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Detroit Tigers history

How The 1972 Detroit Tigers Won The AL East

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After winning the World Series in 1968, the Tigers had slipped under .500 by 1970. A year later, they hired Billy Martin. With the feisty Martin in the dugout, Detroit rose to 91 wins and a second-place finish in 1971. And the 1972 Detroit Tigers took the next step, captured the old AL East and went to the American League Championship Series.

A workhorse rotation was the key to success. Two starters, Mickey Lolich and Joe Coleman, combined for 80 starts—and this was in a season that had a couple of weeks cut off due to a spring training labor dispute. Lolich won 22 games, pitched 327 innings, and posted a 2.50 ERA. Coleman won 19 more, worked 280 innings and his ERA came in at 2.80. With these arms starting over half the games, Detroit was bound to be competitive.

Tom Timmerman finished with a sub-3.00 ERA in his 25 starts. Woodie Fryman only got 14 starts, but he made the most of them, going 10-3 with a dazzling 2.06 ERA. Martin got reliable relief work from Chuck Seelbach. The Tigers finished fifth in the 12-team American League for staff ERA.

The lineup also finished fifth in runs scored. Norm Cash was 38-years-old, but the first baseman could still produce, hitting 22 home runs. The great Al Kaline was 37-years-old in rightfield, and he posted a stat line of .374 on-base percentage/.475 slugging percentage. Bill Freehan was a solid catcher and put up a .354 OPB. Dick McAuliffe set the table and his on-base percentage was .339.

Detroit didn’t have stars in the everyday lineup, at least not with Cash and Kaline at this point of their careers. But they had balance and depth.

The Baltimore Orioles were the hurdle that had to be cleared. In the alignment of the era, the Tigers were in the AL East. So were the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers, the latter not joining the National League until 1998. Detroit, Cleveland, and Milwaukee were paired up with Baltimore, the Boston Red Sox, and New York Yankees in the East.

There were only two divisions, and only the first-place team went to the postseason. And Baltimore had set an extremely high bar in running away with the AL East each of the last three years. So, it was no surprise when the Tigers lost a pair of early series to the Orioles.

But Detroit’s balance worked in their favor, and they were more consistent. By Memorial Day, the Tigers had nudged out to a one-game lead over the Birds, with the surprising Indians in close pursuit.

The early part of the summer was more of the same. The Tigers lost marquee matchups—two more series losses to Baltimore, and another two to the eventual AL West champ Oakland A’s. But again, the Tigers won the games they were supposed to win. And with the Orioles finally coming back to the pack, that continued to be enough. Detroit was 51-37 at the All-Star Break, still up a game on Baltimore and plus-five on Boston. Cleveland had quickly faded from the race.

Detroit took a home series from Boston out of the break, and their division lead nudged out to 2 ½ games. But August was a cruel month. Perhaps getting outscored 28-4 in a three-game sweep at the hands of a bad Brewer team to open the month was a sign a slump was coming. The Tigers also lost two more series to Oakland. They lost a series to lurking New York and dumped three of four to Cleveland.

In most any other AL East year in the 1970s, this would have sunk Detroit. But Baltimore’s struggles were almost as bad. The winners of August were Boston and New York. By the time Labor Day arrived, the AL East was a full-throttle four-team race, with everyone within a half-game of each other.

The two slumping teams met right out of the September holiday. This time, Detroit won two of three over Baltimore, highlighted by Lolich winning a tough game against Oriole ace Jim Palmer. But the Tigers were swept in a weekend series against the Yankees, at home. Boston had the lead, and Detroit was in third place, two games back.

Something needed to change, and Detroit’s fortunes moved back upward the following week. They took two straight from Baltimore, and then swept Milwaukee. It was enough to pull into a virtual tie with Boston. The Red Sox had a winning percentage of .547 and the Tigers were at .546.

Normally, that small detail wouldn’t matter all that much. But, because of the delayed start to the season, teams would play an unequal number of games. Detroit would play one more game than Boston. As it turned out, that twist of fate would favor the Tigers. But with two weeks to go, that wasn’t yet apparent.

There were still head-to-head battles ahead. After losing two of three to the Indians, Detroit went to Fenway Park for a four-game set. And with Coleman on the mound for Thursday night’s opener, the bats came out on the attack. Cash had an RBI double in the first inning, keying a quick 4-0 lead and a three-hit night for the first baseman. Coleman went the distance in an easy 10-3 win.

On Friday night, the Tigers trailed 3-2 in the top of the eighth. They loaded the bases with no outs. Light-hitting shortstop Ed Brinkman came to the plate. His ground ball to third base turned into a home-to-first double play. The rally was killed and Detroit lost.

But Lolich was on the mound for Saturday afternoon, and the lineup came out swinging early. McAuliffe started the game with a double, the first of his three hits. The Tigers staked Lolich to a fast 3-0 lead. The ace went the distance and Detroit won 7-1.

A rough day from Fryman resulted in a 7-2 loss and a series split on Sunday. Detroit was one game back. There were eight to play. And the final three would be these two teams going head-to-head back at Tiger Stadium.

Baltimore and New York were still close, but time was too short, and the dynamics of Detroit and Boston playing so much head-to-head to end the year effectively froze the Yankees and Orioles out. The Tigers got themselves in position with a little revenge—they paid back the Brewers for that early August disaster by winning three in a row of their own, outscoring Milwaukee 30-6 in the process.

The Red Sox were 84-68. The Tigers were 84-69. It was a de facto best two-of-three for the AL East.

Lolich was on the mound for Monday night’s opener. This game is famous in Red Sox lore for the fact that a Boston rally in the third inning was upended when baserunner Luis Aparacio stumbled rounding third and what might have been a big inning ended with just one run.

But that emphasis does a disservice to Lolich, who tossed a complete-game six-hitter. And to young third baseman Aurelio Rodriguez. With the score tied 1-1 in the fifth, Rodriguez hit a solo home run. In both the sixth and eighth innings, he had a two-out RBI single. The combo of Lolich and Aurelio led the way to a 4-1 win.

Detroit had two chances to win one game. Fryman took the ball. He pitched well, but trailed 1-0 in the sixth. The veteran Cash worked a walk. He was bunted up, and then scored on a base hit by Jim Northrup. In the bottom of the seventh. McAuliffe doubled with one out.

It’s times like these you want the proud veteran at the plate. Kaline delivered an RBI single for the lead. He took second on the throw home and later scored a valuable insurance run. The 3-1 lead held. Seelbach came on for the ninth and appropriately, it was Kaline gloving the final out on a fly ball to right. Detroit had won the AL East.

And they came oh-so-close to winning a lot more in the ALCS against Oakland. It didn’t start well—the Tigers lost the first two games on the road in what was then a best-of-five series. Their back to the wall at home, Detroit got a shutout win from Coleman in Game 3. Trailing 3-1 in the 10th inning of Game 4, the Tigers produced a stunning rally to win 4-3.

Normally, that would make you feel like winning was destiny. But it wasn’t. Fryman pitched extremely well in the decisive Game 5.  But the great A’s staff was even better. Oakland won 2-1, took the pennant and went on to win the first of three straight World Series titles.

A loss like that is always painful, but worse was the fact that this marked the end of Detroit’s status as a contender, at least for a few years. Most of the key players—Kaline, Cash, Lolich, McAuliffe, Freehan, Fryman, and Timmerman—were on the wrong side of 30. Detroit was still over .500 deep into 1973, at 71-63. But the Orioles returned to excellence. Martin clashed with the front office and got fired. And not until 1978 did winning baseball return to Detroit.

The Disappointing Regression Of The 1982 Detroit Tigers

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It was time for the Detroit Tigers. After three years of playing winning baseball, the Tigers made a real run at the playoffs in 1981. They made some big moves in the offseason and those moves proved to be good ones. It was time to return this franchise to the postseason for the first time in ten years. But not only did the 1982 Detroit Tigers fail in that regard, the failed to even come close and took a disappointing step backwards.

No one could blame the pitching. Jack Morris was the ace of the staff and while his 4.06 ERA was high for a #1, Morris made a workmanlike 37 starts and won 17 games. Dan Petry had an even better year, with a 3.22 ERA and 15 victories in his 35 trips to the mound. Milt Wilcox was solid, winning twelve times and posting a 3.62 ERA.

With offense up around the league—the American League average ERA rose from 3.66 to 4.07—the Morris-Petry-Wilcox trio was good enough to key a staff that led the league in ERA.

Detroit made a bold offseason decision to trade leftfielder Steve Kemp, their best all-around offensive player the past three years, to Chicago. The deal paid off. Kemp was never again the same elite player and the return was Chet Lemon, who went to post a stat line of .368 on-base percentage/.447 slugging percentage. Lemon would be a big part of this Tiger outfield for the balance of the decade.

The Tigers dealt Dan Schatzeder, a starting pitcher who hadn’t lived up to expectations and got Larry Herndon from San Francisco in return. Herndon hit 23 home runs in 1982 and, like Lemon, continued to be a key part for Detroit moving forward.

What the Tigers did not get was good production from their great young middle infielders. Alan Trammell, the future Hall of Fame shortstop, had just a .325 OBP in his fifth major league year. Lou Whitaker was a little better at second base, but his stat line of .341/.434 was merely respectable, rather than standout. With first base and third base being black holes of offensive production, and rightfielder Kirk Gibson limited by injuries to 69 games, that wasn’t going to be enough.

Detroit did get a big year from their young catcher Lance Parrish, who slugged 32 home runs. They got valuable bench work from utility man John Wockenfuss, whose stat line was .388/.472. But it was only enough to rank ninth in the American League for runs scored.

The alignment of major league baseball from 1969-93 had each league split into just an East and West division, with the first-place finisher moving directly to the League Championship Series. That meant that centrally located teams like Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee (an AL team prior to 1998) were placed in the East, along with that division’s current members, New York, Boston, Baltimore and Toronto.

