A Midsummer Night's Dream of the Tigers

[Fuzzy Bear]

In, I believe, the 1984 BASEBALL ABSTRACT, Bill James described the Tigers as a team of lots of stars. No matter what era you look at (until now, I'm afraid) the Tigers had numerous stars on their teams. They often finished second because they didn't fill their holes. (How would the Tigers done if they had found someone to replace Tom Brookens 4-5 years earlier?)


"When patience was needed," said James, "the Tigers had patience. When a sense of urgency was needed, the Tigers had patience, instead." This probably explains why they did not win more pennants than they did (especially in 1967 and 1987).

Nonetheless the Tigers were a team of stars. The Tigers have had a career HOFer that played all, or most of his career with the Tigers, and began their careers as Tigers for every decade through the 1980s (The 1980s and 1990s will probably be covered once the HOF electors take their head out of the sand and look at Whitaker and Trammell; it'll happen someday.) How many other teams can say that?

And the Tiger players that weren't HOFers, but were still stars, seem to be more memorable. Chet Lemon. Lance Parrish. Bill Freehan. Bobby Veach. Denny McLain. Mickey Lolich. Earl Wilson. Dizzy Trout. Dick McAuliffe. The Tigers seem to have more of these types of stars than any other team, save the Yankees; guys who are identified with the team, guys who are TIGERS!

One of the saddest moments in sports jounalism was when a recent NEW YORK POST article stated that the Tigers were not going to make their next payroll, and would be contracted. There was a little "R.I.P. Tigers" gravestone in the article. It hasn't proved true (gee, you mean everything in the paper isn't the gospel truth?) but if baseball even thinks of contracting such an historic team as the Detroit Tigers, they are more out of touch with their fan base than I could ever imagine. The Detroit Tigers are a team of the same historical magnitude as the Dodgers and Giants. God help baseball if they are allowed to disappear.

[spitball]

The A's and Connie Mack. The Philadelphia/ KC/ Oakland franchise . Connie Mack in a suit managing .
A franchise with some amazing highs and lows.
And stars galore.

[VNV Nation]

I am not quite sure how you would rate "storiedness." But the Tigers are up there. They've probably had more great hitters than any other team, including the Yanquis. You realize this when you put together an all-time Tigers team and you realize you'd have guys like Lou Whitaker, Norm Cash, Cecil Fielder, Kirk Gibson, Vic Wertz, Lance Parrish, Bobby Veach on the bench. If you make Heilmann the DH then someone has to sit out of Crawford/Kaline, unless you put Wahoo in left and then you have Willie Horton sitting.

But I would say the most storied franchises after the Yankees are the Giants and Cardinals.

[JamesI]

I would say St. Louis second after Yankees. Then there are a lot of teams huddled together, Dodgers, Giants, Tigers, Red Sox.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Originally posted by VNV Nation
I am not quite sure how you would rate "storiedness."

One possible way to rate "storiedness" is to examine how many players a team has that are "famous" in that they are readily recognized and easily remembered in baseball circles, even though they ARE NOT in the HOF.

The Tigers have an awful lot of "famous" and memorable players that are not in the HOF. A few have legit cases (Trammell and Whitaker), a few are borderline (Morris, Lolich, and Cash). Many are not really borderline, but we remember them.

Virgil (Fire) Trucks, Bill Freehan, Dizzy Trout, Rudy York, Denny McLain, Bobby "Peek-a-Boo" Veach, Jim Northrup, Dick McAuliffe, Charlie Maxwell, Harvey Kuenn, John Hiller, Don Mossi, Earl Wilson. These are a few non-HOF stars who seem to shine brighter in the memory than stars of other teams.

Maybe it was the work of Ernie Harwell. To think that those nincompoops actually fired him. No wonder they're in last; it's the curse of Ernie!

[Sidewinder]

Originally posted by spitball
The A's and Connie Mack. The Philadelphia/ KC/ Oakland franchise . Connie Mack in a suit managing .
A franchise with some amazing highs and lows.
And stars galore.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more mention of the A's. They're right there with the Cardinals (can't remember the exact numbers) behind the Yankees for the second most championships. Of course, they also have has some incredibly bad teams for long stretches.

Giants, Dodgers and A's should be disqualified for moving across the country.

[pathogan]

players and pennants for the dodgers, the Cards,Red Sox, A's ...The A's going back to Philly[forgetting their KC layover]and now in Oakland. i think the second most storied franchise is{are} the athletics

I know they are the same franchise, but when a team moves, it always seems to me that the idea of them as the "same team" doesn't always take in my head.

I'm a bit jaded because when we lost our football team here, it never occured to me that the Ravens were the same team, despite our history. It's be interesting to find out whether people who were Brooklyn fans think of the LA Dodgers as the same team, or if they think of the LA and Brooklyn squads as 2 different entities completely.

I just think relocation greatly takes away from the history of a squad.