Tigers have jolted sleeping baseball town awake
sportsillustrated.cnn.com
Posted: Thursday Jun 15, 2006 5:17 PM
DETROIT - Brandon Inge can't avoid Detroit Tigers fans at gas stations, restaurants or in his neighborhood.
For a change, that's a good thing.
"There hasn't been a place I've gone where I haven't had someone say something like, 'You guys are doing great. Keep it up,''' said Inge, Detroit's third baseman. "In the past, people didn't even come up to me. And if I did make eye contact with fans, it almost looked like they were disgusted with us.''
Anger slowly turned into apathy when Detroit's streak of losing seasons started 12 years ago, but a sleeping baseball town has woken up and the buzz about the Tigers across Michigan - and from their fans in other states - is palpable.
The Tigers have been among baseball's best through more than a third of the season, after being one of the worst the past dozen years - and losing an AL-record 119 games in 2003.
Detroit had sole possession of first place in its division for 32 days entering Friday's game, after being atop the division alone for just eight days from 1994-2005, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The Tigers quickly have gone from being the butt of jokes to the toast of the town. They won their 43rd game Thursday - matching the total they reached on the final day of that awful season three years ago - with 95 games left to play.
"It's good to have a payback time,'' said former Tiger star Willie Horton, a special assistant to president and general manager Dave Dombrowski. "Baseball is about believing, and these guys walk around like they're listening to `The Eye of the Tiger' from the old `Rocky' movie in their heads.
"But the biggest key in baseball is pitching, and we've got some great arms - young and old.''
The Tigers have had the lowest ERA in baseball for much of the season. The staff is led by 41-year-old Kenny Rogers, and rookie fireballers Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya.
Verlander headed into the weekend series on the road against the Chicago Cubs with a 7-4 record and a 3.32 ERA. Zumaya is averaging more than one strikeout per inning out of the bullpen with a fastball that tops out at 102 mph.
"I haven't seen two pitchers that young relied on like they are here,'' Rogers said. "And I can't think of a team I've ever seen that had two young guys on the mound with that much talent.''
Rogers hasn't been too shabby, either.
He became the second AL pitcher to win his ninth game, and the fastest Detroit pitcher to reach that total since Frank Tanana in 1988. The crafty left-hander is scheduled to go for his 200th win Sunday at Wrigley Field, where he could be the 10th active pitcher to reach the milestone.
"I'm not going to think about what it means to me, but what it means to the team,'' Rogers said. "But hopefully, when it's over, we'll be able to celebrate the achievement together.''
Signing Rogers to a $16 million, two-year contract last winter was the latest in a line of moves Dombrowski has made that are no longer criticized.
After winning 43 games three years ago - a season so embarrassing that owner Mike Ilitch acknowledged he was compelled to write big checks to fix his mess - Dombrowski sparked a rebuilding process by giving catcher Ivan Rodriguez a $40 million, four-year contract.
Last year, Dombrowski signed outfielder Magglio Ordonez to a $75 million, five-year contract that could be worth up to $105 million over seven seasons.
"A lot of people thought I was crazy to come here, and some people thought the Tigers were crazy to sign me,'' said the 34-year-old Rodriguez, still one of the best catchers in baseball. "I came here when they needed support, then they gave me and the team support by getting Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, Placido Polanco, Kenny Rogers and guys like that.''
The decision also was made to fire Alan Trammell after three seasons in the dugout, and to bring Jim Leyland out of retirement to manage this season. Leyland, who was signed by the Tigers as a minor-league catcher in 1963 and was one of their farm-system managers for 11 seasons, already has reached one of his goals by making the Motor City care about baseball again.
"I think the organization has a pulse again,'' Leyland said. "But I don't think we're home free yet.''
Even with the Tigers' winning ways, skeptics point to their 7-9 record during a recent string of games against the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Boston, Toronto and Cleveland.
"I thought we came out of it OK,'' Leyland said. "I don't think we were embarrassed by anybody. I don't think anybody was saying, 'They have no business playing those teams.' If they do, I think they're wrong.''
The Tigers also hope to prove doubters wrong who say they are going to fade away like Baltimore did last year. The Orioles spent 62 days in a row atop their division, a run that ended on June 24. By the end of the season, they had plummeted to fourth place.
If the Tigers can manage to play .500 baseball the rest of the season, it might not be good enough to beat Chicago in the AL Central. But that type of steady play the rest of the way could earn the wild-card spot and keep the Yankees or Red Sox from making the playoffs.
The Tigers haven't been to the postseason since 1987. Their fourth title - in nine World Series appearances - came 22 years ago.
"Even if we don't make it to the playoffs this year, I think people would think that we're back and that we're here to stay,'' Inge said. "This isn't a three-month or one-season fluke - we're for real. I think our fans know that, and I think the rest of baseball does, too.'' |
