Author: Mike McClary

Upbeat guy.

What Version of History Will Tigers Write Starting Tonight?

Among the many advantages of getting older are the comparisons one can make to provide context to current events. This also counts as a disadvantage. Too much context can set a person (i.e., me) into a downward spiral into doom and superstition.

I don’t know about you, but when I think about the Tigers’ predicament – a mere one game behind the White Sox with 10 games to go – my immediate reflex is to size it up against 2006, 2007 and 2009. Problem is, it rarely applies. At least not neatly.

Of course I’m doing this to make myself feel better about things when every instinct tells me the Tigers will lose two of three to the Royals starting tonight and collapse entirely next weekend in Minneapolis. See? If I say that, then the reverse psychology plays into it. I’ve lowered my own expectations, and if this plays out as I predict I won’t be disappointed.

Who am I kidding? I’ll be in a state of despair.

But then again, the Tigers know what’s at stake. They have 10 games to show that the previous 152 were just them messing with us, their manager and everyone who predicted them to run away with the A.L. Central.

This is legitimate reasoning, right? Right?

Okay, let’s look back on 2009. After 152 games, the Tigers were 82-70 (two games better than today’s club). They played .500 ball over the last 10 games, lost a three-game lead and were forced to play Game 163. The Tigers’ opponents in those 10 games were not powerhouses:

  • Indians: 61-90 – .404
  • White Sox: 74-80 – .481
  • Twins: 79-73 – .516

These were the clubs’ records when the Tigers entered series against them. Let’s look ahead to this week. Here are the records of the Tigers’ final 2012 opponents:

  • Royals: 70-82 – .461
  • Twins: 64-89 – .418

Clearly two winnable, borderline sweepable series. (Though sweeping a home doubleheader appears to be beyond the Tigers’ capabilities these days so, one win at a time, boys.)

Whatever happens in the next week and a half, the Tigers will be crafting a narrative that we will refer to again in the future, when another underachieving team is an eyelash from the playoffs and falls short wins with a flourish.

Just like 1987.

Is Detroit Still a Great Baseball Town?

With the Tigers marching toward three million in attendance for 2012, this might seem more than borderline preposterous. But stick with me.

I lobbed a tweet last week about how Tigers fans are coming unglued online and on the air. I could even take it a step further and suggest the faithful are assuming the personality traits – obsession, paranoia, rage – of Yankees fans.

Last Thursday morning, listening to Power Alley on MLB Network Radio, a Tigers fan called in to rail on Joaquin Benoit and how he just can’t be trusted, Leyland shouldn’t use him in the 8th inning anymore. Why? Well, he allowed four runs to score in an 8-6 win over the White Sox. And, well, because.

Hosts Mike Ferrin and Jim Duquette politely disagreed that Benoit was a problem – much less the problem, as the caller also suggested – and that in fact he’d been quite good of late and for the majority of the season. They acknowledged his stretch of surrendering home runs (looking at you, Taylor Teagarden) but that he’s certainly not someone about whom Tigers fans should waste energy.

This is just one example. Since April, Tigers fans have been scorching Brandon Inge, Ryan Raburn, Jose Valverde and, of course, Jim Leyland*.

*Recently Reds GM Walt Jocketty was on Power Alley and he answered a question from the hosts about Dusty Baker‘s approach to resting players throughout the season, even into September. Jocketty defended his manager and talked about how the great managers know who needs a rest and when – and how this can payoff late in the season. He mentioned Leyland by name as another skipper who knows when to give his players a day off. Then he said something like, “I heard on this show a Tigers fan was complaining about Jim Leyland resting players. Jim’s one of the best in the game at this and I can’t believe they’re complaining about it.”

How did this happen? Is it all because of pre-season expectations and the season drawing to a close? Is it the number of outlets fans have to air even the flimsiest arguments? Yes to both, I think.

I acknowledge this is likely coming across as Old Man Thinking and to some degree it is. What’s really puzzling to me is that Detroit has a reputation as being a great baseball town. And it is.

Or it was. Right now, I’m not so sure.

I’ve never witnessed such vitriol being sprayed in so many places against a manager and his players – ever. Fans are treating Leyland like they do their political villain of choice. (Two years ago I wrote my case for Leyland and stand by it today.) It wasn’t long ago that the Tigers had managers the likes of Buddy Bell, Larry Parrish and, inexplicably, Luis Pujols. People: Luis Pujols.

