Tiger Stadium takes a blow from the wrecking ball

Workers in Detroit began tearing down the home of Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg, Denny McLain and Mark Fidrych on Monday.

Tiger Stadium, previously known as Navin Field and then Briggs Stadium, had a hole punched in its side and a backhoe could be seen removing trash and other debris from the interior of the old ballpark.

An Aug. 1 deadline still stands for a non-profit group seeking to raise enough money to save a part of the historic park that saw dozens of famous moments including the final game of New York Yankees legend Lou Gehrig, who was then dying of ALS, a disease that would later bear his name.

The stadium, opened in 1912 at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Trumbull Boulevard (and on the same day as Fenway Park in Boston), hosted its final big league game in 1999 as the club moved to Comerica Park in 2000.

Robert Tipton, a 47-year-old construction worker from Detroit, came to Tiger Stadium looking to land a job on the demolition crew Monday afternoon.

Tipton said it's time the stadium came down.

"I would love to be one of the operator engineers on this job to tear it down," Tipton said. "That'd be something to tell my kids about."