New York had won this division five times in the last six years, but there was no shortage of competition. Baltimore was a perennial contender with Earl Weaver in the dugout. Boston was on the downswing after a strong run through the 1970s, but still very viable. Milwaukee was similar to Detroit—that young team looking to make the next step. The Brewers had stayed a step ahead of the Tigers the past several years, most notably at the end of 1981 when Milwaukee nipped Detroit for the “second half AL East title” in a strange year ripped apart by a strike. Collectively, the AL East of this era was baseball’s best.

The Tigers got off to strong start, ripping through the Yankees and Kansas City Royals (traditionally the best of the AL West in this era) with eight wins in ten games. In May, Detroit took advantage of the weaker Western Division with an eight-game winning streak. By Memorial Day, the Tigers were 28-17, in second place and just a half-game back of Boston.

Detroit continued to raise the hopes of the fan base by rolling into the early summer. They won three straight over the Angels, who would outlast the Royals in this year’s Western race. By June 9, the Tigers were 35-18 and into first place by a half-game.

Then it all started coming apart.

Milwaukee, after a sluggish start, made a managerial change and started turning “sluggish” into “slugfest”. The Tigers lost two of three at home to the Brewers and gave up 24 runs in the process. A return trip to Milwaukee ended up with four consecutive losses. In between, Detroit dropped a pair at lowly Cleveland. The Tigers went to Fenway Park and lost three straight to the Red Sox. The losing streak hit ten games.

A four-game series with Baltimore now had to be played with some urgency. Jerry Ujdur, the #4 starter, stopped the bleeding with a 7-1 win in the series opener. Detroit was still 37-29, within 4 ½ games of first and plenty of time left in the season. But they promptly lost the next two. In the series finale, a showdown between Morris and Oriole ace Jim Palmer, turned into a rout that the Tigers lost 13-1.

Detroit came home wounded, but with no time to waste. Boston was in town. The Tigers finally won a series, taking two of three and winning the rubber game 5-4 on a two-run double by Gibson in the eighth. Although they turned around and lost a weekend series to Baltimore going into the All-Star break.

The Tigers were now flirting with .500 at 43-41 and in fourth place, looking up at the Brewers, Red Sox and Orioles. But trailing by 5 ½ games was not insurmountable. There was still time for the hope of spring and summer to translate into a pennant race autumn.

That didn’t happen. Detroit started to play better and the highlight of the late summer was a 12-inning win over the Yanks where Morris pitched eleven frames. The problem was that the quality and depth of the AL East started to assert itself. Milwaukee and Baltimore took over the race and fought it to the final day. The Tigers reached Labor Day with a record of 70-65, but 10 ½ games off the lead.

Detroit’s chance to make an impact on the race would have to come as spoiler and they played a pair of series against Baltimore down the stretch. The Tigers won two of three at home. In the final week, they went to old Memorial Stadium. Those who lived in Milwaukee—like this then-12-year-old writer, were big Tigers fans, at least for a few days.

And they did not let us down. Even though Morris lost a 3-1 heartbreaker in the series opener, Detroit’s bats awoke from a season-long slumber to score 21 runs in winning the next two games. The wins gave the Brewers enough space to hold off a furious final charge from the Orioles over the weekend.

But playing spoiler wasn’t what Tiger fans or the organization had in mind. The 83-79 record, only seventh in the American League overall and 15th in the major leagues, was not even a playoff season by the more generous standards of today. From the perspective of history, Detroit fans know that 1983 saw them return to real pennant race contention and 1984 saw their ultimate breakthrough. But in 1982, they couldn’t be blamed for wondering if the promise of this young team would end up unfulfilled.

1981 Detroit Tigers: A Playoff Push Comes Up Just Short

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After three years of playing winning baseball, but not seriously contending in a rigorous AL East, the 1981 Detroit Tigers made a real run at the postseason. They came up just short, but it continued the growth trajectory for the emerging core of young players and manager Sparky Anderson.

Detroit’s pitching made significant strides after being the primary reason for a 1980 campaign that was a modest disappointment. In the strike-shortened 1981 season, Jack Morris made 25 starts, went 14-7 and posted a 3.05 ERA. Milt Wilcox and Dan Petry had similar numbers. Wilcox won twelve games and with 3.03 ERA. Petry’s 3.00 ERA was actually the best in the rotation as he picked up ten wins.

Kevin Saucier stepped into the closer’s role and was outstanding, with a 1.65 ERA and 13 saves. Aurelio Lopez and Dave Tobik rounded out a pretty good bullpen. The rotation lacked depth, but Dave Rozema did enough shuttle work between the rotation and the pen to stabilize things and the Tigers finished fifth in the American League for staff ERA.

The offense, after having been baseball’s best in 1980, fell hard in ’81. Two veterans, Richie Hebner at first and Al Cowens in right, had bad seasons that signaled the decline of their careers. Third base was a black hole as far as offensive production. A bench that had been terrific in 1980, did nothing in 1981. Steve Kemp, the leftfielder who had been the best Tiger hitter a year earlier, still had a .389 OBP, but his power disappeared.

More disappointing was the drop off from the talented young players that were making Detroit a rising force. Alan Trammell’s OBP of .342 was respectable, but there was no power to speak of. The same went for second baseman Lou Whitaker. Catcher Lance Parrish had a down year.

The only Tiger regular to have a good year was the newest of the young players. Kirk Gibson, now in his second year, got a full-time opportunity in rightfield and took advantage. Gibson finished with a .369 on-base percentage and .479 slugging percentage. It was enough to at least keep the Detroit offense afloat, at ninth in the 14-team American League for runs scored.

Detroit took advantage of an early schedule that was heavy on lowly Toronto and won seven of their first nine. But a nine-game losing streak sent the Tigers reeling. Six of those losses came to the New York Yankees, the defending AL East champs, and Detroit scored just eight runs in those six games.

A 10-3 run in late May included series wins over contending teams in Baltimore and Milwaukee. By June 11, Detroit was 31-26, in fourth place and 3 ½ games off the pace. In a normal year, it would be about time for a summer pennant race to get underway.

But 1981 was no ordinary year. On June 12, the players went out on strike. They would not return until mid-August. Baseball had to figure out how to pick up the pieces.

The alignment of baseball in the era from 1969-93 had each league split into just two divisions, an East and West, and only first-place teams going to the playoffs. That meant Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee (an American League team prior to 1998) were put in the East, along with current members in New York, Boston, Baltimore and Toronto.

Major League Baseball decided that the way forward in 1981 was to use a split season. The teams in first place on June 12 were declared first-half champions. Everyone would start fresh. The winners of the two halves would then meet in the first-ever installment of the Division Series. The Yankees were in the playoffs. Everyone else was playing to get a shot at New York.

There was one significant caveat to the playoff format. A true split-season would give the first-half champ a chance to win both halves and eliminate the need for a Division Series entirely. Not so in this case. Presumably to protect television contracts for October, MLB declared that if one team won both halves, the only reward would be an additional home game.

New York, like the other first-half champs, basically mailed in the second half. But they were plenty of competitors in an AL East that was then baseball’s toughest division. Baltimore and Boston were perennial contenders. Milwaukee joined Detroit as the up-and-coming team looking for a breakthrough. And the second-half race in this division would be terrific.

Detroit came blazing out of the gate at the August reset. They beat the Yankees three of four, and then won nine in a row. By Labor Day, the Tigers were 18-9 and in first place. The Brewers and Orioles were two games back in the loss column, with the Red Sox three off the pace. It might be a strange way to get to a pennant race, but stretch drive excitement had finally returned to Detroit.

A temporary hiccup saw the Tigers lose a home series with Boston. In the rubber game, Rozema coughed up a 4-1 lead in the eighth. Detroit bounced back on the weekend by sweeping Cleveland. Their margin in the loss column extended to four games.

But the return trip to Fenway was disastrous. The Tigers mustered only six hits in losing Monday night’s opener 5-2. After a day of rain on Tuesday, the teams played a twilight doubleheader (where the first game started about 5 PM and there was just a twenty-minute break in between) on Wednesday. Morris and Eckersley went at it in a great pitcher’s duel in the opener. Morris pitched into the 10th inning before losing 2-1.

In the nightcap, the Tigers took a 4-3 lead into the seventh thanks to a pair of RBI from Gibson. Then Tobik, after some steady relief work, gave up two runs and another loss hit the books. In the Thursday finale, Detroit’s flagging offense only produced seven singles in a 6-1 loss.

By the time the carnage was over, a race Detroit had firmly in hand, was up for grabs. The Tigers still had the lead, but the Red Sox and Brewers were now just a half-game back and the Orioles only one game off the pace. There were two weeks to go.

A road series in Baltimore was must-win. Wilcox took the ball on Monday and got a 5-1 win, with help from a home run by Gibson. After spotting the Orioles a 3-0 lead on Tuesday, utility man John Wockenfuss hit a big home run and the Tigers won 6-3. Even though Petry was a hard luck 1-0 loser on Wednesday, Detroit had stopped the bleeding.

But the wound reopened on the weekend at home against Milwaukee. Morris and Wilcox were rocked off the mound. The Brewers moved into first place until Petry reclaimed it for Detroit, winning 2-1 in the Sunday finale.

The Tiger record was 27-19 going into the final week. The Brewers were 27-20, the Red Sox at 26-20 and the Orioles on 24-21. All four teams would open the final week by going head-to-head.

Detroit was hosting Baltimore. The lack of rotation depth showed on Monday in a 7-3 loss. Milwaukee knocked off Boston and the Brewers took the division lead. The Tigers responded with a vengeance on Tuesday. Gibson, Wockenfuss and Tom Brookens all hit home runs. Morris tossed a three-hitter. Detroit won 14-0. The Red Sox beat the Brewers and the Tigers were back in first.

Rain delayed Wednesday’s game and the Tigers watched the Brewers close out a series win over the Red Sox. On Thursday afternoon, Detroit lost their own series finale to Baltimore.