Granted, you could argue (and I’d have a hard time disagreeing with you) that the days of Bell, Parrish and Pujols were dreadful seasons in which most Tigers fans were apathetic at best. But people still went to the games, followed the team and called into the sports talk shows to complain about Bobby Higginson. Some people cared … but not many, and not much. But still.

Does all the moaning and groaning mean Tigers fans are as engaged as ever? Or does it mean Detroit has lost its collective mind when it comes to baseball and the expectations of a team that, for an enternity, was an embarrassment?

What do you think?

It’s Just One Win, Right?

It’s kind of sad to think that one early-ish September win can pull a population of baseball fans, or at least a couple dozen, back from the brink of major-league despair.

Sad, but true.

If you suddenly feel a smidge more confident or optimistic —  however guarded — I’m with you. And to say it’s a delicate balance between “we’re back in this” and “don’t forget the weekend set in Cleveland”, well … yeah.

With the exception of 10-game lead, the Tigers are in the best possible circumstances: two-games back and facing the White Sox with Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander in consecutive games.

I’ll try to enjoy these last two in Chicago — and try not to think about the Indians.

Valverde Another in Long Line of Infuriating Tigers Closers

I’m sick of hearing about Jose Valverde‘s 49-for-49 save streak last season. We all know how that was constructed: with far too many saves that looked like Saturday afternoon’s harrowing win against the Royals.

A lot has been written about Valverde’s intensity being dialed down a notch – or, apparently, disconnected altogether – when he’s in non-save situations. After the Tigers escaped with an 8-7 victory which should’ve been an 8-4 W, Valverde told reporters, “I wasn’t throwing my fastball for strikes. I don’t know what’s going on.”

[callout title=WHIP Posted by Recent Tigers Closers]
2001: Matt Anderson. 1.32 WHIP, 22 saves

2002: Juan Acevedo. 1.22 WHIP, 28 saves

2004: Ugueth Urbina. 1.29 WHIP, 21 saves

2005: Fernando Rodney. 1.27 WHIP, 9 saves

2009 Rodney. 1.46 WHIP, 37 saves

2010 Valverde. 1.16 WHIP, 26 saves

2011 Valverde. 1.18 WHIP, 49 saves

And in case you were wondering, Todd Jones posted his best WHIP (1.26) in his eight seasons with the Tigers in 2006. And for his part, Valverde amassed his best WHIP (1.16) in 2010, his first in Detroit.[/callout]
Whatever the man’s excuse, it got me thinking again about how the Tigers, unlike other A.L. Central clubs, haven’t had a lights-out closer in the same realm as Joe Nathan and, for a shorter but no less irritating stretch, Bobby Jenks.

Nathan has owned the Tigers since 2004 when he came to the Twins from the Giants. In 59 games against Detroit, Nathan is 2-1 with a 1.48 ERA and 35 saves in 59 appearances; plus, he has 74 strikeouts in 60.2 IP and a 0.907 WHIP. (He’s saved more games against one other club, 37 versus the Royals in just an inning less.) In his A.L. career, including his time with the Rangers this year, his WHIP is 0.952, not to mention a 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings.

Now, on to Jenks. The Tigers mustered a bit more offense against him from 2005-10: 2-1, 2.68 ERA, 22 saves in 39 appearances; 44 strikeouts in 40.1 IP and a 1.091 WHIP. No, he wasn’t automatic, but darn close.

So I decided to look up Tigers closers with the best – or most Nathanesque – WHIP over the past 40 years, trying to find somebody – anybody – who came close to scaring opposing hitters late in the game.

