NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- The Tigers will auction off game tickets and a tour of the Ernie Harwell Media Center at Comerica Park as part of Major League Baseball's effort to raise money for a renovated field in honor of the late Shannon Forde.
Shannon Forde Field will honor the memory of the former New York Mets public relations executive, who passed away earlier this year after a long battle with cancer. The renovations will update the field across from Forde's childhood home in Little Ferry, N.J., adding dugouts, protective fencing, benches, bleachers, a backstop and a scoreboard, making it a full-fledged home for youth baseball and softball games.
"It's the same field she played on with her sister Alicia and her niece when she was a kid," Jay Horwitz, the Mets' vice president of media relations, said on Monday. "It's the same field that her father, Mike, coached softball for years and years. It's the same field which her young kids, Nicki and Kendall, will play for years and years. Nicki is 9 and Kendall is 6, and they probably don't know what kind of a person [their] mother was. Hopefully, in years to come, when they look up and see 'Shannon Forde Field,' they get an idea of what kind of mom they had."
• Play Ball auction honoring late Mets staffer Forde
The auction, part of Major League Baseball's "Play Ball" program, includes items and packages from all 30 big league clubs. The auction is live at MLB.com/Shannon, and runs until Thursday at 9 p.m. ET. All proceeds will fund the renovation through MLB Charities.