The Tigers were going to Milwaukee to close the season. That meant that even though all four contenders were still packed on top of each other, the Red Sox and Orioles were effectively boxed out. It also meant the half-game that Detroit trailed Milwaukee by was irrelevant. No effort was going to be made to ensure contenders played an equal number of games. It was a simple best two-of-three between the Tigers and Brewers for the second half title in the AL East.

Petry took the ball on Friday night and was hit hard. An 8-2 loss put Detroit on the brink of elimination. They turned to Morris to keep them alive.

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon in front of a national audience, Morris was brilliant in shutting down one of baseball’s best offensive lineups. He took a 1-0 lead into the eighth.

It was a leadoff walk that got Morris in trouble. Detroit flubbed two consecutive sacrifice bunts, allowing Milwaukee to load the bases with no one out. A ground ball out tied the game and a sac fly put the Brewers ahead. In an agonizing loss, the Tigers had not given up a hit in letting the lead get away. The playoff push was over.

Even with the heartbreaking ending, 1981 was still a breakthrough year for Detroit. They gave their fan base a taste of the pennant race. And while the quality of the AL East and the rigor of making the playoffs meant the big breakthrough would still take some time, Detroit was clearly coming on strong.

The 1980 Detroit Tigers Deal But Come Up Short

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The Tigers had spent two seasons putting a foundation in place for success. They called up Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Jack Morris and Lance Parrish in 1978. They hired Sparky Anderson in 1979. In both cases, rebuilding didn’t mean compromising success, as they won 86 games both years. The 1980 Detroit Tigers, playing in a tough division, made a series of moves to try and take the next step. Unfortunately, the deals didn’t pan out and the Tigers suffered some modest regression.

Detroit’s big trade was shipping Ron LeFlore, a good centerfielder and base stealer to Montreal for pitcher Dan Schatzeder. The move had the right priority—pitching depth in both the rotation and the bullpen had been a Tiger problem. But the move didn’t pan out—while Schatzeder was respectable, with a 4.02 ERA in his 26 starts, it wasn’t worth giving up the lineup’s spark plug.

Another big deal came in May when Detroit dealt Jason Thompson, a good all-around first baseman to California for right fielder Al Cowens. Thompson continued to be productive. Cowens, the runner-up for the American League MVP in 1977, continued a career decline. His .339 on-base percentage was respectable—but not worth the price of Jason Thompson.

A deal with the Mets to get Richie Hebner at first base worked out better. Hebner posted a stat line of .360 OBP/.466 slugging percentage and the price of Phil Mankowski and Jerry Morales was neglible. But the net overall impact of the trades was a negative—and we haven’t even factored in the Tigers moving on from Rusty Staub at DH, Aurelio Lopez at third and Jack Billingham in the rotation. Age was a huge factor and the moves justifiable, but they still created a short-term void that was not immediately filled.

On top of all this, there was some regression from individual starting pitchers. Morris reliably took his turn, with a workmanlike 36 starts and 16 victories. But his ERA was a mediocre 4.18. Milt Wilcox’s ERA was 4.48. Dan Petry was a little better, with a 3.94 ERA in his 25 starts, but when that’s the best ERA in your rotation you have problems.

And those problems weren’t rectified in the bullpen. Aurelio Lopez saved 21 games and won 13 more, but the best reliever on staff still had an ERA of 3.77. Dave Rozema and Pat Underwood, who shuttled between the pen and the rotation, had ERAs in the high 3s.

All of which adds up to the Detroit staff finishing 10th in the 14-team American League for composite ERA. You aren’t going to make any kind run in an AL East that had baseball’s best teams with that kind of pitching.

In fact, you might even be wondering how the Tigers were competitive at all. The answer—this team could hit.

Trammell had the best season to date in his developing Hall of Fame career, batting .300. Even though Whitaker only batted .233, some excellent plate discipline and drawing walks helped Whitaker’s OBP clock in at a respectable .331. Detroit was the best in the American League when it came to taking free passes.

Steve Kemp, a good all-around hitter in left field, had a stat line of .376/.474, hit 21 homers and drove in 101 runs. Parrish popped 24 home runs of his own. Rick Peters took over for LeFlore in center and while Peters didn’t run like LeFlore did, the new centerfielder still finished with an OBP of .369.

Champ Summers handled the DH role and slugged .504 with 17 homers. Sparky used his bench well. John Wockenfuss hit 16 home runs in part-time duty. Jim Lentine’s OBP was .377. And Sparky started integrating another talented rookie into the lineup of this young team—23-year-old Kirk Gibson slugged .440 coming off the bench.

In an American League that was stacked with good lineups, no one scored more runs than the Detroit Tigers did in 1980.

Detroit faced an early schedule heavy on the Kansas City Royals, who were bound for the World Series this year. The Tigers lost eight of their first ten, but quickly rebounded to get close to .500. But when the schedule stiffened again—this time against the top two teams in the AL East, the Yankees and Orioles, Detroit lost eight of twelve. By the end of that schedule run, shortly after Memorial Day, Detroit’s record was 18-24 and they were eight games out of first place.

In the divisional alignment that existed from 1969-93, each league had only an East and West division and only the first-place team moved on to the playoffs. That meant that Detroit—along with Cleveland and Milwaukee (an American League team until 1998) were put in the AL East, along with New York, Baltimore, Boston and Toronto. This division—with the Yankees, Orioles and Red Sox all respected powers and the Brewers joining the Tigers as a rising force—was the gold standard for all of baseball.

When Detroit lost two of three in Milwaukee in early June, they were nine games off the pace. Then the Tigers caught fire and ripped off 19 wins in 25 games. The highlight came when the Brewers made the return trip to Tiger Stadium mid-month.

The series opened on Monday with a twilight doubleheader, a common scheduling thing at the time where a twinbill began around 5 PM, with twenty minutes between games. The Tigers fell behind in the opener 5-1, but rallied behind consecutive two-out RBI hits from Summers and Cowens. They pulled out a 6-5 win.

Milwaukee won the nightcap and set up Tuesday night’s rubber match between Morris and Milwaukee’s good lefthander, Mike Caldwell. Morris was brilliant, with a complete-game five-hitter and Detroit took the series with a 3-0 shutout.

So what did this run of strong play get Detroit? By the All-Star break they were 42-33 and tied for second place…but still 7 ½ games behind the Yankees, who were on a pace for 106 wins.

And the late summer would be cruel, as it often is to teams who struggle to find pitching. In late July, still in second place and eight games out, the Tigers lost three straight at home to California. Kansas City came into Tiger Stadium and won three straight. In mid-August, Detroit lost four straight to mediocre Texas.

By Labor Day, the Tigers were still above water, with a 67-61 record, but now in fourth place and 10 ½ games out. They basically held serve in September. There were seven games against the Orioles, who would win 100 games and have to settle for second place, where Detroit went 1-6. The Tigers made up for it by beating bad teams in the White Sox and the Blue Jays.

The final record came in at 84-78, fourth place and 19 games out. On the positive side, it was a third straight winning season and the quality of the division, meant it was fifth-best overall in the American League. On the negative side, it was two fewer wins than the year before and the 11th-best record in the major leagues overall. Whether it was a playoff season by the standards of today depends on how you want to do the math.

The Tigers had opened the season looking for more and come up short. But they wouldn’t stop coming and a breakthrough to real contention was just around the corner.

1979 Detroit Tigers: The Arrival Of Sparky Anderson

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Baseball in Detroit entered a new era in 1978 with the rookie seasons of Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Jack Morris and Lance Parrish. The 1979 Detroit Tigers continued the transition. Veteran manager Ralph Houk retired after ’78 and an outreach was made to Sparky Anderson, recently dismissed in Cincinnati. It took until midseason for the deal to get finalized and Anderson to come aboard, but when he did, the great Tiger move into a new decade had take another step forward.

Les Moss was handling the managerial duties when the season opened and he had an offense that could steal bases and hit home runs. Ron LeFlore was the man who set the table and the centerfielder posted a .355 on-base percentage and stole 78 bags. Whitaker’s .395 OBP and 20 steals gave the offense some more spark.

Power came from Steve Kemp and the leftfielder hit 26 home runs and drove in 105 runs, to go along with an excellent .398 OBP. Jason Thompson was another good bat at a corner position and the first baseman popped 20 homers. A late May deal for Champ Summers to play right field paid off in a big way—over the final four-plus months, Summers had a .414 OBP, a .614 slugging percentage and hit 20 homers of his own.

Trammell was still developing as a hitter, but his .335 OBP was respectable. John Wockenfuss was a reliable utility player and hit 15 home runs off the bench. All told, it was good enough for Detroit to rank fifth in the American League in runs scored.

Morris had broken in as a relief pitcher in 1978 and ’79 saw his first move into the rotation. It was an unqualified success, with 17 victories and a 3.28 ERA. But there were problems behind him.

Milt Wilcox was the #2 and his ERA clocked in at 4.35. Wilcox and Morris combined to make 56 starts. Even that’s a low number for the top two in a rotation. But Moss, and then Sparky, had to do a lot of experimentation with the other starting pitchers.

Veteran Jack Billingham pitched well when he took the ball—a 3.30 ERA and ten wins—but the 36-year-old was only able to make 19 starts. Pat Underwood was too young at age 22 and finished with a 4.59 ERA in his 15 starts. Dan Petry would eventually become a reliable cog in the rotation. This season he was twenty years old and getting his feet wet, 15 starts and a 3.95 ERA. Dave Rozema, age 22, had similar numbers—16 starts and a 3.51 ERA.

Individually, there was promise. Collectively, that’s too much instability. And after Aurelio Lopez, with his 21 saves, 10 wins and 2.41 ERA, the bullpen was weak. So Detroit’s staff ERA ended up a mediocre eighth in the American League.

