Let’s Go Nuts!

Approaching Oldsmobile Park, Aug-1996.

The stands along the first-base line.

Overflow crowds fill up the grass berm in left and right fields.

• Location: East Michigan Avenue, Lansing, Mich.
• Opened: 1996
• Home team: Lansing Lugnuts, Midwest League (1996-present)
• Capacity: 11,000

Rating: 4 baseballs

Besides consigning picturesque Lanphier Park in Springfield to life in the independent leagues, the move drew some anger among the townsfolk of Lansing. Part of the problem was the nickname, which people in the Michigan state capital didn’t think befit them. “If you want to honor the auto industry, call them the Lansing Layoffs,” wrote one local in Sports Illustrated.

However, the nickname stuck, and the people eventually took to their team, supporting it in near-record numbers. One factor was their lovable mascot, Big Lug. Another was the rallying cry for the team: “Let’s Go Nuts!”

As you can clearly see, Oldsmobile Park is one of the nicer ones going. There remains one problem: The team logo depicts a bolt, not a lug nut. However, during the summer of 1996 the world’s largest lug nut was “mounted” atop a smokestack across the street from the ballpark.