The other day, friend of the Fungo, Doug Hill, sent us an email relaying what he heard Dodgers’ radio announcers say earlier this week: “how great it must be for Aubrey Huff to be in a pennant race for the first time in his career.”

Doug and I had the same reaction: What about last season when he arrived in Detroit as the Tigers were fighting off the Twins?!

Apparently there’s some collective amnesia in the media about Huff’s time in Detroit — not that we can blame them. After all, in 40 games with the Tigers last season Huff was dreadful: .189 average, six doubled, two homers, 13 RBI and an OPS of .567.

During Saturday’s Padres/Giants game on FOX, play-by-play guy Chris Rose also mentioned Huff’s long dry spell — and omitted his uselessness last season in Detroit.

And now there’s this: an ESPN The Magazine mini-article focused on Huff’s “epiphany”:

Huff’s first season in San Francisco has been a life-changing experience. “Until this year, I didn’t know what the big leagues were about,”says the 33-year-old.

(snip)

[I]t’s hard to blame Huff for letting the losing get to him. Except for disjointed stints as a late-summer rental for the 2006 Astros and 2009 Tigers, he’s spent more time in the cellar than a ’64 Bordeaux — his clubs have finished in last place six times, and only two active players (Randy Winn and Michael Young) have played more games without a postseason trip.

I’ll be honest, of all the Tigers’ recent late-season pickups I harbor the most bitterness for Huff. He was given a golden opportunity to be a difference maker for a division-leading team and he failed miserably. I can only scratch had in bemusement for this sudden love for him in the media.

He might be a great guy and a model teammate with the Giants. But with the Tigers, he was a colossal bust.