The season started slowly. The Tigers lost five of seven to a mediocre Twins teams. They managed to split twelve games against good divisional foes in the Brewers, Orioles and Yankees, but when Memorial Day arrived, Detroit was 18-21. They were in fifth place, eight games back of frontrunning Baltimore.

Here might be a good place to step back and remind younger readers that the baseball alignment prior to 1994 had each league split into just an East and West division and only the first-place finisher could go to the postseason. That meant Detroit and other centrally located franchises, were split up and shared with each coast.

Detroit was in the AL East, as was Cleveland and Milwaukee (an AL team prior to 1998). They joined with the East’s four current members in New York, Boston, Baltimore and Toronto. The AL East of this era was the toughest division in baseball. The Yankees were two-time defending World Series champs, the Red Sox and Orioles perennial contenders and the Brewers joining the Tigers as the up-and-comers. There wasn’t any margin for error.

Detroit came out of the holiday and went 8-5 on a road trip that ended in California.  When they returned to old Tiger Stadium, Sparky was signed and in the dugout.

The Tigers continued to chip away with wins against the AL West. But just as had been the case in ’78, it was a road trip to Boston and Baltimore that dealt a lethal blow. Detroit lost six of eight. Twice in Baltimore they lost on a walkoff when they had the lead. The Tigers dropped another game to the Orioles that was tied 5-5 in the eighth inning.

But Detroit came off the mat. They took two of three from Boston back at home, then went up to Milwaukee for a long five-game series and won three times. When Detroit closed the first half by taking four of five from the White Sox, the Tigers had reached .500.

Being .500 in the AL East still left you in fifth place, fourteen games off the pace, so there was no pennant race buzz in the air. But Detroit needed to keep improving. And they did.

The Tigers took home series from the Brewers. After taking another home series from three-time defending AL West champ Kansas City, Detroit headed west to California. The Angels were in the lead in a push to dethrone the Royals. The Tigers had a chance to play spoiler in this mid-August matchup.

Morris picked up his 10th win in the series opener, aided by three hits and three RBIs from Whitaker to lead the 5-3 win. Thompson and Parrish homered on Tuesday and Detroit won 6-3. In Wednesday’s finale, Thompson homered again, as did Summers. Petry was brilliant, tossing eight innings of two-hit ball and the Tigers won 6-1. The sweep kickstarted a 7-2 road trip through the West Coast.

California made a return trip to Detroit at the end of August. Billingham opened the series with seven strong innings to pull out Monday night’s 3-2 win. The Tiger bats unloaded on Tuesday—three hits from Whitaker and home runs by Summers, Trammell and Thompson—for a 12-2 win. Morris completed another sweep of the Angels on Wednesday with a 2-1 win.

The Angels would succeed in their quest to displace the Royals at the top of the AL West. But it was no thanks to the Tigers, who went 6-0 against the eventual division champs in the heat of August.

Detroit reached Labor Day with a record of 73-64. Baltimore was running away with the East and the Tigers were in a 16 ½ game hole. They played 19 games in September against the Orioles, Red Sox and Yankees. It’s not the kind of slate where you’re going to pile up wins, but Detroit hung in there and went 9-10. They finished the season at 85-76.

In the rigorous AL East that meant fifth place. But it was only three games off of the record the Angels posted in winning the West. Detroit had established that the winning baseball of 1978 was not a fluke. And they had a World Series-winning manager in the dugout to help them build to the next step.  

1978 Detroit Tigers: Laying The Foundation For Success

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The 1978 Detroit Tigers were in need of some rejuvenation. The six years since the franchise won the AL East in 1972 seemed like a lifetime ago. The Tigers were on four straight losing seasons. The organization called up four players who not only laid the groundwork for winning, but ultimately transformed the entire baseball landscape.

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Lou Whitaker broke in at second base and with his .361 on-base percentage won Rookie of the Year honors. It was a freshman class that included two future Hall of Famers—one of whom was his own double-play partner, Alan Trammell at short (the other was Paul Molitor in Milwaukee). Trammell’s OBP was a respectable .335 in his first season in the bigs.

Whitaker and Trammell were the immediate impact players, but two other rookies were also important. Lance Parrish played 85 games at catcher, hit 14 home runs and set the stage for him to take on full-time duty behind the plate. And Jack Morris, soon to be the ace of the rotation and one of the premier big-game pitchers of his generation, was pulling relief work and spot-start duty. Morris’ rookie year of ’78 saw him log 106 innings with a 4.33 ERA.

Those four—Whitaker, Trammell, Parrish and Morris—were the future. But there was also some talent on hand for the present. Jason Thompson was a good all-around first baseman and in 1978, Thompson hit 26 homers and drove in 96 runs. Steve Kemp played leftfield and posted an OBP of .379. Veteran DH Rusty Staub played in all 162 games and rang up a slugging percentage of .495. Ron LeFlore provided speed at the top of the order. His OBP of .361 was augmented by 68 stolen bases.

All told, the Tigers had the best on-base percentage in an American League that included fantastic lineups in New York, Boston and Milwaukee (an AL franchise prior to 1998). And Detroit finished fifth in the American League in runs scored.

The pitching needed help. Detroit made an offseason trade, shipping outfielder Ben Ogilvie to Milwaukee in exchange for starter Jim Slaton. Over the long-term, the deal would be less than inspired—Ogilvie became one of the top power hitters in baseball, while Slaton was never more than a respectable starter. But the logic of the trade at the time was understandable. Slaton was reliable—the 4.12 ERA wasn’t great, but he made 34 starts and won 17 games.

Milt Wilcox, Dave Rozema and 35-year-old Jack Billingham all had ERAs in the 3s and rounded out a good rotation. Kip Young made some spot starts and finished with an ERA of 2.81. The rotation wasn’t the problem—while the lack of a clear #1 was a drawback, the starting pitching was good enough to win. The bullpen lacked depth. Even in an era where starters went deep and often finished games, Detroit’s pen still needed help behind 35-year-old closer John Hiller. It’s the reason the Tigers finished seventh in the American League for staff ERA.

Prior to 1993, the alignment of baseball had each league split into just an East and West division with only the first-place team advancing. That was bad news for Detroit. The AL East was clearly the best division in baseball. The Yankees were the defending champs. The Red Sox and Orioles weren’t far behind. The Brewers would have a breakout season in ’78. Only the Indians and the Blue Jays were non-contenders.

So it was providential that this young Detroit team was able to open the season with a steady diet of games against the AL West. They took advantage going 17-7 and leading the East by as many as three games in April. They were tied for first as late as May 19 when the schedule started picking up. The Tigers hosted the Red Sox for a four-game weekend series.  

The weekend got off to a good start on Friday night. Staub homered, eight players had hits and Detroit won 7-5. On Saturday afternoon, the Tiger lineup was able to knock around Red Sox ace Dennis Eckersley and the game was tied 5-5 in the ninth. Bullpen woes bit them and the day ended with a  6-5 loss.

Sunday doubleheaders were still reasonably common in 1978—true doubleheaders, with only a twenty-minute break between games. Wilcox was brilliant in the opener and outdueled Boston’s Bill Lee 2-1 with the help of a Thompson home run. Even though Rozema and Morris were shelled in the nightcap, a 9-3 loss, Detroit had at least held their ground against one of the division’s kingpins.

But the road would not be as kind. Eight games in Baltimore and Boston loomed that would lead into Memorial Day. The Tigers only mustered two hits in losing the opener at Baltimore 2-0. Slaton pitched well in the opener of Wednesday’s doubleheader and handed Hiller a 2-0 lead. The closer promptly allowed the tying runs to score. Fortunately, the Tigers scraped out a run in the ninth and won 3-2. But only one run combined in the next two games—the Wednesday nightcap and on Thursday—resulted in losing three of four.

It got worse in Fenway over the weekend. A Wilcox-Lee rematch on Friday didn’t go as well and the Tigers lost 6-3. Morris was brilliant on Saturday, but took a hard luck 1-0 loss. Leading 3-2 in the eighth inning of Sunday’s first game, Hiller gave up three straight hits that tied the game and then a walkoff home run in the 10th. Slaton pitched gamely in the nightcap, hanging in the game in spite of giving up eleven hits, but lost 4-3.

By the time the carnage of the East Coast was complete, Detroit was six games out of first. With the Yankees and Red Sox on their way to an epic pennant race, the Tigers would never get back in the mix.

Detroit continued to struggle against the best teams from the AL East through the early part of the summer. By the All-Star break, they were 15 ½ games back and sitting on .500 at 42-42.

But this young team did not mail it in. When the schedule lightened, they took advantage. A strong late summer moved the record to a solid 74-61 by Labor Day. Games with the Red Sox and Yankees marked the September schedule and slowed the Tigers down, but they still clocked in with a final 86-76 record.

The string of losing seasons was broken. While a cynic might say that Detroit could only beat the league’s softer teams, the fact is that after four years of being one of those softer teams, the Tigers had clearly elevated themselves. They weren’t among baseball’s best. But they were getting there. The foundation, one that would hit its peak with a dominant World Series title run in 1984, was in place.

The Seasonal Narrative Of The 1986 Detroit Tigers

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Sparky Anderson had brought consistent winning baseball to Detroit. Since his arrival in 1980, the Tigers had posted a winning record every year. The highlight of the run was a dominant run to the 1984 World Series title. The 1986 Detroit Tigers were squarely in that tradition, with only the more stringent standards of the era keeping them from the postseason.

Detroit’s everyday lineup enjoyed a nice bounceback year, after offensive failures were primarily responsible for the 1985 team’s failure to make a serious bid at repeating. The collective comeback was keyed by an anticipated individual revival from Hall of Fame shortstop Alan Trammell. After a rough year in ’85, Trammell posted a stat line of .347 on-base percentage/.469 slugging percentage in 1986.