Here’s what I found on Baseball-Reference.com: only two Detroit closers finished with a WHIP under 1.0 since 1972:

  • 1981: Kevin Saucier. 0.959 WHIP – 13 saves, 49 IP, 23 K
  • 1984: Willie Hernandez. 0.941 WHIP – 32 saves, 140.1 IP, 112 K
  • 1985: Hernandez. 0.90 WHIP – 31 saves, 106.2 IP, 76 K

That’s it for the shutdown closers.* Of course, Tigers relievers have posted stellar if not Nathan-
like performances in the past 40 seasons. Here are a few notable examples:

  • 1973: John Hiller. 1.021 WHIP, 38 saves, 125.1 IP, 124 K
  • 1977: Steve Foucault. 1.090 WHIP, 13 saves, 74.1 IP, 58 K
  • 1978: Hiller. 1.072 WHIP, 15 saves, 92.1 IP, 74 K
  • 1988: Mike Henneman. 1.05 WHIP, 22 saves, 91.1 IP, 58 K, 1.05 WHIP

*In the case of Hiller and Foucault, those were the days when closers routinely pitched two or three innings (sometimes more), so it’s clearly not apples-to-apples with today’s one-inning specialists.

All this is to say, outside of Hernandez in 1984 and ’85 and Hiller in 1973, the Tigers have not had an automatic guy in the ninth inning.

I think it’s safe to say we expected Joel Zumaya to be in the Joe Nathan/Mariano Rivera galaxy by this point of his career. Now we’ll have to wait and see if Bruce Rondon is the hammer we’ve been wait for.

In the meantime we’ll have ride the ninth-inning rapids with Valverde and hope that near-disasters like Saturday’s are the exception, not the rule.

Yeah right.

My Trip to Cooperstown: Part 2

It took all of the second day in Cooperstown to make it through the balance of the Museum – and it did not disappoint. There’s so much I could write about but I think the photos I posted on TigersHistory.com tell the tale more vividly. Yet, one dimension in particular stands out and deserves a few words: the detail of the Museum.

Here I am in the exhibit recognizing the Tigers clubs from the 1980s. Though he’s not represented in the Hall of Fame, I was delighted to see my man Jack Morris in the Museum. Same for Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker and the rest of the ’84 champs.

The Museum is rooted in the minutiae of baseball and the memories these otherwise mundane objects evoke. You’d expect to see artifacts from Hank Aaron’s chase for the Babe, Nolan Ryan’s seven no-hitters and Rickey Henderson’s stolen base exploits. But it’s the other stuff that held me rapt. For example:

  • The cornerstone from Ebbets Field
  • The wall panel from Tiger Stadium’s deepest reaches – the 440-foot mark
  • A deep-blue leather jacket from the Philadelphia Athletics
  • The rotating thingy that sat atop the centerfield scoreboard at old Comiskey Park
  • A scorebook from a Tigers/Indians game from the early 1970s
  • The shoes worn by Hall of Fame National League umpire Doug Harvey in his final game in 1992

And so much more. Of course, there was lot of Tigers miscellany, some curious of not outright dubious.

For example, in the Tigers locker, part of the Today’s Game exhibit, you’ll find the hat worn by Luis Pujols when he managed against the Royals’ Tony Pena in June 2002. It marked the first time managers from the Dominican Republic faced each other. The fact someone has that on their radar and thinks to make contact ahead of time with the Royals and Tigers is astounding and impressive.

Also in the Museum is the hat worn by Octavio Dotel on April 7 when he appeared in a game for his record-setting 13th different club.

In a way it’s cool that these items are in Cooperstown, but these two names representing the Tigers with Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer, Hal Newhouser, Mickey Cochrane, George
Kell and Al Kaline? Kind of a joke, I thought. But the more I considered it, the more I appreciated that the seemingly minor and mostly forgotten stories of people like Pujols and Dotel shape the narrative and history of baseball.

I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s true.

As we departed for the grueling drive back to Detroit I wondered when I’d get back to Cooperstown. Chances are it won’t be soon.

Until that time, I’ll be keeping a more watchful eye on the historical aspects as they happen and cherish a trip of a lifetime with my Dad, brother and brothers in law.

My Trip to Cooperstown: Part 1

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — The last time I was at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum I was all of about seven years old. I don’t remember anything except Doubleday Field — and even that is a cloudy recollection.

This weekend, I’ve at last returned to a place that has been on my list of things to do since I started following baseball when I was eight or nine. Like that last visit, I’m here with my Dad and brother — all of us more than 30 years older. In fact, the reason for this visit is to celebrate my Dad’s 80th birthday (which occured in February, an inhospitable time to visit upstate New York) and have a fun, guys-only roadtrip* along with my two brothers in law.

