitter Nick Lakatos. "I hope it will help the Tigers improve their record this year."

COMERICA PARK, the new home of the Detroit Tigers, will be ready for 40,000 paying customers on Opening Day.

A GLASS SLIDER door partition in the suite of Tigers' owner Mike Illitch is installed by Gary and Don Shepperson of Glaziers & Glassworkers 357.