Kirk Gibson had a good all-around year in rightfield, hitting 28 homers and stealing 34 bases. Darrell Evans was a reliable power hitter at first base and he hit 29 home runs. Lance Parrish, one of the game’s better power-hitting catchers, was limited to 91 games, but still went deep 22 times. A trade to get 24-year-old Darnell Coles to play third paid off, as Coles popped 20 more dingers. The Tigers led the American League in home runs.

But they had hit home runs in 1985 and that wasn’t enough to keep the offense as a whole from being mediocre. The reason 1986 was different—in addition to Trammell’s return to form—was a more balanced attack that could score in different ways. The Tigers ranked third in the AL in walks and fourth in stolen bases.

Individually, second baseman Lou Whitaker’s stat line was .338/.437. Dave Collins was acquired to provide outfield depth. Collins got regular playing time, finished with a .340 OBP and swiped 27 bags. John Grubb, the 37-year-old designated hitter, posted a dazzling .412/.590 stat line in part-time duty .

All of which was good enough for Detroit to rank third in the American League in runs scored. But the pitching slipped a bit.

It was no fault of Jack Morris. The ace went to the mound 35 times, finished with a 21-8 record and a 3.27 ERA. But the staff behind him had problems.

Walt Terrell and Frank Tanana each made 30-plus starts and combined to win 27 games, but both had ERAs in the 4s. The normally reliable Dan Petry only went to the post twenty times and struggled to a 4.66 ERA.

Sparky tried to squeeze some starts out of everyone from highly regarded 22-year-old Eric King to Dave LaPoint to Randy O’Neal, all of whom worked in both starting and relief. But only King, with his 3.51 ERA was anywhere close to consistent. Willie Hernandez saved 24 games in the closer’s role, but his ERA was abnormally high at 3.55. Hernandez was in steady decline from his 1984 Cy Young & MVP season. And the Tiger staff as a whole, while credible, still settled for sixth in the American League in ERA.

Detroit came out of the gate playing mediocre baseball. They won a couple series with Boston, who emerged as the early leader in the AL East. But in early May, the Tigers lost six of eight against teams from the AL West. By the Memorial Day turn, Detroit was sitting on .500, in sixth place and seven games back of the Red Sox.

Here might be a good time to step back and lay out the landscape of major league baseball prior to the realignment of 1994. There were only two divisions per league, an East and a West, with seven teams apiece. Only the first-place teams went to the playoffs, advancing directly to the League Championship Series. Detroit, along with Cleveland and Milwaukee (an American League team prior to 1998) joined Boston, New York, Toronto and Baltimore in the old AL East.

The season teetered on the brink in early June, as the Tigers lost seven of ten games to the Blue Jays and Yanks, slipped to 27-32 and were staring at a twelve-game deficit. Seven games against the Orioles were the needed antidote. Detroit won six to stabilize the ship. But they were still 43-44 at the All-Star break, 13 games behind the Red Sox and still in sixth place.

Since the high of winning the World Series in 1984, the Tigers had now spent a good year and a half playing mediocre baseball. Late July of 1986 saw a turnaround. Detroit reeled off a 16-6 stretch. Boston stumbled .The Tigers rose through the ranks to third place and closed to within 4 ½ games of the lead. And the Red Sox were coming to Detroit for four games in early August.

All of baseball—to say nothing of Boston fans themselves—were just waiting for this Red Sox team to blow it and it seemed most of the AL East taking turns in fashioning themselves the challenger. This four-game set was Detroit’s chance.

It didn’t start well on Thursday night. O’Neal was knocked out early, the bats only managed five hits and Detroit lost 6-1. Tanana took the ball on Friday night and struggled, falling behind 6-1 and then 8-4. The Tigers made a stirring rally in the eighth, scoring three times and putting runners on first and second with two outs. But Gibson flied out. In the ninth, Evans hit a one-out double. But Collins and Coles both flew out. Another loss.

On Sunday afternoon, Detroit had taken a 6-4 lead after seven, thanks to a grand slam from Evans. Bill Campbell came out of the bullpen and was a train wreck. Five runs later, the Tigers were looking at a 9-6 loss. Morris was brilliant in Monday night’s wraparound finale, with a complete-game three-hit shutout. But the opportunity was missed and Detroit was 6 ½ games out.

There was still time to turn it back around, but the return trip to Fenway saw two losses in three games. On August 28, the Tigers were seven games out. There were no games left against the Red Sox, so the margin for error was thin. On a road trip out west, Detroit lost seven of ten. They came home twelve games off the pace and with a record of 71-67. Any hopes of a pennant push were over.

Detroit didn’t mail in the season though. They played some spirited baseball to wrap it up, including going 7-2 on a road trip against AL East rivals to end the season. The final record was 87-75. That was good enough be tied for fourth-best in the American League and sixth-best in the major leagues as a whole. In other words, by the standards of today, it was a playoff-caliber year.

The improvement off the disappointment of 1985 had put the Tigers back on a positive trajectory. And in 1987, they won one of the great pennant races of the decade to get back on top of the AL East.

1985 Detroit Tigers: A Repeat Bid Turns Into Disappointment

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1984 had been Detroit’s year. After four years of winning baseball under Sparky Anderson, the Tigers hit a crescendo in the manager’s fifth season, winning 104 games and rolling to a World Series title. The 1985 Detroit Tigers were looking to build on that success and start a dynasty. But in a tough division, in an era when it was much harder to make the playoffs, a late summer slump did in Detroit’s dreams of a repeat crown.

Pitching was the key for the Tigers in 1985. A balanced rotation was led by Jack Morris, Dan Petry and Walt Terrell. The trio combined to make 103 starts, win 46 games and all had ERAs in the 3s. Frank Tanana only made twenty starts, but still won ten games and posted a 3.34 ERA. Randy O’Neal did some spot starting and finished with a 3.24 ERA.

Detroit was getting consistent starting pitching and their relief corps was pretty good too. The closer, Willie Hernandez, didn’t match his 1984 run to the Cy Young and MVP awards, but he still saved 31 games with a 2.70 ERA.

The depth in the pen wasn’t great. Juan Berenguer, who did a mix of starting and relief, had a rough year in ’85. So did Aurelio Lopez, who had been a big contributor to the 1984 title run. But even allowing for this, the Tigers still finished fourth in the American League in ERA.

It was the offense that sunk Detroit. Although not for a lack of power. Detroit finished second in the American League in home runs. Lance Parrish hit 28 homers and drove in 98 runs, good number for anyone and especially so for a catcher. Darrell Evans went deep forty times at first base. Rightfielder Kirk Gibson hit 29 home runs, drove in 97 runs and scored 96. Lou Whitaker played second base and out of the leadoff spot in the batting order, popped 21 homers and scored 102 runs.

So what was the problem? From a team-wide perspective, the problem was that if the Tigers weren’t hitting home runs they weren’t doing much of anything. They ranked in the lower part of the American League in every other offensive category.

From an individual standpoint, the great Detroit shortstop, Hall of Famer Alan Trammell, had a bad year. So did Larry Herndon in left field and Tom Brookens at third. Centerfielder Chet Lemon wasn’t bad, but nor did he stand out. The depth was shaky. And in the 14-team American League, the Tigers finished eighth in runs scored.

There was nothing wrong with the way Detroit started the season. They won their first six games, including a couple over the Kansas City Royals—a rematch of the 1984 ALCS—behind gems from Morris and Petry. Even though the Tigers played up-and-down baseball the rest of the spring, they still rolled into Memorial Day with a record of 24-16.

Prior to 1994, the two leagues had just an East and a West division, with only the first-place teams advancing to the postseason. Detroit was in the AL East under this format and their division was usually baseball’s toughest through much of the 1980s. The 24-16 record had the Tigers three games back of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Detroit had slipped 6 ½ back by June 6 when they headed to Toronto for a big four-game series. On Thursday night, Petry was brilliant…but the bats only mustered four singles and wasted ten shutout innings by their starter. The Tigers eventually lost 2-0 in the 12th. On Friday, Terrell was knocked out by the fifth in a 9-2 beatdown. The gap in the AL East had soared to 8 ½ games. Detroit needed to plant their feet quickly or the race would get away from them.

Gibson and Whitaker stepped up on Saturday afternoon. Whitaker ignited the lineup with four hits. Gibson drove in five runs, including a three-run homer in the first that set the tone and keyed a 10-1 win. On Sunday, Whitaker had three more hits, Gibson drove in three more runs and the Tigers won 8-3. They were still 6 ½ back, but there was a long way to go and given the way the weekend had started, no one in Detroit was likely to complain.

Furthermore, those Saturday and Sunday wins, started a nice run. Facing the Orioles, Yankees and Red Sox, the Tigers went 11-4 and closed to within two games of the lead. But the Blue Jays were a different story. Toronto made their return trip to Detroit and the Tigers lost two of three. By the All-Star break, Detroit was 3 ½ back, with New York nestled in second place, 2 ½ games off the pace.

Everyone was anticipating a hot pennant race. But the late July period after the All-Star game went bad. Facing mostly mediocre AL West teams, the Tigers lost nine of fourteen games. The Blue Jays took advantage and pushed Detroit into a steep 9 ½ game hole as the calendar flipped to August. A nine-game road trip to Kansas City, Milwaukee and Cleveland—with only the eventual World Series champion Royals a difficult opponent—ended with a 4-5 record.

If you were looking for a reason to hope, Detroit had five September games with New York and three against Toronto. But by Labor Day, the Tigers were 10 ½ games out. A homestand with Oakland, California and Seattle—with only the contending Angels a difficult opponent—resulted in a 4-6 record.

The Tigers were on life support and on a road trip to Toronto, the Blue Jays jammed the dagger in—Detroit lost all three games, scoring just six runs in the process.

They limped home with an 84-77 record, good for third place, but 15 games out of first place. The record was sixth-best in the American League and tied for 11th-best overall, meaning that even by the more lenient standards of today, the ’85 Tigers would have still failed to make it back to the postseason.