*A word of advice for anyone making the haul from Detroit to Cooperstown: stamina. We left my parents’ house in St. Clair Shores at 10 a.m. and pulled into our hotel at 10:15 p.m. We thought we were saving time cutting across Canada from Sarnia to Niagara Falls. Ha. Two hours of our journey were spent idling on bridges into and out of Canada. I will say this about the roads in Ontario: they’re immaculate. Nary a pothole or bump along the way. And the service plazas!

Our plan is to spend two days here and that’s going to be a end up being wise. After several hours at the Hall I think I’ve seen about 10 percent of the exhibits, displays and artifacts. Granted, I’m spending lots of time looking at everything they’ve got, especially if it’s Tigers related. Speaking of which, I’ve been posting photos of Tigers artifacts on my other site, TigersHistory.com. I haven’t uploaded everything yet, but it’s coming.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about the volume of Yankees and Red Sox everything in the Hall, but for crying out loud. The artifacts and displays seem to lean heavily toward the northeast (in order: Yankees, Red Sox, New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers) with a good chunk of Cubs and Cardinals stuff. After that it’s a smattering of Tigers, Indians, White Sox and Pirates history. Want a Tigers hat or shirt? Good luck finding one — at least in the Hall gift shops. God forbid you’re a fan of any team West of the Mississippi (excluding the Dodgers, Cardinals and Giants) … or any team that entered the league after 1969.

But I didn’t come here to see and learn about Tigers history. I came to immerse myself in baseball history and, as hokey as it might sound, there’s no better place than Cooperstown. It’s not just the Hall and Museum; it’s the shops up and down Main Street that are filled with baseball books, memorabilia, bats, art and other goodies. And the people are so friendly. Well, except for the guy in the red Yukon.

It’s an incredible experience — and I’ve got about 90 percent still left to see.

Top-5 Magglio Memories

I’ll admit it: I wasn’t the biggest Magglio Ordonez fan in 2006. After an injury-riddled debut season with the Tigers in 2005, I was ready to see the Ordonez that seemed to crush Detroit at every opportunity while with the White Sox.

But he just didn’t seem to deliver as often as I expected him to, and I don’t remember if it was based on gut feeling or cold-hard stats.

Whatever. When he stepped to the plate in the ninth inning of the 2006 ALCS, I didn’t expect him to come through. And from that point on I shut my mouth about Magglio Ordonez.

Here’s my Magglio Top Five list:

  1. 2006 ALCS Homer. Of course.

     

  2. 2007 Batting Title. After the Tigers faded in the standings Magglio’s march to a league-leading .363 average was all we had – and fun to watch.

     

  3. 2011 ALDS Performance. With good reason, people scoff at the term “professional hitter”, but how else can you describe what Magglio did against the Yankees? He hit .455 (5 for 11) and a 1.045 OPS.

     

  4. 2005 Return Homer off Randy Johnson. On July 1 Maggs returned from an extended stay on the DL thanks to a sports hernia – and we worried about his creaky knee – and went yard to deep left center off Johnson. The season was a loss at that point; the Tigers were 37-39 and 15 games behind the White Sox. But oh the long-term possibilities with Ordonez in the Tigers lineup. He finished that year at .302 with five homers.

     

  5. February 7, 2005. The day the Tigers signed him was another step toward making baseball relevant again in Detroit.

  6.  

  7.  

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  9.  

That’s my list. What’s yours?

For a broader look at Magglio’s career, checkout this excellent piece by Chris Jaffe in The Hardball Times.

We’ll Return Shortly-ish

It’s taken me almost a week to recover from the fan fatigue that overcame me during the ALCS. Truth is, there wasn’t much time for recovery after the ALDS so what could one reasonably expect?

Come to think of it, I’m fairly certain I haven’t completely bounced back.

After watching the Rangers bludgeon the Tigers in a terrifically played series, I just don’t have it in me to watch Nelson Cruz or Mike Napoli again, let alone that Rangers bullpen, until 2012.

That doesn’t, of course, mean I’m not pulling for the Rangers in the World Series. I’d root for any team – even the White Sox – against a Tony LaRussa team.

But since Brandon Inge meekly popped out to end Game 5, I have not watched a single pitch of any game. Chances are, I won’t.

Unless there’s a Game 7 and then, well, what’s a guy to do?