There’s no getting around the disappointment of this season after the high of 1984. But the Tigers regrouped, made some modest improvement in 1986 and by 1987, they were back on top of the AL East again.

1983 Detroit Tigers: Setting The Stage For Greatness

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The 1983 Detroit Tigers were building momentum in pursuit of their first division title since 1972 and their first World Series championship since 1968. After a string of losing seasons, the Tigers had started playing winning baseball again in 1978 and were consistently over .500 for the next five years. Sparky Anderson arrived in 1980 and they nearly made the postseason in the strike-shortened year of 1981. In this 1983 season, the Tigers took an incremental step—they cleared the 90-win threshold and set the stage for the biggest breakthrough that would come a year later.

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Detroit’s resurgence began when the middle infield combo of shortstop Alan Trammell and second baseman Lou Whitaker both came to the major leagues in ’78. By now, they were an established and well-respected duo. In 1983, Trammell hit .319 while Whitaker hit .320. Both had respectable pop, slugging over .450.

Larry Herndon had a good all-around season in left field, batting .302 with 20 home runs and 92 RBI. Chet Lemon, a solid and underrated centerfielder, hit 24 homers. Veteran first baseman Enos Cabell hit .311 and catcher Lance Parrish popped 27 homers and drove in 114 runs.

Even though the Detroit lineup had its weaknesses, with a bad year from outfielder Kirk Gibson the most notable disappointment, they could still hit. The Tigers were top four in the American League in batting average, doubles and homers. The one problem was patience at the plate—they were only ninth in walks. But even so, Detroit scored the fourth-most runs in the American League.

The pitching staff was anchored by two horses in Jack Morris and Dan Petry. They combined to make 75 starts. Morris was a 20-game winner and finished with a 3.34 ERA. It was enough to place third in the Cy Young voting. Petry won 19 and his ERA was 3.92. Milt Wilcox was respectable at #3, going 11-10 with a 3.97 ERA.

Even though no one else started as many as twenty games, Anderson was able to piece together reliable work at the back end of the rotation. Juan Berenguer and Dave Rozema were the most prominent in shuttling between the pen and the rotation, finishing with ERAs in the 3s. Anderson’s handling of the staff and bullpen, combined with a good year from 34-year-old closer Aurelio Lopez, enabled the Tigers to finish fourth in the AL for staff ERA.

Detroit muddled out of the gates and were at .500 on Memorial Day. The good news is that no one else in the AL East caught fire and all seven teams were within six games of first place.

This is probably a good place to point out that the alignment of the major leagues prior to 1994 had each league split into just two divisions, an East and a West and only the first-place team went to the postseason. Detroit, along with Cleveland and Milwaukee (an American League team prior to 1998) were in the East along with that division’s current inhabitants from New York, Boston, Baltimore and Toronto.

The Tigers picked up the pace in early June. They went to Fenway and swept the Red Sox four straight. That started a stretch where they went 16-10 against AL East teams. By the All-Star break, Detroit was 41-35 and two games out of first place. The division remained jam-packed with only the Indians having fallen out of contention.

Tiger momentum continued in the late summer. They went 32-20 out of the break and into late August. Between July 19 and August 28 they were never more than two games out of first place and spent six days either tied for, or in sole possession of the division lead. The possibility of playoff baseball coming back to Motown was real.

Detroit split eight games leading into Labor Day, but Baltimore was heating up. The Orioles widened their lead to 4 ½ games over the Tigers and Yankees. The Brewers, the defending division champs were five back. Detroit’s remaining schedule would be against divisional rivals, including seven with Baltimore. The Tigers controlled their fate.

Over the next two weeks, Detroit went 8-5. Not bad, but Baltimore kept surging and stretched the lead to seven games. The Tigers were still in second place when the head-to-head games against the Orioles began. But any margin for error that might have remained was gone. Detroit needed to take at least three of four when Baltimore came to town on September 20.

Were the Tigers ready? Well, how does scoring 11 runs in the first inning of Tuesday night’s opener grab you? Whitaker and Herndon each homered in the barrage. The game was called due to rain after five innings, as close as MLB will ever get to a mercy rule. Detroit won 14-1.

But Wednesday’s twilight doubleheader saw fortunes go south. Morris matched up with Baltimore’s hot rookie pitcher Mike Boddicker and lost 6-0. In the nightcap, the Tiger bullpen collapsed. A 3-1 lead in the ninth inning turned into a 7-3 loss. Even though Detroit took the finale, this race was all but over and the Tigers were formally eliminated by the time their final week series in Baltimore took place.

Detroit still closed out the season on a good note. They swept the last series from the Orioles, posted a final record of 92-70 and took second in the AL East. Not only was that a playoff season by the more lenient standards of today, it was actually the third-best record in all of baseball in 1983, better than anyone in the National League.

The 1983 season was a clear sign that the Tigers were coming. And if anyone had any doubts, those were obliterated when Detroit opened 1984 by going 35-5 and ended it by winning the World Series.

1993 Detroit Tigers: Sparky Anderson’s Last Winning Team

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Sparky Anderson was one of the great managers in baseball history. He won three World Series titles—1975 and 1976 in Cincinnati, then again in 1984 with Detroit. The 1993 Detroit Tigers were the last winning team the Hall of Fame skipper ever managed.

The ‘93 Tigers won games by outslugging opponents. They were first in the American League in runs scored. Cecil Fielder, the power-hitting first baseman, was in his peak years and hit 30 home runs with 117 RBI. Mickey Tettleton played both catcher and the outfield and hit 32 home runs, while driving in 110 more. Travis Fryman, the young shortstop, popped 22 homers of his own and finished with 97 RBI.

Two of Detroit’s great veterans, Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell turned back the clock. Whitaker, the 36-year-old second baseman, posted a .412 on-base percentage. Trammell, now 35, had been displaced at short by Fryman, but still got his playing time elsewhere and made the most of it. Trammell’s final stat line showed a .388 OBP/.496 slugging percentage. Another hero of the 1980s glory years, Kirk Gibson, was brought back to Motown. Gibson got his time at DH and was at least respectable, with a stat line of .337/.432.

Anderson showed considerable flexibility in who played and at what positions and a big part of that was utility man Tony Phillips. Getting full-time at-bats without a regular position, Phillips put up a .443 OBP.

It was a lineup more than good enough to reach the playoffs, even in this final year of the older, more demanding system where each league had just two divisions and only first-place teams qualified for the postseason. The lineup could have carried even an average pitching staff. But the Tiger arms were the reason Sparky’s last winning team hit a ceiling during the course of the long summer.

Detroit remade its pitching staff, letting go of veterans Walt Terrell and Frank Tanana. Neither would be missed, but no effective replacements were found. Mike Moore, a part of the great Oakland A’s teams from 1988-92, was signed on the free agent market. Moore was a horse and made 36 starts. But he wasn’t effective, with a bloated 5.22 ERA.

David Wells was also added as a free agent and his 4.19 ERA over thirty starts was respectable. But the fact it was the rotation’s best illustrates the problem. Veteran Bill Gullickson, along with John Doherty, ranged anywhere from mediocre to bad. The bullpen had a viable closer in Mike Henneman, but little beyond that. It added up to a staff ERA that ranked 12th in the 14-team American League.

Detroit opened the season in Oakland and promptly gave up 21 runs in losing the first two games. But they quickly righted the ship and won 13 of their next 16. In the middle of May they went to Toronto, where the Blue Jays were the defending World Series champs and odds-on favorite to again win the AL East division that included the Tigers, Indians and Brewers, along with perennials in the Yankees, Red Sox and Orioles.

The Detroit bats unleashed north of the border and scored 25 runs in winning the first two games of the series. They led the finale 5-4 and had two outs on the ninth with two men aboard. Reliever Bob Macdonald gave up a two-run double to Paul Molitor and the Tigers lost 6-5. They had a missed a chance to sweep, but it was still a nice series win. Detroit went on to take five of six games on a trip through Milwaukee and Cleveland. When Memorial Day arrived, the Tigers were 30-18 and had a three-game lead in the AL East.

They continued to play well in early June, taking three of four from the Blue Jays at home. It was a nine-game road trip to Baltimore, New York and Boston were things went a bit awry. That is, if you consider losing all nine games to be “a bit awry.” The fact the pitching staff gave up 72 runs on the road trip might have been a little difficult to overcome.

Detroit had fallen four games off the pace, but they stopped by the bleeding by the All-Star break and crawled their way back within a ½ game of Toronto. The division itself was a logjam, with five teams within three games of the lead.

But the time of year when pitching starts to matter most would be predictably unkind to the Tigers. After managing a split with Texas out of the break, Detroit come home and promptly dropped six straight to Minnesota and Kansas City, neither of whom were anything special. The Tigers dropped a series to the contending Yankees, then lost three of four to the Blue Jays. By the time the calendar flipped to August 1, Detroit was in an eight-game hole.

Anderson was able to stabilize the team and they went 18-16 through August and in the runup to Labor Day. But Toronto and New York were separating themselves from the field and Detroit still stared at a seven-game gap. It was the Blue Jays who pulled away in September, en route to a repeat World Series title. Detroit settled for a respectable close, going 13-8 down the stretch, finishing 85-77 and taking third place in the AL East.

It was the most that could realistically be expected from a team with such pitching shortcomings, a tribute to the quality of the offense and of the manager. But hard times were ahead. Sparky managed two more years of sub-.500 baseball before retiring. The franchise itself went into a longer dry spell—they didn’t get their head back above water until Jim Leyland came to town and engineered an immediate one-year turnaround and a trip to the World Series in 2006.

1987 ALCS: Minnesota Stuns Detroit

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The Minnesota Twins were an 85-win team, one of the worst to ever reach the League Championship Series round in 1987. The Detroit Tigers had the best record in baseball and were fresh off winning an epic divisional race against the second-best team, the Toronto Blue Jays. It’s natural that the Minnesota-Detroit matchup in the 1987 ALCS was seen as one-sided and destined for a quick ending. That’s what happened, but not in a way anyone anticipated.

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You can read more about the paths each team took to its respective division title at the links below. This article will focus exclusively on the games of the 1987 ALCS. 

READ MORE ABOUT THE 1987 MINNESOTA TWINS
READ MORE ABOUT THE 1987 DETROIT TIGERS

Doyle Alexander’s acquisition by Detroit was essential to their survival in the AL East. Alexander had been dominant down the stretch and he would start Game 1. Minnesota, in spite of their flaws, had the advantage of a terrific top-of-the-rotation arm in lefty Frank Viola. As a further aid to the Twins, homefield advantage was set on a rotation basis rather than merit and it was the year for the AL West (where the Twins resided from 1969-93) to host.

Minnesota third baseman Gary Gaetti launched the first blow of the series with a dead-center home run off Alexander in the bottom of the second. Detroit catcher Mike Heath did exactly the same thing in the third inning and the game went to the bottom of the fifth still tied 1-1.

Gaetti led off the inning and did it again, homering to right center. Randy Bush and Tom Brunansky followed with extra base hits and the Twins were up 3-1. After a sac bunt from second baseman Steve Lombardozzi moved Brunansky to third, Alexander struck out catcher Tim Laudner. The Tiger pitcher was poised to escape without further damage before left fielder Dan Gladden lined a two-out single to right.

Viola again let the Tigers answer right back, when Kirk Gibson hit a two-out solo blast and Detroit kept grinding away in the top of the seventh. Larry Herndon, Chet Lemon and Darrell Evans hit consecutive singles to start the inning and the bases were loaded with none out. After a strikeout, Heath lined a single to center. The lead was cut to 4-3 and the bases were still loaded.

Minnesota manager Tom Kelly stuck with Viola, who pulled an escape act. He got Lou Whitaker to hit a grounder to Kent Hrbek at first base, who got the forceout at home. Viola got Bill Madlock to end the inning with the lead intact.

It didn’t stay intact for long though. Viola came back out for the eighth and this proved to be a bridge to far. He walked Gibson and allowed a double to shortstop Alan Trammell. With runners on second and third, Kelly summoned closer Jeff Reardon. He didn’t allow a hit, but consecutive sac flies from Dave Bergman and Lemon put Detroit up 5-4.

There was every reason to think Minnesota was essentially done. They had blown a lead at home with their best pitcher on the mound in a series where they already needed every break. Instead, they came fighting back against Alexander. Gladden singled to left and centerfielder Kirby Puckett quickly doubled him home. It was 5-all and Alexander was pulled for Mike Henneman.

The Twins kept coming. Two walks, one of them intentional, loaded up the bases. Detroit manager Sparky Anderson called for his closer, Willie Hernandez. Like Kelly, Anderson waited too long. Minnesota had acquired Don Baylor for the stretch drive precisely for at-bats like this. He was a veteran that could handle pressure and he was right-handed bat that could handle a lefty like Hernandez. Baylor singled and put the Twins up 6-5.

Brunansky immediately followed with a big insurance double that gave Minnesota an 8-5 lead. It proved important when Detroit put two on with one out in the ninth. Reardon struck out Madlock and Gibson and the Twins had taken Game 1.

There weren’t many pitchers more reliable in a big game in this era than Jack Morris. Minnesota fans found that out firsthand four years later when Morris pitched them to a World Series title. But in 1987, Morris was a Tiger and entrusted with the ball for Game 2.

If Morris did the job, Detroit would have calmed the waters, gotten a split and have three straight home games ahead of them. Minnesota had a tough veteran of their own to counter with in Bert Blyleven. With an ERA a bit over 4, Blyleven wasn’t great, but he was still a future Hall of Famer.

The Tigers got Blyleven in the second. Matt Nokes started the inning with a single and Lemon homered. Pat Sheridan singled, stole second and was bunted to third. There was still only one out and Heath came to the plate. He couldn’t duplicate his success of the previous night and failed to pick up the run and the game stayed 2-0.

Gaetti got the Twins started in the second with a one-out double. Brunansky doubled with two outs to cut the lead in half. Shortstop Greg Gagne drew a walk and the third double of the inning—this one from Laudner down the left field line—scored both runs and the Metrodome crowd was rocking again with their team up 3-2.

Minnesota kept coming in the fourth, again doing the most damage with two outs. After Laudner struck out in a bases-loaded/one-out situation, Morris was in position to escape. Instead, Gladden again delivered a clutch hit, a two-run single to left that extended the lead to 5-2. One inning later, Hrbek homered to make it 6-2. Blyleven stayed in command until allowing a solo homer to Whitaker in the eighth, but there was no real late drama in a 6-3 final.

After a travel day, play resumed on Saturday afternoon in Detroit with the Tigers unexpectedly having their back to the wall. The good news for Detroit was that Minnesota’s key weakness was a lack of depth in the rotation. And the Tiger bats were able to get after Game 3 starter Lee Straker.

Straker flirted with danger in the first when he walked Whitaker and Evans, but nothing came of it. The Twins’ starter wasn’t as fortunate in the bottom of the third. Detroit loaded the bases with a Sheridan double, a Whitaker single and a Gibson walk. With nobody out a groundball force play at second brought in the game’s first run. After a stolen base, Straker balked in a run and Trammell singled in another.

It was 3-0 and after another walk, Straker was gone. Dan Schatzeder came in, but Herndon got him for a two-run double and Detroit was rolling with a 5-0 lead.

Minnesota signaled they wouldn’t go quietly when the light-hitting Gagne homered to begin the top of the fourth. Hrbek worked a one-out walk and eventually scored on base hits by Gaetti and Bush. With the lead cut to 5-2 and runners on the corners with one out, Tiger starter Walt Terrell got Brunansky on a pop up and escape without further damage.

Brunanasky redeemed himself in the top of the sixth with a two-out, two-run blast that made it 5-4. The Twins kept coming in the top of the seventh. Sal Butera and Dan Gladden opened the inning with singles, putting runners on first and third and ending Terrell’s day. Mike Henneman came on in relief. Gagne hit a ground ball to third and pinch-runner Mark Davidson tried to score the tying run. He was cut down at the plate and Detroit hung on to its lead. Puckett fouled out to first, but it was a deep enough pop-out that the runners were able to tag and get to second and third.

Hrbek was intentionally walked to set up Henneman-vs-Gaetti. From the classic righty-lefty standpoint, this was the textbook move, with Henneman a right-handed pitcher while Hrbek batted lefty and Gaetti from the right side. But given how hot Gaetti was in this series, it was a questionable situational move from a future Hall of Fame manager in Anderson. And it didn’t work, with Gaetti singling to right.

The Twins had come all the way back to lead 6-5 and got to within six outs of putting a stranglehold on the series. But in the bottom of the eighth, Herndon led off with a single. Detroit’s desperation was underlined by the fact that Morris, a fast runner, came in to run. It turned out not to matter—after a failed sac bunt attempt, Pat Sheridan homered. The Tigers were back up 7-6 and this time Henneman held the lead.

It was a series again, but even in victory nothing was coming easy for Detroit. They sent veteran lefty Frank Tanana to the mound on Sunday night for Game 4, while Minnesota brought back Viola on three days’ rest.

The Tigers got a soft run out of the gate. Whitaker led off the bottom of the first with a walk and came around on an infield hit from Trammell and an error by Gagne. The Twins got something going in the top of the second when Baylor led off with a single and Brunansky walked, but nothing came of it.

Minnesota muscled up in the next two innings, with Puckett homering to tie it in the third and Gagne’s solo blast in the fourth giving them a 2-1 lead. Puckett then got the top of the fifth started with a single that turned into a three bases after being misplayed by Herndon in the outfield. Gaetti picked up Puckett with a sac fly.

Whitaker got another Detroit rally started with a two-out walk in the bottom of the fifth and then scored on consecutive singles from Jim Morrison and Gibson. Herndon, looking to redeem himself, hit the ball hard…but right at Gaetti and the Twins’ 3-2 lead was preserved heading into the sixth.

Gagne and Gene Larkin chased Tanana with doubles to get the run back and make it 4-2. In the bottom of the inning, singles by Lemon and Darrell Evans ended Viola’s night. Another single, this one from Dave Bergmann cut the lead to 4-3 and left runners on first and second, still with nobody out. Heath bunted the runners up.

Evans, a 40-year-old vet, then made a a huge baserunning mistake. He drifted too far off third and an alert Laudner picked him off. Minnesota clung to its lead and got some insurance in the eighth when an error and wild pitch set up a two-out RBI single from Lombardozzi. Reardon came in on the ninth and after a leadoff single, got Whitaker, then struck out Nokes and Gibson to seal the game.

Minnesota not only held a 3-1 series lead, but they had grabbed a road win and had two more home games in the bank. They also had Blyleven on the mound for Game 5. Detroit went back to Alexander for their final home game on Monday afternoon.

Alexander’s magic from the stretch drive was gone. In the top of the second, Gaetti singled, Bush walked and Brunansky doubled both runs in. He was thrown out trying for third, but the Twins weren’t done. Lombardozzi singled, moved to second on a productive out and scored on a base hit from Gladden. Alexander hit a batter, then gave up another RBI single to Puckett. It was 4-0 and Anderson was forced into his bullpen, bringing in young Eric King with the season on the line.

King did an admirable job in stopping the bleeding and the Tigers got back in the game in the fourth. After a Gibson double and Trammell single, Nokes homered to cut the lead to 4-3.

It stayed that way until the top of the seventh. A one-out single, hit batsman and wild pitch set up a sacrifice fly from Hrbek and Minnesota had some modest breathing room at 5-3. They expanded that in the eighth, now facing Hennenman. Gladden doubled with one out and Gagne drew a walk. Puckett hit a bouncer back to Henneman. He got the force at second, but Gladden went to third where he scored on a fielder’s choice.

The Twins could surely taste the champagne when Berenguer got the first two outs in the eighth. Lemon homered to cut it to 6-4, bringing on Reardon, who ended the inning.

Minnesota delivered the final blow in the top of the ninth. Brunansky homered to make it 7-4. Lombardozzi singled and with two outs, Gladden and Gagne hit back-to-back doubles. It was 9-4 and all but over. Detroit got a run in the ninth, but when Nokes bounced back to Reardon for a 1-3 putout, it was over. The Twins had completed an upset stunning not only in that they won, but had done so in a swift five-game series and won twice in Tiger Stadium.

Gaetti was an easy choice for 1987 ALCS MVP. He went 6-for-20, a solid .300 batting average, but that doesn’t tell the impact of those hits. He homered twice, drove in five runs, scored five more and always seemed to be in the middle of Minnesota’s crucial rallies.

Another notable performances came from Gagne and Brunansky, who each homered twice. On the Detroit side, Lemon was the best in defeat. He went 5-for-18 and hit a pair of home runs. Evans had productive numbers, 5-for-17 and he drew five walks, but getting picked off third in Game 4 was one of the big turning points of the series. And perhaps nothing was more important to Minnesota’s ultimate victory than their pitching holding Whitaker and Trammell, the fine 1-2 punch at the top of the order, to a combined 7-for-37.

For Minnesota, the magic was just starting. They went on to face the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1987 World Series and rode dome-field advantage all the way to a title, taking a seven-game Series where each game was won by the home team. It was the first two World Series championships in a five-year span.

The Twins’ championship runs are well-remembered, especially for their dominance at home. Less remembered, but just as worthy as a place in the history books, is their improbable upset in the 1987 ALCS.

How The 1987 Detroit Tigers Won The AL East

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The 1987 Detroit Tigers were the last postseason team in the Hall of Fame career of manager Sparky Anderson. They produced the best record in baseball, won the AL East for the second time in four years and did with a dramatic final week push when they appeared all but dead.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today. 

After winning the World Series in 1984, the Tigers slipped to being an above-average team, finishing third in 1985-86, in a division that then had seven teams. Muscle on offense was the key to revival in Detroit.

The Tigers led the league in both slugging percentage and home runs. They were also patient, drawing more walks than any team in the American League. No one was better than shortstop Alan Trammell, who finished with an on-base percentage of .402, a slugging percentage of .551, hit 28 home runs, drove in 105 runs, scored 109 runs and finished second in the MVP voting. Did I miss anything? Only that he deserved to win the MVP rather than settle for runner-up status.

Kirk Gibson posted numbers of .372 OBP/.489 slugging percentage and hit 24 home runs. Centerfielder Chet Lemon joined Gibson in the outfield and finished at .376/.481 with 20 home runs. Second baseman Lou Whitaker didn’t have a vintage year, but was still solid at .341/.427.

Two players at opposite ends of the career spectrum were pleasant surprises. Rookie catcher Matt Nokes was a revelation, hitting 32 home runs with an OBP of .345. And 40-year-old first baseman Darrell Evans turned back the clock with 34 home runs, 99 RBI and an OBP of .379.

All this made Detroit a potent offensive attack, but they did more to augment the attack. The bench was strong, as Larry Herndon finished at .378/.520 in part-time duty and Dave Bergman posted a stat line of .379/.453. And in the early summer, the front office went and got a veteran hitter in Bill Madlock to handle the DH duties. Madlock, a former batting champion put up a .351/.460 run in his time in a Tiger uniform.

It wasn’t all about the offense in Motown. The pitching staff had the third-best ERA in the American League and it all started with Jack Morris. The 32-year-old with a deserved reputation as a big-game pitcher, won 18 games with a 3.38 ERA and worked 266 innings. Walt Terrell and Frank Tanana were both respectable, combining for 32 wins, with ERAs between 3.90 and 4.10.

The bullpen was a problem, with Mike Henneman being the only consistent pitcher and Willie Hernandez a long way removed from his 1984 career high when he won both the MVP and Cy Young Award. The back end of the rotation was also weak, with Dan Petry and Jeff Robinson struggling to seasons with 5-plus ERAs. But before the year was over, Detroit would pull the trigger on another deal, one of the most consequential trade deadline moves in MLB history.

Nothing about the way the 1987 baseball season started suggested a special year in Detroit. They lost five of six to the New York Yankees in April and by Memorial Day were 20-21, in fifth place and seven back of AL East-leading New York.

A weekend in early June was a key threshold moment in the season. The Tigers made the deal for Madlock. They were also in Boston, where the defending AL East champion Red Sox were also looking to get untracked. It was Detroit who unleashed. They won three of four, scored 18 runs in the finale, and when the Red Sox made a return trip to Tiger Stadium, Detroit swept three straight. They took two of three in Toronto, part of a long road trip where the Tigers went 9-5.

By the time the All-Star break arrived, Detroit was 48-37 and back in the mix. They were in third place, five games back of the first-place Yankees, with the Blue Jays in second.

In early August, the Tigers won 10 of 13 against AL West opponents (the AL Central did not exist prior to 1994). Against their own division rivals, Detroit won three of four from New York, scoring double-digit runs in two of the games and starting an 11-3 run. But as good as that was, it wasn’t the biggest thing that happened in Detroit in the first part of August.

Needing starting pitching, the Tigers dealt a top prospect to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for veteran Doyle Alexander. How did it work out in the short-term? Alexander made 11 starts for the Tigers and went 9-0 with a 1.53 ERA. In an era where a division title meant direct advancement to the League Championship Series, they would not have done it without Alexander.

How did the move work out in the long-term? The prospect was future Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz. Who won this trade, or whether Detroit would make it again if they had known just how great Smoltz would be, is a great debate. Or we could just take the political approach and say both teams got what they wanted. Which is probably the view that’s accurate.

By Labor Day, the Yankees were fading and had fallen to third place, five off the pace. The Tigers and Blue Jays were running neck and neck. The two teams would finish with the best regular season records in all of baseball and in the era before the wild-card, that meant a long fight to the finish.

Detroit and Toronto traded blows and tracked each other from afar until they reached the final week and a half of the regular season with the Tigers a half-game back. There would be four games in Toronto on the penultimate weekend of the season. After a series in the middle, they would reunite in Detroit for three games to end it. And it would take all of those games to settle the winner.

Morris got the ball on a Thursday night that started the final push. He went the distance, but one bad inning—a four-run third for the Jays—did him in, as Detroit lost 4-3. Tanana was brilliant on Friday night, pitching seven shutout innings and handing a 2-0 lead to the bullpen. Hernandez coughed it up in a 3-2 loss.

Saturday brought even more heartbreak. Detroit grabbed a quick 3-zip lead, but Terrell was shelled. Even so, the Tigers still led 7-3 and then 9-7 in the ninth. This time it was Henneman that blew the lead and Juan Berenguer finished it off by walking in the winning run. The Tigers were 3 ½ games out and even with the four head-to-head games still remaining, this race was looking over.

Enter Doyle Alexander. He pitched eleven innings in the Sunday afternoon finale. Trailing 1-0 in the ninth, Detroit got a run to tie it. Evans homered in the top of the eleventh. Anderson, perhaps spooked by his bullpen performance and managing in an era where it wasn’t unthinkable to leave a starter in (though admittedly it was still rare), sent Alexander back out and he gave up the tying run. Gibson finally won the game in the 13th with an RBI single. The Tigers were still in trouble, 2 ½ back with a week to go. But they had a pulse.

Detroit split four games at home with mediocre Baltimore and in a lot of circumstances that might have ended the AL East race. Instead, with Toronto getting swept by Milwaukee, it actually tightened it. The final weekend began with the Tigers back to within a game of first.

Alexander pitched on Friday night and it looked like his magic might finally end, when he gave up a three-run blast in the second inning. But he settled in, went seven innings and didn’t allow any more. Detroit began coming back. An error and a two-run homer by role player Scott Lusader cut it to 3-2. Trammell homered in the bottom of the third to tie it and Detroit quickly added another run. Hernandez was able to get the last six outs without incident.

The race was tied. It was a de facto best-of-three, allowing for the possibility of a one-game playoff on Monday afternoon.

Saturday afternoon was a taut baseball game that I can still vividly remember being glued to my TV set watching (I was rooting for Toronto and my dad was pulling for Detroit, though neither of us were invested in either team). Two great veterans battled on the mound, Morris for the Tigers and lefty Mike Flanagan for the Jays. It was 2-2 and went extra innings. Morris left after nine, Flanagan left after the 11th. And in the 12th, the Tigers broke through. Madlock singled, Gibson walked and Trammell’s RBI single to left won it.

How fast the race had changed in a week. Now it was Detroit playing with a little bit of cushion on Sunday afternoon. This was an era where baseball could both rival and exceed the NFL in popularity and this was also the first Sunday that the NFL would use replacement players due to a strike. It made Tigers-Jays must-see viewing.

Tanana and fellow lefty Jimmy Key for Toronto made it worth watching. Detroit got on the board in the second when Herndon homered. The game stayed 1-0 with both pitchers locked in. The Blue Jays put two on with two out in both the first and third innings, but couldn’t get the big hit. Tanana made them pay for missing, going the distance with a six-hitter and the 1-0 score stood up.

Detroit had completed an amazing final week to win a great race. There was every reason to feel a second World Series trophy in four years would come to the Motor City. With the 85-win Minnesota Twins as the ALCS opponent, at least another pennant seemed a foregone conclusion.

But the Tigers had finally run out of steam. There was a bit of bad luck—the Twins were much better at home and with homefield advantage determined by rotation rather than merit, Detroit had to begin on the road and quickly lost two games. But in fairness, they also lost two in Tiger Stadium and the series ended in five games.

It was a disappointing and surprise ending, but the 1987 Detroit Tigers won what is one of the more underrated division races in baseball history. That’s how they should be remembered.

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